One Day at a Time

Ever have a sales month start slowly? Do you struggle with the idea of starting from scratch every month? Many sales people have a hard time with the idea the each month they're starting all over. For some it's a daunting task to start our each month back at zero. And many sales people struggle with having a month or a pay period start slowly which adds anxiety to hitting their quota for the period.

A conversation I had with one of the sales people working for me reminded me of the challenge. He was asking how he could overcome the slow start he has each month. My answer was simple "Take it one day at a time". I know it sounds like a simple answer but let me explain. When you have a big sales month or period the natural tendency is to relax a little bit once it's over. You want to celebrate and pat yourself on the back. There's nothing wrong with that you need to celebrate your victories.

The problem with relaxing after you hit your goal or have a big month is that when you relax you tend to stop doing all the things you were doing to be successful at the end of the previous month. Some sales people start to take short cuts fooling themselves into thinking they are good enough to get away with it. Usually this results in fewer sales at the start of the month or pay period and then as you get farther into the pay period they knuckle down and get back to doing what works and low and behold they pull it off again. Another month or pay period where they hit the goal even though they started slowly.

Some salespeople have done it like this for so long they have convinced themselves that people don't buy early in the month so it's normal. The fact is when you are doing your job properly people buy any day of the month and it has nothing to do with whether or not is the beginning or the end of the month. The sales person is the one that influences the cycle based on inconsistent work habits.

If you want to end the up and down sales cycle and be more consistent you have to work consistently and the best way to do that is to stop focusing on the pay period or the month and start focusing on each individual day. By taking things one day at a time and resolving to do you best each day you will find that the month or pay period takes care of itself.

Of course that's not to say ignore the closing of your pay period, month or qualification period. You can use these deadlines to create urgency and get business to close in a more timely manner than it would otherwise.

The key is to do your best each and every day and you will find that before long your sales are more consistent and for that matter much higher since the slow start will go away.

Just be patient and know that what you are doing will work because for many sales people it takes a few months to actually see the change in their sales since they have to fill the pipeline with additional prospects.

You might be skeptical if you've been in sales for a while and have always had a slow start each month or period but I can tell you from personal experience the key is in your work habits. I too used to have slow starts until I was shown how I worked differently at the beginning of the month compared to the end of the month. I decided to take it one day at a time and within 3 months my sales at the first of the month equaled my sales at the end of the month. For me that was a 15% increase in sales.

Would you like to give yourself a raise? Then work just as hard or even harder at the beginning of the pay period as you do at the end and treat every day as if it was the last day of the pay period.