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Why Should I Set A Goal?

In my own opinion, one of the most frustrating sports to watch is boxing. This is because unless someone gets knocked out, neither the fighters nor the spectators know what the score is during the match. A boxer might think he's winning, when in fact, he may be losing. There isn't a scoreboard to look up at and see where you stand. As we all know, the judges can choose who wins each round at their own discretion with little to no accountability in real time. As a sports fan, I find it strange that you don't know the outcome until it's over. 

In sales, we use a lot of sports analogies. As a matter of fact, I got my first sales job by answering an ad in the classifieds for someone who was "sports minded". (If you know which company this is, let's not give them any extra press or attention as they were not the most professional bunch of idiots I've ever met.) My fellow new hires and I all thought we were applying at a sporting goods store or something to that effect. 

When we asked the recruiting manager what "sports minded" had to do with selling crappy accident plans door-to-door, he said, "We want people who are competitive, even with themselves." After looking at him as if he had spoken in Latin to us, he clarified with, "Haven't you ever tried to beat your own high score in a video game?" Now he was speaking our language, as we were part of the Pac Man generation. Even so, we still considered him to be a moron.

But this moron was making a point. We need to set goals, for each day, each week, each month and each year. Some will say that you need to visualize your goals. Like the moron used to say, "Whatever blows your dress up!" But by setting a series of long term goals along with short term goals you can see where you stand during the game. 



Steve Martin, the famous movie star and comedian. did a bit on Saturday Night Live years ago in which he said, "The thing you have to learn, in having a goal, is not to set an impossible goal, something too high you can never reach. You gotta have a series of smaller goals that you can accomplish, and slowly work your way up. And this is what I have done. That's why I'm so happy. My goal: right now I want to be the all-being master of time, space and dimension. Then I want to go to Europe - I think."

This is why he is a comedic genius. But I digress. 

The point is that by setting your goals, personal, professional and financial, and breaking those goals down into workable pieces, you can then reverse engineer them. For example, if you want to make $48,000 next year, that comes down to $4000 each month. With that easy math, you can assume that you need to make around $950 each week. How much of your products or services do you need to sell to hit that number? What kind of activities are required to hit that number? 

In the insurance world, we are taught that a certain number of dials (ancient phone reference), referrals, appointments, etc., add up to hitting our goals, whatever they may be. The plan is that during the first week of the year, I have my goals set and broken down into smaller increments. During the year, I can look up at the scoreboard and see where I stand. Alas, I'm not a boxer.

As we are in the middle of the year and in the midst of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc on all sectors, you may want to consider a "halftime", go to the locker room and set a new set of goals. Keep it realistic and doable. Good luck, and as always, stay healthy.

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.

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