Now consider matching your selling style to how you actually buy.

• Is your buying behavior in alignment with your sales style?
• Does there exist a disconnect between the your selling and buying approaches?
• Could this gap affective how people perceive your authenticity?

For example, maybe your style is being a relationship selling or relationship builder.  Your goal is to build and maintain strong relationships with your potential customers, existing clients and even centers of influence. Now when you make a purchase, you may have a tendency to interact with the employees in the business such as when you take your vehicle in for some maintenance. Instead of just sitting and reading a book, you engage the service person when he or she is not busy in real, authentic conversations.

Now if your sales style is one of being technical or a knowledge salesperson when engaging that automotive service person your actions are asking questions, a lot of questions.  Your goal is to learn as much as possible about what is happening and what you can do to avoid a similar problem.  As a buyer, you may conduct considerable research before making any purchases especially a significant ones.

For those who are high pressure or reflect that “closing” sales style, their buying actions may be rather quick, in and out. Returning to the automotive experience, these individuals would be asking “How quick can you repair my car?” and probably are counting the minutes especially if the repair time exceeds what they were quoted.  After all, they need to get to that next deal.

Reluctant sellers may be reluctant buyers.  Possibly these types of individuals are always second guessing themselves by “Did I make the right decision?” or asking questions to the service personnel “Are you sure this needs to be done?”

If “we are what we do,” then we have the opportunity to make changes because as free will individuals we have 100% of the choices we make when it comes to how we sell and what we buy.  The problem is that sometimes because we do not know ourselves very well, we listen to others and this further widens this authenticity gap.

What I have observed is that far too many people are unaware of how they make decisions and the specific talents they use in coming to those decisions. This lack of awareness keeps them from having clarity necessary in making the right decisions.  In a sales situation this would be an internal question such as “should I ask this question of my prospect?”

Another observation is quite a few people who earn their living by selling do not have a written positive core values statement.  This is a simple statement of one’s on-negotiable behaviors or what some may call business ethics.

Having worked with numerous individuals and organizations, my belief is that this statement is the most important one and needs to be addressed before any others. Since society appears to be trending to a lack of personal accountability and personal responsibility, those professional salespersons who are know their values (business ethics) and whose behaviors consistently reflect those values will have far greater success.

When we are in alignment with those values or business ethics, then our actions are also in alignment and we can be comfortable with the phrase “we are what we do.” However when there exists a lack of congruency between our values and our actions, then red flags are raised in the minds of our potential customers or prospects. Having a red flag raised in the buying decision making process is that last thing you want to happen especially if your goal is to increase sales.

For it is truly our authenticity that pulls us as professional sales people to our potential customer or clients. Since people buy from people they know and trust, they are more likely to buy from someone they perceive to be authentic. However woe to that salesperson who fakes being authentic because he or she will eventually suffer long term negative consequences.

Since mind reading is still not a honed skill set in the early 21st century, our actions are what our potential customers see first.  The greater alignment and congruency between those actions or behaviors with our internal beliefs and that includes our sales style helps to strengthen the relationship between the buyers (them) and sellers (us).

The statement “we are what we do” is indeed an interesting and one that may prompt you to respond with your own thoughts.

Somehow, there seem to me to be a couple of fundamentals to customer engagement:

• Get the customers to talk about themselves, what they do, and what they want to do.
• Talk to customers about what they want to talk about.

People like talking about themselves and what they do.  They like to have an audience that is genuinely interested in them.  They listen to things they are interested in.

If it’s so easy, why is it so difficult for sales people to do?  I think there are a bunch of reasons:

• The same rules apply to us, we like talking about ourselves, we like talking about what we do.  What makes it worse, is that we’ve been professionally trained to do this, so the urge to pitch, present our products, talk about our solutions overwhelms us.  We take over the conversation and put our mouths into autopilot.
• We’re goal directed and focused on winning deals.  Part of what makes sales people great is the overwhelming desire to win–to close the deal.  Point us to a customer, we’ll charge ahead, 200mph (330+kph for some of you).  We want to achieve our goals.
• We’re time pressured, we have more to get done than we have time to do it.  We jump to action, trying to move deals aggressively through the funnel.  The talk button gets pushed, and we go.

