6 Things to Do Now for a Strong 2014

2014 is less than a month away. How prepared are you?

Here is a quick checklist of things you can do now:

1. Identify your best 5 clients and what you can do to increase your level of business with them next year.

Take the time to develop the plan. Start with the people with whom you need to develop a better relationship and follow that by focusing on the outcomes they are desiring.

Doing these two things will put you in position to be able to serve these clients at an even higher level than you’re currently doing.

2. Identify 5 new large clients that will take a several months of prospecting work to put you in a position to sell to them.

You want to start this process as early in the year as possible to ensure you can close them well before the end of the year

3. Identify 3 new products or services you can leverage hard with both your existing customer base and with new clients.

Key is to not be focused on the actual product or service, but to be focused on the outcome and benefit the client will gain from using it.

4. Identify the 2 big things you know if you change in your sales process will make a significant difference in your results.

Break these items down into small pieces you can begin working on immediately. If the items are big, you will never attack them, but by going after them in small chunks they become very doable.

Just as with the large prospects you intend to go after right away, you want to start on these too without delay.

5. Identify 3 clients/prospects you need to walk away from.

That’s right! You need to purge your list. It sounds counter-intuitive, but there are people you’re spending time with who are doing nothing but taking up your valuable time.

They might be clients or prospects or both. Either way you have to get rid of them. Doing so will give you more time to spend on the other clients/prospects you identified that are going to bring you the business you need.

6. Assess your attitude/motivation and allocation of time.

In the end, it comes down to you. Take some time to list out how you spend your time and what factors in your life either contribute positively or negatively to it.

What adjustments do you need to make? Who is going to hold you accountable?

As I’ve said many times before, top performers are those who are 100% responsible for their own actions and are not willing to allow the environment around them to impact them negatively.

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