Deep into January, and already settling into the rhythms of the year...

• In Vermont, shovel, shovel, & shovel some more
• In NH, commute back and forth in the dark...waiting for summer skies
• Work has settled into a packed quarter of sales meetings & sales plans
• 2013 Marketing kicks off this week with the hosting of our annual CEO Forum
• A new semester of Tufts students appeared last week all eager to attack their 6 companies.

...and so it goes, as the rhythms of the seasons signal shifts into the annual rhythms of every business's planning cycle which shifts into the rhythms of that one pinpoint of customer execution in every company, and that's the individual salesperson.  Sales is where the rubber hits the proverbial road, and that person's success depends largely on their own series of well-planned and well-executed rhythms in developing...

• Q1 and Q2 Key Account Plans
• Pipelines filled to capacity to meet the dreaded Q4 hockey stick
• Quarterly call patterns and Q1 & Q2 travel schedules

All of this is pretty standard, and I would expect that anyone is Sales today is well aware that the phone is never going to ring "just because" or even due to someone in Marketing who just launched a HubSpot blog like this or a Brainshark clickthrough in our Toolbox below, or even just a Constant Contact newsletter blast with a purchased list from ZoomInfo.  All standard stuff.

So the question for this morning is what are you doing right now-already locked into the rhythms of 2013-that's going to be noticeably different, more innovative, and will generate decidedly more business this year?  For example if your just-negotiated quota plan pushes 10% growth this year, what are you going to do personally-outside the normal rhythm of business-that's going to result in 20% more business?  "Impossible" might be your first response, and I would agree if you're stuck back in the rhythms of 2012.  

Standard performance...

• Work very hard
• Pay attention to the planning & execution rhythms of the quarter
• Continue to believe in relationship selling & work very hard
• Plead with Marketing to give you "more & better" leads
• Work very hard

Outside The Rhythm performance examples...

• Work smarter
• Work hand in glove with Marketing on tailored campaigns just for you
• Create leverage with a new strategic partner to add to your base
• Embrace new apps to plug into your CRM & become fluent in your CRM
• Meet with your top referral partners and create a trading program

Break the Chains of Your Rhythm. 

Falling into a normal cycle of rhythms is comforting since it guides us throughout the year whether it's in business, in Sales specifically, in the rhythms of our personal lives, or in the rhythms of the seasons.  That's one of the reasons that we hardy (substitute "crazy") New Englanders like living around here is that we actually seem to enjoy moving from this week's -10 degree weather to 100 plus degrees every six months.  But rather than sitting on the bench at the beach in the snow (like this picture I took last week outside the NH house) hoping that it's going to warm up in six months, there always something that can be done about optimizing our sales planning right now. 

During the balance of this week, think through, "What are The Big Ideas that could change the velocity of my selling rhythm this year?"  Take an hour here and there at work this week or during your commutes back and forth, and develop the one or two tactics that you could unfold by mid-February that would break the chains of your standard selling and marketing rhythms.  Not change that would shift the earth off its axis, but just enough change that you can look back a year from now and realize that thinking and planning for 2X performance was not such a big deal after all. 

Success this year is all about the planning of your own selling and marketing rhythms, and understanding that what you do right now, in the critical months of January and February, set the pace for the entire year.

What do you think about your own sales rhythms?  Do they work for you, or do you need an overhaul to stretch beyond and into the world of the Big Ideas?

Welcome to 2013...and Good Selling! 
It's going to be a great year!

Jack,
Head Coach

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