Focusing on what the customer is interested in and talking to them about that is the secret to customer engagement.  When we let the customer talk about their issues and goals, when they can tell us their problems, when we probe to understand how these issues impact them, we engage them.  Think about when someone has done this with you.  Suddenly you think, “Here’s a person interested in me and what I have to say,”  “Here’s someone that really wants to understand my point of view,”  “Here’s someone who is telling me things I am interested about–that can help me.” 

Things change when we’ve engaged the customer.  We get into conversations where we are really listening to each other.  The relationship deepens, trust levels go up.   

Engaging the customer makes our job of selling much easier.  First, the customer has laid out a road map for us–they’ve told us what they are trying to do, what alternatives they are considering, how they will make the decision.  All we have to do is respond to what they’ve said, demonstrating our solution is superior to all other alternatives.

Engaging the customer isn’t really that difficult, it’s putting them first, being interested in them and what concerns them, and encouraging them to talk about it.

Engaging with potential clients is one of those things that requires sales people to both suck and blow at the same time; not easy, but doable.

On the one hand you want to be client focused, thinking less about the ultimate sale and more about fully engaging with the buyer. This involves a full Discovery of the buyer’s objectives and environment, and more.  On the other hand, you also need to drive revenue for your company, acquiring new accounts which by nature are either already buying from someone else, or are not buyers at the moment you are trying to engage them.

The bridge between the two is in the preparation in advance of the initial call, and the entire Discovery process.  At the minimum you have to have a strong grasp of two things, first the specific value your product or service has delivered to other organizations similar to the buyer you are trying to engage.  Second, understand the specific issues and objectives your buyer is dealing with and is trying to achieve.  These two are not sequential, but unfold in a single flow, this is key, because you have to allow the buyer to get involved, engaged, which means you need to adopt a fluid approach rather than a linear step by step approach.  How do you do that?  Once you have handle on these you then need to connect them by formulating questions, the kind of questions that will indeed fully engage the buyer, not just get them interested, but engaged as in wanting to go further with process on their own rather than being pulled along.

We all know and accept that questions are the tools for success in engaging clients.  Questions, the right questions, get people to reflect and think, and once you get them thinking about something relevant to them, they respond and add questions of their own, which leads to conversation and engagement. 

The first, knowing successes and value delivered may seem easy, but there is more to it than many sales people are willing to do.  Most will rely on leveraging the “value propositions” prepared marketing departments.  Good start, but often too high level, you need to spend time and understand what the specific outcomes for your clients have been and talk to those.  The more quantifiable you can make it the better.  Now here is the twist, once you know, you have to develop a questioning routine that will raise the issue you want to target, and in he conversation that ensues you will be in a position to “demonstrate” (this is why specifics and quantifiable, data based examples are needed) the value, and get the customer to engage.

The second helps you set up questions that will help the results captured above resonate with potential buyers.  People often talk about solutions, but by definition, solutions address a objective, or in common sales speak, a “need”, a “pain”, etc.  Unless you talk to issues that are core to the buyer, they will not give you the opportunity to engage, because they will not want to have a conversation about things that are not core to them then and there, they have too many other things to do.  Either you talk about things on top of their hit parade, or you won’t be talking for long, which is not engaging.

When you are able to combine and maser these two, you will find two things.  One is that you will feel much more confident in your approach and resulting conversation.  Second you will be in a much better position to truly listen to the buyer, which makes for better conversation and by extension engagement.  When you have these under control your interview technique will evolve to where instead of thinking about what you are going to say next, you will be listening to the other person, and thinking what you can ask next based on what they said and your experience.  As a result each question builds engagement.  Feel free to contact me if you would like specific examples of this technique.

The process is straight forward, but don’t take that to mean easy.  It requires that you understand where you have delivered specific value to your customers, why they buy from you, what makes you different, and why despite of price or other factors you continue to win deals.  I guess what I am saying is you will have to do some work, talk to existing clients, understand trends, and be aware of business or role based issues.  But once you do the work, and get into the habit of understanding what makes you successful, it will pay dividends.

One last thought, if you are a new sales person, or new to a product line, you can still use this, you just have to use some of your colleagues and some of their clients to learn the data.  In some cases you can use testimonials or case studies, but just make sure they have some meat, as opposed to high level flowery statements.  Talk to the successful sales people to understand what the issues facing buyers are, talk to existing clients, even if you just adopted them, hey, they will se it as customer care, someone taking an interest in their world and trying to sell something right then and there, wow.  The goal is to learn, prepare, review, and do it again, often.

