Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday
on the Sales Gravy Podcast.
Make money, money, money,
money.
Make money, money,
Alright. Welcome back. It is Money Monday on
the Sales Groovy Podcast, and this one is
special.
(00:25):
It's the last Monday of the year. Now
this week is the perfect time to sit
down and start crafting your personal goals for
next year.
Before we dive in, I've got some exciting
news. In 2025, we're launching a brand new
segment on the Sales Groovy podcast called Ask
Jeff.
This will be all about you, your questions,
your challenges, your agenda, and whether it's about
(00:47):
sales, sales leadership, running a business, or basically
anything that's giving you heartburn, you'll get a
chance to call in and ask me directly.
Our very first Ask Jeff episode will be
out next Wednesday, so make sure that you
listen in. And then it will be out
every other Wednesday going forward. Now the easiest
way to be part of the show is
to go to salesgravy.com/ask.
(01:10):
That's salesgravy.com/ask.
Just fill out the form, and one of
our friendly producers will reach out to you
and get you scheduled to get on with
me. I can't wait to talk with you.
Now let's look back over the last couple
of weeks.
Two weeks ago, we covered the concept of
building a personal business plan, how you can
(01:31):
approach your territory and sales career like an
entrepreneur.
It's all about becoming the CEO of you
and creating a system and process
for hitting your sales goals.
Then last week, we dug into reflection versus
regret,
and we emphasized the power of reflection when
looking back on everything that went down this
(01:52):
past year. The wins, the failures, the lessons
learned, the stuff you wanna carry forward, and
the stuff you really need to leave behind.
Now today, we're talking about your personal goals.
These are the things that drive you, they
inspire you, and they push you through the
tough days.
And when I think about personal goals, I
typically break them down into three buckets, to
(02:13):
have goals, to be goals, and to do
goals.
To have goals are the things that you
want to acquire to buy. For example, this
year, I set a goal to purchase a
new house, and I did. And I also
wanted to get a brand new set of
golf clubs, which I also did. And whether
it's a house, a new car, a swimming
pool, or building up your savings, to have
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goals are about acquiring something that enhances your
life.
Then there are to be goals.
These are about evolving into the person you
want to become. Maybe you wanna be a
sales manager, or if you're a manager, maybe
you wanna be the director or VP of
sales.
You might wanna go back to school for
a degree or an MBA,
or you wanna be a better spouse, a
(02:54):
better leader, or a better peer,
or maybe you want to be a president's
club winner, or be recognized as an expert
in your industry.
Whatever it is, to be goals help you
level up as a person and a professional.
And then there are to do goals.
These are experience goals.
My wife and I had a big one
a couple years ago,
(03:14):
going on a horseback trek across to Masamara
in Kenya.
It was a massive life changing adventure that
we save for, plan for, and work for,
and it was incredibly
motivating while we were leading up to that
goal.
Think about experiences that create lifelong memories.
Maybe you wanna travel somewhere special with your
family or take on a meaningful project that
(03:36):
you've always dreamed about.
Now there are lots of reasons to set
goals.
First, goals massively increase the likelihood that you'll
actually achieve the things you want.
Speaking your goal out loud, writing it down,
and being intentional about it has a powerful
psychological effect.
Goals also make life meaningful.
It's unbelievably
(03:57):
fulfilling to look back and see what you've
accomplished and how far you've come.
We also work in a incredibly competitive and
tough profession, and it's just plain satisfying to
put your commission check, bonuses, and hard won
earnings
back into something that improves your life or
the lives of the people you love. But
the biggest reason to set goals in sales
(04:18):
is that the sales profession is incredibly hard
work and it can be brutal.
The thing about sales is that it's loaded
with rejection.
At every turn, we face potential noes, whether
it's prospecting calls, asking for next steps, pushing
the level up to decision makers, or closing
the deal. And we even face internal rejection
when we try to sell a complex deal
(04:39):
to our own company or get approval for
special pricing.
Rejection is everywhere, and the fear of rejection
or avoiding it is the number one reason
why salespeople fail to perform.
Now when you add the grind of making
call after call and stuffing data into the
CRM and pushing through proposals and handling endless
follow ups to the fear of rejection,
(05:01):
sales is a tedious,
hard, rejection dense profession.
And for this reason, it requires immense discipline
to stay on track and keep grinding day
after day and month after month over the
course of the sales year.
But here's the rub. Discipline can wane. Discipline
can fatigue,
especially when we're not hyper focused on a
(05:22):
bigger prize.
Now I want you to pay attention to
this next part because
understanding the real definition of discipline is critical.
You see, discipline is sacrificing what you want
now for what you want most. Now say
this again because it's that important.
Discipline is sacrificing what you want now for
what you want most, and what you want
(05:44):
most is easy
because human nature wants easy.
We'd rather that customers call us rather than
having to chase them down.
We'd rather that deals close themselves rather than
having to ask the customer for the sale
and face no,
And we'd rather that customers do the hard
(06:05):
work for us rather than spending our time
on follow ups.
But success in sales
is paid for in advance
with facing rejection and doing the hard work.
Therefore, if you don't have a clear compelling
reason, something you want most, it's easy to
cave in and take the easy route instead
(06:25):
of doing what really needs to be done.
And this is the reason why having a
strong set of personal goals is crucial for
sales professionals.
