Episode 109, Time To Review?

Simplify Your Sales meetings. Lisa Thal is an Author, Speaker, and Business Coach. She wrote the book "Three Word Meetings."  Lisa coaches leaders on simplifying sales and business meetings with fun and interesting 3-word  topics to get your sales team motivated and inspired.  She has over 34 years of marketing, sales, and leadership experience.

 

In episode 109, we do a mid-year check-in to review if we are on track to exceeding our goals.

 

Well, it's hard to believe that it's July, and for some of you, your year is ending. For many others like me, we are halfway through our year. I have a question for you, " How's Your Year going?" Is it progressing as you envisioned? Has it gotten off track? What goals did you set for yourself and your team during your annual review? Most people did their yearly reviews with their team in late November, right in the middle of Covid. We discussed and created a performance plan based on what we knew then.

 

The question is, do you wait for the year to end to see if you were successful with your intentions for the year? Many of us check the box and file our annual review. The next time we review it is a year later. I was thinking about the word review. A review is a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary. So we must be reviewing our year each day, each week, and every month to see if we are on task to achieving our goals. Plus, we all love to make progress in everything we do!

 

If I asked you what your action plan included for this year, would you recall it? If your sales or management, you may have set your intention on growing revenue and exceeding budget. What else did you decide to accomplish this year?

 

So I decided to pull out my review to see if I was on track or if I need to make some shifts and adjustments now that I am mid-year. My number one goal is to exceed my revenue goals. I am exceeding one area and need to make some shifts in another revenue line. If your Coaching others, do you have the right talent to help you get there? It is about recruiting the right talent and fit to help you achieve your revenue goals.

 

I am lucky to work with the most talented leaders in the industry, but I am not immune to someone leaving. I discovered that I don't have enough sales leaders in my pipeline to hire for the next opportunity. After reviewing my list of sales talent, this is an area I need to shift my attention and take action on every week.

 

I decided to walk my sales leaders through the same process; I walked through this process in our weekly one-on-one coaching sessions. We discovered that we need to make some shifts and reset in other areas. What we thought served us in a strategy late last year required updating mid-year.

 

Great sales talent and leaders are always looking for better ways to improve their performance.

 

I used five questions with my sales leaders as a mid-year touchpoint.

 

• What did we set out to do this year? (restate goal(s) and how we agreed we would achieve them)

 

• What is working? (and how can you do more of that) Yes, we want to keep doing what is working! Take the time to celebrate those accomplishments.

 

• What do you need to say no to that is not working?  What activities are stealing time from you and not helping you produce the results for you?

 

• Are there new market opportunities that could provide new sales opportunities?   For example, helping companies find qualified employees is a significant opportunity of focus for our team. Think about new options you have today that perhaps you didn't six months ago. 

 

• List one adjustment you will make to improve your sales? Should you be prospecting more? Improve your appointment settings? Ask for a referral from a satisfied client or Increase your average sale? Do you need additional sales training or better processes?

 

If you Manager or lead a team, here are a few other questions to consider.

 

How is your team performing to plan YTD?

 

What did you plan for this year, and it's working?  (If yes, Do more of it!)

 

What is not working and needs to be adjusted? ( Focus on the activities getting you the results you need.)

 

How is your sales talent pipeline of leaders?  If someone gets promoted or leaves your company, do you have someone that can step into that opportunity? 

 

Lastly, based on your mid-year review, what have you learned, what changes need adjustments to ensure you exceed your goals?

 

A midyear review check-in is something I recommend for your business and personally. You have time to make adjustments to finish the year strong and keep making progress and building momentum as you enter into 2022. Yes, the new year will be here before we know it. 

 

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Learn more about how to Simply Your sales meetings using 3-word topics at http://www.threewordmeetings.com .