There is plenty of wisdom and advice out there about the three main segments in the life of an engagement with a customer:  Targeting and making contact to get engaged; deepening the engagement, establishing trust, agreeing to mutual goals, etc.; maintaining the engagement or nurturing the relationship after the “sale”.

Much technology has been introduced in recent years to make the “getting engaged” stage more efficient.  “Attraction marketing”, web search optimization, etc.  Today a smart organization can structure things such that the sales person’s first one to one contact with a prospect comes only when the prospect is ready to get engaged and after they’ve proven themselves “worthy”, in the sense that they’re “qualified”.

Of course, a smart sales organization can also employ social networks to get connected with hard to reach prospects and to perform pre-call research on prospects.  Again, the idea is that when you first get on the phone with the prospect, you know very much about them at a business and personal level.  Ultra-busy executives expect sales people to have already figured out what their company needs from them and why before there’s ever a meeting.  When I was still wet behind the ears and plying my trade in the energy business, I’d spend weeks and weeks talking to engineers, geologists and mid level managers to get the entire picture before meeting with the VP.  Now making all those connections and putting the big picture together takes far less time.

And then we can leverage email marketing, newsletters, online events, etc. to maintain engagement with customers after the sale.

But in my humble opinion, while all this technology can certainly save time and increase “connections”, it will just lead to more “pseudo-relationships” if the sales person does not then take advantage of the opportunity to REALLY engage with the customer.  In other words, we’re using our web based crm software, LinkedIn connections, website offers and conversion forms and other technology to filter through many possible prospects and find the few that are a good match for our companies.  That’s keeping us separated from one to one contact with customers (phone, in person) until we’re confident our investment of one to one time will be profitable.

So, when that phone appointment or in person meeting comes around, we have to work even harder to truly connect with the prospect.  Just having done your research ahead of time isn’t enough either.  After all, that’s expected.  You won’t be seen as unique or special just because you know what you’re talking about.

The word engagement is more commonly used to refer to a commitment marry.  Well, short of a love relationship, we do desire a very close relationship with our customers don’t we?  Don’t worry, this isn’t going to get weird…

I’m just pointing out that the most loyal customers are those that respect you and your company and have a high level of trust in you.  These are things that no amount of technology can create by themselves.

I’m a big fan of the Og Mandino classic, “The Greatest Salesman in the World“.  If you haven’t read it, you’ll be glad you did.  It’s more of a story than a self help book and it’s very brief.  Two qualities I admire in a book!  The theme of The Greatest Salesman in the World is that the person who puts the needs of others before his own will in turn see his needs and dreams fulfilled beyond his wildest dreams.

And that is how I believe you get engaged with customers and stay that way.  You show up ready to help them.  Of course, you should be ready to help through your company’s products and services but, you should be equally, and perhaps a bit more-so, willing to help in non-business related ways.

First, you have to listen and learn what they need.  This is where your research and preparation can help.  Not everyone is willing to open up and share their most painful and pressing needs on the first meeting.  Smart questions based on your research can earn respect and your willingness to listen and show empathy will earn trust.

Then its about closing the deal on respect.  If your conversation has illuminated some what that you can help, then offer it and be sure to over deliver.  This is where it really can be best to find non-business needs of the prospect.  Are they chairing a fund raiser?  You could offer money but, even better to volunteer to help out with the preparations or the event itself.  Is their kid starting to investigate colleges?  Offer to contact your alma mater and arrange a personal tour.

This may sound calculating and certainly could become so.  The real idea is to open your mind and your heart to hearing what each person really wants and needs.  The right way to be there for them will appear.  You’ll know if you’re doing it right.  Just like you know in your first couple of dates if this could be “the one”.  You’ll know that the feeling of genuineness between you is real and that it is invaluable and everlasting.

All that “take it slow” and “close the deal” double-entendre that is a distraction from the real task of explaining how you need to expertly engage your customers.

See.  That’s the real issue — engaging with you prospects, leads, and customers.

Getting past the nonsense.

Now when I say engage, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

You probably think of engagement, right?

And if you know anything about that, then you know pretty much all you need to know to build a ridiculously amazing relationship with your “soon to be” customers.

Engagement isn’t so much an act as it is a process.  You don’t walk up to random hotties and ask them to marry you (unless you happen to be vacationing in Vegas).  While it might make a great National Lampoon storyline, it’s pretty darn creepy.

Aren’t you appalled?

