At this time of year, we start thinking about how we can improve our lives for the coming year. We start making our annual resolutions like “I need to lose weight,” “…stop smoking,” or “…pay more attention to my spouse.”
But most of those “goals” never happen. Why? Simple… because they are not action-oriented. You can’t just “lose weight,” but you can go to the gym 3 times a week. You can’t just “stop smoking,” but you can start chewing nicotine gum whenever you have a craving. And you can’t just “pay more attention to your spouse,” but you can make sure every Friday night is “date night.”
See the difference?
Now let’s look at your 2013 Business Resolutions, from a marketing & sales perspective and see what you can come up with…
Instead of business resolutions/goals like:
- “I want to increase revenue by x%” or
- “I want to become a recognized thought leader in our industry” or
- “I want to generate X new leads per quarter”
Try these replacements:
- “I will start nurturing our best leads over an extended period of time… sending them one email per month and calling them once every quarter. That way, when they have a project, they think of us.” (then put it in your calendar and go do it!)
- “I will write one blog post every week about topics of interest to our industry; I will also participate in one LinkedIn group conversation each week” (then put it in your calendar and do it!)
- I will attend one industry event each quarter (events that my prospective clients attend) and force myself to network all day; I will also go to those events with a new, compelling elevator pitch.” (then put it in your calendar and go do it!)
Ideas are easy… execution is hard! So as you look ahead to 2013… build your resolutions around those things that you can “do”… then go do them!
Do them well and do them consistently and you’ll build a strong competitive advantage for your firm heading into 2013! Happy New Year!