Fall is more than in the air in Vermont. It's in my aching back from last weekend's hauling, cutting and splitting three huge trees which fell in my woodlot as a result of the big blow two weeks ago. It's also been in my head all this week as a result of my unexpected discovery just before I left Vermont on Sunday of three more equally big trees that had fallen out of sight on the other side of the ridge. As a result, in my never-ending quest of "a clean forest is a happy forest", I'll find myself back in VT tomorrow, crack of dawn, up on the ridge, steam billowing from the tractor in the 40 degree air, the sound of the chainsaw ripping through the stillness and focused on "gettin' her done" since the seasons in VT and its inevitable snow wait for no one.
Just once, I let the fall season slip by me, and I still remember those three cords of (free) handcut wood left deep in the woodlot, buried under four feet of early snow and ice, that stared back at me all winter as I trudged out to the wood tent to bring in the ($250/cord) store-bought wood delivered by Tom the Wood Guy.
Since fall has officially jumpstarted this week, and October unfolds next Tuesday, all of my Vermont "Prep-for-the-Winta'" activities are mirrored by my long list of sales planning activities that need to be completed in Q4...in addition to my day job of working with customers and managing the general business and my guys.
- Q4 sales key account plans: done and checked off
- 2014 business plan: November, I hope
- 2014 sales plan: on the list to schedule. Probably December
- and on and on...
With around 60 days left in the year in which to close new business and deliver the work, the rest of the year will require of me, and I would suggest of any successful salesperson at any level and for any company, a deliberate and methodical balance between my...- ...available time to sell, and,
- ...my available time to plan
A couple of ideas...
- Two (not back-to-back) half-days for your own 2014 planning. Figure one in October and another in late November. Better yet, spend the day after Thanksgiving working on this 2014 overview of business objectives, personal goals and the major activities that you're going to personally undertake to accomplish those goal and objectives.
- Talk to the rest of the team on Monday and block out whatever time you agree on for a group planning session in preparation for the submission of your 2014 sales planning and budgets. Here, you should block off one day in October and another in November. Forget December-it will never happen.
- Then count the actual selling days that you have left (be honest with yourself here) between next Monday and December 31st.
- Break that number down into how many deals you theoretically need to close by week for Q4. Get the idea of "the quarter" out of your head and vocabulary right now and start talking "days" and "weeks".
- While you're at it, also figure out the number of qualified leads that you'll need to add to your opportunity funnel over the next 12 weeks in order to be able to close business in Q1. Just as one example, start thinking through how many referrals you'll need from customers and partners to enable your Q1 quota.
Check this conference out!
David Meerman Scott and I will be speaking on October 21st & 22nd at Engage 2013: Succeeding in Export Marketing and Sales Conference in New Brunswick, Canada.
With David's electricity and depth evidenced in his 4th edition of The New Rules of PR & Marketing and my new focus on Sales 3.0 & Sales Enablement, this will be an exciting opportunity to learn about not only today's-but tomorrow's-best sales and marketing practices.
Hope to see you there!
Head Coach