You need that powerful why to keep grinding
when the going gets tough. And when the
pipeline's not as full as you'd like or
you're hitting roadblocks, you need something more important
than convenience
to drag you back into the fight.
(06:47):
Now let's talk about how to do this.
If you've gone through any kind of SMART
goal setting course, some of this may sound
familiar,
but the basics are timeless and indispensable.
To set effective goals, you need to ask
and answer five basic questions.
What do you want? When do you want
it? Is it attainable?
(07:08):
How bad do you want it? And how
are you going to get there?
Let's start with what do you want? Now
it sounds simple, but for many of us,
we actually haven't taken the time to truly
understand what it is that we want. We're
so busy being distracted with social media and
TikTok and daily distractions
that we never pause to think about it.
(07:29):
So step one is to get specific about
what it is you want and define it.
Then you have to answer the question, when
do you want it?
Because we're talking about next year's personal goals,
we can keep it simple and keep things
in a twelve month horizon.
But any truly effective goal requires a deadline
or a target date. Otherwise, it's just a
(07:51):
pipe dream.
When you have a hard date, when you
have a timeline, when you have a deadline,
it creates urgency and focus.
Next, you've gotta answer the question,
are your goals attainable?
You gotta be honest with yourself.
If all your goals are ridiculously
ambitious, you'll burn out or give up once
it's clear that you're not really making any
(08:11):
meaningful progress.
So you need to have a balance between
some stretch goals, some big, hairy, audacious goals
that drive you, and goals that are realistically
achievable. Then you need to answer the most
important question, and that is, how bad do
you want it? This is the ultimate question.
If your goal doesn't fire you up, if
it's not something you'll move mountains to achieve,
(08:34):
you won't push through the tough days.
Remember that discipline means sacrificing what you want
now for what you want most. So if
the desire isn't there, the sacrifices won't be
made.
And finally, you need to answer the question,
how are you going to get there? These
are your steps to success, your system, your
process, your road map.
(08:55):
As James Clear says in Atomic Habits, you
don't rise to the level of your goals,
you fall to the level of your systems.
And it's really simple. If you have a
crystal clear process for what you need to
do daily, weekly, and monthly, you'll keep moving
towards your goal even when life gets in
the way. This is where your personal business
plan and your personal goals intersect.
For instance, if your to do or to
(09:17):
have goals require additional income, in other words,
you need a bigger commission check to afford
that new pool or a bucket list vacation,
then you have to hit your sales targets.
That means building a disciplined system that ensures
that you're prospecting enough, qualifying enough opportunities,
following up diligently, and negotiating effectively.
You see, without the system and a personal
(09:38):
business plan, you are more likely to get
random results and less likely to achieve your
personal goals.
Since this is the last Monday of the
year, it's the perfect time to do exactly
what we discussed last week, sit in silence,
turn off the phone, get away from distractions,
and grab a notebook and pen. Write down
what you want. Write down when you want
(09:59):
it. Write down if it's attainable, how bad
you want it, and how you plan to
get there. Sketch it all out. Just let
the ideas flow.
Once you've got it all together, build a
formal goal sheet, and what I'm talking about
is physically writing it all out.
There's tremendous power in seeing your goals in
black and white or printing them out and
(10:19):
pinning them above your desk.
Countless studies have shown that written goals are
far more likely to be realized than goals
that are just bouncing around your head.
This goal sheet is your personal road map,
and a great best practice is to put
it in your personal business plan so that
everything stays in one place.
Now I've got a gift for you because
(10:39):
I wanna make this even easier. I built
a course called the essentials of setting winning
goals, and you can find it on Salisbury
University.
In honor of this special week, I'm giving
you this course for free. No strings attached
and no credit card required. Just go to
goals.salesgravy.com.
That's goals.salesgravy.com.
And when you check out, use the coupon
(10:59):
code podcast.
It'll zero out the cost, and then you
can dive into this comprehensive step by step
approach to goal setting. And you can use
it to build your goal sheet and set
yourself up for the new year.
Now, finally, I've got one favor to ask
of you. Now this podcast runs on your
support. I'm serious about this. We don't have
a big marketing budget. You are our marketing
(11:20):
budget.
So if you love the podcast, please do
me a solid. It takes just a second.
Give it five stars. Rate it five stars
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click five stars. And if you have a
moment, leave a quick review, even a sentence
is good, about why you enjoy the show
(11:40):
and why it makes a big difference. And
make sure you're following the show. So click
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And if you really appreciate what we're doing
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your peers, tell the other salespeople in your
company. Look. We've been podcasting for eighteen years
(12:01):
straight, and we'll keep doing it for eighteen
more as long as we've got amazing fans
like you who tell other people about it.
Because truly, in today's world, word-of-mouth is everything.
So go take action.
Sit down and set your personal goals, and
then combine them with a strong business plan.
And together, that will help you crush the
coming year. Have a happy and blessed New
(12:23):
Year, and I'll see you next time on
the Sales Groovy Podcast. Of the fittest, you
could sink or swim. Hop and broke. I
ain't never going back again. I need some
c notes, some cheddar, and a stack ends.
I need a bowl of dough. I don't
need no Facebook friends. I need a pack
of them snaps, a handful of fetti wops,
a rubber band on my green backs. Look,
dog. Don't be playing with my paper. I
(12:43):
need every rare scent. That's why I brought
my little scraper.