The New Year’s resolutions checklists are the same every year—mostly about eating healthier, losing weight, managing our finances better, and getting ahead at work. And our inboxes are crowded with marketing messages about products and programs to help us do all those things we’re temporarily gung-ho about. The media is also flooded with articles about resolutions right now. I Googled “New Year’s Resolutions” and got 140 million results.

We talk about resolutions every year, and most of us mean to keep them.  But life happens, and resolutions are usually forgotten. As you’re planning for 2015, don’t make big, sweeping resolutions. Instead, set manageable short-term goals—for yourself and for your team. 

Forget Shaking the Trees

Of course, every company sets annual sales quotas and other long-term metrics, and these numbers are important. But if we’re too focused on the big picture or end game, we take our eyes off our pipelines. By setting manageable prospecting goals, we ensure new leads keep coming in.

When looking for new business, many sales organizations shake the trees and see what falls off. That’s not a dependable or prudent sales strategy. Yet, many businesses actually work this way. So when they suddenly find themselves with no pipeline, all they can do is cast a wide net and hope to catch “anyone” (which is exactly how sales funnels get clogged with PITAs). 

Forget Social Media

Other sales teams dig themselves deeper into the hole by investing the majority of their sales resources into social media goals. We're back to painting by numbers—identify your prospects on social media, learn how you're connected, identify trigger events, and then depend on technology to beat a path to your prospect.

No…just no.

Technology alone will not get you in front of decision-makers. Relationships will.

Obviously, don't forget about social networking altogether. It can be a valuable resource. But use it wisely. Do your research, learn as much as you can about your prospects, learn how you're connected to them, and then pick up the damn phone and talk.

Social media is a great way to conduct research, to better understand your referral network, and even to start conversations with people you never would have met in the real world. But it is not the place to sell. For that you’ll have to take the conversation offline. 

Forget Cold Calling

If you want to spend your days dialing for dollars, go ahead. Craft your best introduction, write an enticing email, and reach out on social media with your sales pitch. But please don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re making “warm calls.” Without an introduction from someone your prospect knows and trusts, your phone call, email, or LinkedIn message is ice cold. 

The most critical element of your sales plan is the referral-selling goal. When you fully commit to referral selling, invest in a measurable and sustainable referral program , and eliminate unproductive prospecting techniques, you get meetings with prospects who want to meet you. And you convert those leads into new clients more than 50 percent of the time—all while reducing your cost of sales and shortening the time it takes to obtain new clients.

Now, that makes for a happy, productive New Year!

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