Make One Thing Your First Thing

Watch this week's Short Attention Span Sales Tip here.

Good morning!

Every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m., I speak with a very talented salesperson. He communicates well, plans well, and his clients love him. But, like many of us, although he knows what he needs to get done, he struggles to execute.

To help out, we have been each other’s accountability buddy. We come to the weekly coaching call with a list of action items for the upcoming week and then report our successes and failures on the next call.

Our results have been … well … uneven.

Some weeks are better than others. Sometimes we crush our goals and sometimes we accomplish none of them (he and I both, by the way).

My thinking on why:

1. We are setting the wrong goals. Perhaps, for example, they simply aren't important enough for us to put in the effort.
2. There is a lack of urgency in the goals we are choosing. That is, they need to get done, but perhaps not right now.
3. They are the right goals and they are urgent goals, but we lack the discipline to achieve them.

It's that last one that fascinates me.

How often do we have the correct plan but we just fail to execute? For example, after dinner we say to ourselves, “I need to go to the gym tomorrow.” But when we wake up, talking ourselves out of it is way too easy.

Right goal. Good idea. Zero execution. Sound familiar?

What I know and believe is this: Anything I either need or want to get done must be done first thing or it likely won't happen.

If exercise is important to you, go to the gym before you do anything else.

If prospecting is your priority, make calls before you do anything else.

When you are planning out the coming day, remember to make one thing your first thing. Set a top priority and then do it first. That way, if your day goes sideways, you will have at least achieved one important task.

Off to the gym, I am.

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