Raise your hand if your New Year’s resolution is to “lose weight!” It is, by far, the most common option for that annual tradition of ‘personal goal setting.’
While I don’t know the actual statistics, I’ll bet well over 90% of those with that goal don’t achieve it. Maybe 95%! And there’s a pretty simple reason why that happens…
You can’t just ‘lose weight.’ You can’t will it to happen. You can’t stand in front of the mirror and hope that the fat will go away.
The only way to achieve the goal of weight loss is to execute those things that help you get there… to stop eating desserts, to go to the gym 3X each week, to walk the stairs rather than taking the elevator, and so on.
And it’s these sorts of ‘actionable items’ that should also be included in your New Year’s resolutions… all in support of the overall goal of weight loss.
Likewise, it should be no different with your 2019 growth goal. Having a goal of 20% revenue growth, for example, is fine (for an overall goal). But what are the actionable items you can implement to achieve that overall goal? Some examples might be…
- Make at least 2 sales calls every day
- Exhibit at 3 industry events
- Hire a full-time inside sales rep
- Send out a monthly enewsletter
- Post on social media 3X each week
- Blog once a week
And so on.
So, as you look at growing your business this year, make sure you spell out those ‘tactical goals’ that will help you get there. Then put them in a timeline, assign responsibility and hold people accountable for getting them done (call it your ‘marketing & sales plan’).
To help with this, here are two sayings you might want to write out and hang up on your wall to be reminders every day…
“Hope is not a strategy.”
and
“Activity breeds results”
Good luck… and have a GREAT 2019!