The same applies to your sales process.  Have some standards, people…  You’re not out to whore yourself out to anyone who will pay for your services. Despite what your sales manager just told you, you don’t want to land every deal.

Some them flat out stink.  They’re the craznots of your pipeline.  You bust your ass to bring them in and then you regret ever cashing their check.  Some customers are too much trouble to bother with.

So stop acting like a chump and start planning  to put in the effort to romance the customers that you want.

Do something about it.

Here are few ways to do a better job of romancing your customers:

1. Be clear about what you expect from your customer
2. Be careful that you don’t sacrifice your standards
3. Be choosy about who you are targeting with your messaging
4. Be complete about your research of each prospect
5. Be captivating with your messaging
6. Be concerned about your prospect’s success
7. Be casual with powerhouse cold-calling script
8. Be courageous with your goals for closing
9. Be crisp and timely with your follow-up
10. Be comprehensive in your strategy

And there are three dozen more life lessons that I could offer you as you work towards a better concept of engaging your customers.

Drop the crazies.

Find some real customers to start dealing with…

Customer engagement begins with you and your ability to demonstrate your value because people buy from people they know and trust.  Until you can prove your worth, which is what value really is that being the worth of something, then and only then can you showcase the value of your products and services.

We have all heard about sales professionals who can sell igloos to Eskimos. These are the folks who can truly sell value. I realized this once again when attending a local airplane show sponsored by The Collings Foundation I heard and saw a lot about this misunderstood word of value and specifically value selling.

One overheard comment was “I cannot believe he paid $20,000 for a rotary engine for a $3,000 plane!” The salesperson who sold this $20,000 rotary engine understood his or her selling value to the owner and pilot of this home built airplane as well as the value of the engine in relationship to the plane and its performance.

Another instance of worth was the 30-minute ride in a P51 pursuit aircraft where the rider could actually fly the plane because it was the only aircraft of its type still operational with dual controls. This $2,200 ticket price was literally priceless to the WWII pilot who had flown 94 missions between the P40 (Flying Tigers) and the P51 (Mustang) in the Pacific Theater. When he came down from what could possibly be his last opportunity to relive those memories of over 60 years ago was indeed priceless.

For the others who took this rather expensive flight, their value beyond the experience of flying a $1,000,000 aircraft with a 1,800 horsepower engine that with just a little pressure on the throttle (stick) had the plane up or down 200 feet was being able to ledger the flight time into their log books.  For how many pilots in the 21st century have logged 30 minutes on a P51 Mustang?  Very few. Again, the worth of this investment was incalculable because of value selling.

So what worth or value do you as a professional salesperson, bring to your customers or potential customers?  Can you identify the specific behaviors that help you to determine that value?

For example, let’s imagine for a moment you that are a consultant or better yet an executive sales coach who has been contacted via email because of the offer for a free strategy session that you placed somewhere on the Internet.  The sales lead leaves his or her full contact information including name, phone number and company. What is the first behavior you demonstrate?

Many might say call the prospect because leads get cold at the speed of light. This fact has been documented by sales leads research to be true. Customer engagement potential opportunities are essentially hot to warm in 10-30 minutes.  However, what would happen if you quickly invested 5 minutes to research this person and his or her organization using:

• LinkedIn?
• Facebook?
• Twitter?
• Google?

Sales Training Coaching Tip: You should already have knowledge about the industry given your marketing message and where it appears on the Internet.

Then when you made the returned call you had some knowledge about the person on the other end.  Even if you are forced to leave a voice mail, you can follow up with an email.

Of course this knowledge alone may not demonstrate value selling.  So what would you say or write to engage that person?

My answer to that question is “What do you specifically wish to discuss?” I then would add, “Would our conversation be about your business, your people or yourself?  By answering this question ensures your time is well invested.”

As Jill Konrath has noted in her just released book, SNAP Selling, people are very busy, almost “crazy busy” as she puts it.  This is why showcasing the value you bring to the table before that very first returned contact is so critical to you eventually achieving the goal to increase sales.

The truly top performing sales people have the talent intelligence to be able to successfully peel away the value from the need.  Think of value has the pulp of the fruit such as a banana. The yellow skin comprises all of the needs.  Since you already know the banana is a fruit, this is your knowledge about the:

• Customer
• Organization
• Industry
• Traditional challenges
• Marketplace
• Trends
• Competition

Then your only challenge is to be careful not to slip on the discarded banana peel (disengage the customer) as you walk through this selling phase of the overall sales process.  When you can appreciate and articulate your worth nd then the worth of your products and services, you will find yourself engaging a lot more prospects by selling value and then realizing your goal to increase sales.

