It is amazing how quickly each quarter seems to be coming to an end rather than having just begun. Every additional month that we are in the field seems to make the sales challenge of meeting or exceeding our targets just a bit more difficult. Why is that? We have a pipeline filled with leads, we are working each day to the fullest and yet we continue to hope for that "blue bird" account to carry us over the top.

Why does it seem that working harder doesn't seem to bring the results we are looking for? Might it be the result of how we are working? What about the prospects we are concentrating on? Are we looking at our activities as a form of keeping busy or as progress toward making our targets? What is our business plan each quarter? Do you even have one? How do we create one?

These days, our ability to meet and exceed our sales targets requires analysis and planning. Try this:

Over the next thirty days, take a look at the top ten opportunities in your pipeline, look back at your call activity and notes and plot the amount of time spent with each of the prospects. Ask yourself the questions you know that your manager is likely to ask, such as whether the prospect has shared a goal. If he or she has done so, how long ago was that? Have you been given access to other key players? Have you interviewed each of them? How long ago was that? What Win about qualifying the opportunity by putting together a Sequence of Events or evaluation plan? How many of your ten prospects have an S.O.E.?

For that matter, plot each of your ten prospects within the following milestone:

1. Active - a suspect prospect has been contacted;
2. Goal Shared - the prospect has shared what they are wanting to achieve;
3. Champion - you have been given access to other key players in the organization;
4. Evaluation - where we are in the midst of proving our capabilities, and preparing for a cost versus benefit analysis conducted by you and your prospect concurrently. In other words, you have a Sequence of Events under way. How long has that been the case?

Next, count the number of business days each of your ten prospects have remained within a milestone. What will be evident very quickly is where you are spending your time and whether you have the number of opportunities who will move to the "WIN" milestone from evaluation necessary to meet your target this quarter.

Why do all of this? In order to work smarter, not harder! Being busy does not count for much anymore; results are what matter. We get compensated for the revenue we generate, not how busy we can be.