The end of 2008 and all of 2009 was as difficult a sales environment as any of us have ever experienced, and with luck, something we will never have to experience again. But the real trouble with going through periods that cause the kind of deep stress and entrenching that was required to survive the Great Recession is that the mindset that is required to survive sticks. You hang on to the entrenched, survival mindset longer than is necessary and longer than is useful.

At some point, you have to move from keeping your head down and plowing through in darkness to lifting your eyes to capture a new vision of a better and brighter future.

Will You Notice the Light?

I usually save my question for the end of my posts. But this post is really about the questions that you need to ask yourself now. Your sales results are the result of what you believe and how you act on those beliefs. At the halfway point of this year, let’s do some checking in.

Have you shed your entrenched, head down, nose to the grindstone, survivalist mentality for something more useful?

Have you lifted your eyes yet?

Have you traded old fears for new hope?

Have you traded your goal of survival for a new ambition?

Do you still believe that nobody is buying?

Have you made the choice to act?

Have you captured a new vision of what 2010 means to you? Has it changed from what it was in 2009?

A New Vision for 2010

The great danger in retaining the fear and the behaviors of the past few years is that they prevent you from capturing new opportunities. Those that believe there is a better future act on those beliefs and make it their reality. The find opportunity and they make opportunities. The first do so win, and they win big.

There is still time in 2010 to make of it what you will. There is still plenty of time for you to attach a new meaning to 2010, to create a new vision for what it will mean to you and your company (if you haven’t already). And there is still time to take the actions that will produce the results that can and will define 2010 for you.

But to see that vision, to really capture that vision, you have to lift your eyes and look up. Then you have to march forward and act on your new vision. There are lots of people who are counting on you to both provide the vision and to act on it.

Be changed by what you experienced during 2009. But be changed in a positive way. Capture the lessons that allowed you to survive; you may someday need them again. But don’t allow the fear of the darkness to prevent you from going out into the light.

Is it the easiest time in history to make sales? No, it probably isn’t. But there is no reason to believe it is still December 2008, either.

Lift your eyes.

Make your future.

That’s going to depend a lot on what industry you’re in a what part of the world you’re in isn’t it?

For me personally and for SalesNexus Web Based CRM, my day job, 2009 was our best year ever.  2010 is already on track to be even better.  That’s not bragging, but more to illuminate the fact that we’re in a somewhat recession proof industry.  Many small businesses see hiring new sales people as the simplest path to growth in good times.  During tough times, the perspective changes to finding ways to get more with less.  Of course, a web based CRM can help a sales organization sell more without hiring new sales people.

But, if you sell Health Insurance in the U.S., 2010 is probably turning out to be a very bad year…

If you sell parts, materials or services to automotive manufacturers, 2009 probably was a very rough and 2010 is probably showing some improvement for you.

I think Leanne’s post made a great point.  It’s more important to look forward and ensure you have a solid plan based on the realities of your industry, economy, etc.

However, there’s no doubt that the turmoil in the global economy over the last two years has changed the landscape for sales people of all stripes, in all industries, for good.

Government bailouts, vast increases in regulations and uncertainty about future tax and regulatory regimes are making business planning more difficult.  This means purchases will be made more slowly and may be driven by regulatory directives or loopholes.  The fortunes of entire industries will swing back and forth based on political whim.

Example – imagine if you were the top producing sales rep for a company that provides safety training to offshore drillers in the Gulf of Mexico!  Things have got be very tough in that world, even for the top dogs.

Of course, there will be big winners in various niches too.  And that’s really my point… Going forward, Q2 and 3 of 2010 and beyond, sales people will need to be highly nimble and informed.

Gone are the days when you could understand your customers’ business model, your company’s value proposition, then prospect, qualify and close.  It’s just as important now to understand the recent or coming changes in tax law, regulations and investment trends that directly affect your customers.  These factors are likely to weigh just as heavily on their decisions as competitive pressures.

Understanding these trends can enable you to position your company and its products and services to help your customers avoid or minimize the impact of the changes or take advantages of opportunities created.  You may also be able to identify entirely new markets for your products and services created by government incentives, etc.

Throughout most of my sales career, I found it prudent to avoid talking about politics with customers.  Generally, you have a 50% chance of creating distance between you and your customers vs. trust.

Today’s sales person must learn to be conversant in the effects of politics – regulations, taxes, grants, etc. and there effects on customers without venturing opinions.  After all, regulations and taxes are facts of life.  Your customers are dealing with them more than ever.  Recognize it and empathize with them.  It’s likely that for a few years to come there will be much hand wringing and complaint about the changes underway.  You can be a beckon of opportunity and separate yourself from the competition by finding the opportunities for your customers.

Add to that the fact that the “recovery” looks very different depending on where you are or what you are selling.  While in Canada we have enjoyed a softer landing in 2009, and certainly a better recovery in 2010, it is not party time.  In the USA, the recession hit much deeper, and the recovery has been slower, less significant, and in some spots all but absent.  So even in the Great White North, you have to be cognisant of the fact that if the States can’t party, ours may not last.  On the other hand it may, and I for one would prefer to look at the well as being half full, or in Canada 3/4 full.

I think the bigger issue to be looked at is what is the long-term impact of the “post Lehman Brothers era”?  During the recession, every expert and his sister were putting out articles, webinars, smoke signals and tweets, about the new way of selling, in the new economy, the new reality, what a load, there was nothing new about 2009.

Maybe it is because I am over 50, or something else, but what we saw in 2009 was not new in any measure.  We saw this in all previous economic downturns and recessions, the tap gets turned off; discretionary spends, employees and reason are all sacrificed to the gods of recessions, and purses are sealed in a vault far far away.  Sure the language changes, remember in 2002 they called it “right sizing”, other times they call it layoffs.  Doesn’t matter what the long term effect is, for corporate leaders it was ostrich time.

One question is of course are we in recovery, can we afford to forget 2009.  After all they loved the TARP so much in New York, it is now touring Europe, depending on audience response, it may tour North America again, and to bigger crowds.

The real question is, and the reason you may not want to forget 2009, is what the real recovery will look like.  That is when the new economy stuff should come into play, but as always, that is when the pundits will breathe a sigh of relief and give the all clear to do it all again, with a similar end in a few years.  (Hopefully I’ll be over 60 by then).

The reason I don’t want to forget 2009 is simple, if you survived, or even thrived a little in 2009, you should keep practicing that in 2010, 2011, and beyond.  If you were able to communicate value and sell without discounting in 2009, those practices will serve you well now.  If you were able to learn and respond to market conditions in 2009, why would you stop now.

If on the other hand you withered in 2009, and are doing better now because all boats rise with the tide, you also don’t want to forget 2009, especially if we get the “double dip” many are expecting.  How people respond this year will be key to your success, if it is a typical recovery, as it was in the early part of the last decade, you will need to alter your sales approach to benefit from it, as buyers will have different expectations and sensitivities based on their experience.  If it turns out that the length, depth and impact of the recession brings a different kind of recovery, you too will need to reinvent the way you sell to meet new demands and expectations, which again suggests that you can’t forget 2009.

What is the old saying “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Since when did we start looking back (on the worst sales year of 3 generations) to decide whether we were getting the right results.

Since when did we fool ourselves into the nonsense of arbitrary analysis.

OK. Let me lighten up a little.

As a former CEO of a fast moving technology company, I get it.  I buy into the idea that you need a rolling 13 month plan of action and that you need to to measure the heck out of anything for which you can make a tick with a #2 pencil.

What you measure you can fix.

That’s partly because once you measure, you know what you need to fix.

You move past the nonsense of unabashed introspection — past the island of hopeful intentions.  You get to a place where you see what really is.

It’s now fact instead of fiction.

You can stop hoping to do better and start working on being better.

And here’s where it gets fun.  You get to decide what “better” even means.

You probably know what that means.  Right now you have five or six things you are thinking about. And that’s key because you know your situation better than anyone else.  But here are a few things you might want to look for:

1. How many times did you go the extra mile to provide creative solutions to your customers?
2. Did you increase your intensity around prospecting for new clients?
3. Do you enjoy doing what you are doing?

It’s introspection at it’s finest.  None of the numbers.  Just a focus on you and your ability to play at a high level.

It’s a look at the core you and pushing yourself to be the best “you” possible.

So what’s the deal with comparing yourself to a spreadsheet of hopes and dreams?

Who cares what happened in 2009 or the first six months of this year?  Well…. you do.  And I do.  And frankly, we all do.

Just care enough to do it better these next six months.