The Sales Calendar. Building Monthly Success DaybyDay.

Looking to make your month the greatest ever? Who isn’t? Ask any successful salesperson the secret for having great months and they will all say positive attitude, creative preparation, and consistent performance.

To succeed month to month, you must execute day to day. Here are 31 creative ideas mixed with fundamental sales concepts. Put them into your work life on a oneaday basis, and sales are sure to follow.

You can’t add more days to the calendar, but you can make every one more productive. I challenge you to add these to your day each day.

Day 1. Establish your pipeline goals. How many calls, leads, appointments, mailouts, followups it takes to exceed your sales dreams. Make a top ten list of people you want to sell. By doing this on the first of the month, you will have clear vision to the task ahead.

Day 2. Figure out your daily dose. After you establish the goals, figure out what you must do every day to make them a reality.

Day 3. Examine your tools. Take a hard look at the sales tools in your kit. Are they the best in the business? State of the art? If not, make a plan and a deadline to change them.

Day 4. Evaluate your image. Look in the mirror. Like who you see? Get someone impartial to give you an image onceover. Act on their recommendations as fast as you can.

Day 5. List your customers main reasons they buy from you. Don’t be a fool and make the list without asking 10 customers. Use the list to readjust your presentation and your approach.

Day 6. Go network someplace where your customers and prospects go. Ask your best customer to attend their monthly association meeting.

Day 7. Breakfast a customer. Using meals for business is an excellent time management tool (and wallet builder).

Day 8. Lunch a prospect. You can get to real issues over lunch. A relaxed, neutral court.

Day 9. Dinner a small group. Combine a meal with a mini seminar. Bring interested people together to make a group sale.

Day 10. Get peer evaluation. Ask your coworkers to rate your performance once a month. Get honest feedback. Use it.

Day 11. Join Toastmasters. You only have to do this once, but the impact will last for a lifetime. An hour and a half each week of speaking skills and peer evaluation. Just do it.

Day 12. Buy a book about sales. Reading one book a month will make you a world class expert in 5 years.

Day 13. Audio tape your presentation. Play it in the car. If you say, “Oh man, that’s terrible,” imagine what your customers and prospects are saying.

Day 14. Play golf with a customer and someone he or she can do business with. Bringing your customer potential business is the most powerful business building (and keeping) tool there is. Combining it with golf makes it memorable.

Day 15 Brainstorm objections with coworkers. There are less than ten real objections to purchasing your product or service. Get with coworkers and figure out the best responses.

Day 16. Take your boss (or salesperson) on a sales call. If you’re chicken, you’ve got the wrong boss (salesperson) or you’re unprepared. If you do, you’ll make a sale.

Day 17. Make it a point to deliver your best customer one hot sales lead. Want to keep your best customer forever? Just keep bringing them business.

Day 18. Product Knowledge Day. Take the time to read the flyers and product updates you’ve been shoving in drawers all month.

Day 19. Read Your Trade Magazine Day. One of the best sources for “the latest” sales ideas. A bible to the most successful.

Day 20. Create five new questions. Asking questions is the heart of selling. To keep the blood pumping, you must continually have new questions. Formulate questions that make your prospect evaluate new information. Power questions.

Day 21. Detail you car. If your customer gets into a perfect car, she thinks “perfect salesperson, perfect product, perfect company. If she gets into a crummy car…

Day 22. Contact one person on your chicken list. (the people you’re scared to call) If you don’t have your “chicken list” on paper, do it now.

Day 23. Brainstorm creative followups. 97% of all sales take more than one call to complete. Gather a group and generate 10 new ways to call a prospect back that combines creativity with purpose (and get the sale).

Day 24. Thank your customer day. Pick 25 and send them cards, a bag of candy, and write “how sweet it is to have you for a customer Thanks.

Day 25. Take a customer to a ball game. Add some fun to one of your relationships. Get to know someone personally.

Day 26. Mentor Day. Ask the salesperson you respect the most if you cam make sales calls with him or her and watch them work.

Day 27. Work on your biggest goal for 4 hours. It will never get done if you don’t work on it month by month.

Day 28. Do community volunteer work. You meet the best people and you feel great.

Day 29. Make a speech at a local civic group. Get visible, get credible. Lousy at or afraid of public speaking? Revisit “Day 11” for the sure cure.

Day 30. Make your biggest sale. End your month with a big sale to create the momentum for next month.

Day 31. Celebrate your success. Reward yourself for a job well done. Go get some new clothes or take a day at the beach. Relax and get set for next month’s success. You’re the greatest. Way to go.

If you’re serious about figuring out a way to incorporate new success strategies into your daily sales routine, here are 5 everyday rules to make the month flow.

1. Read for 20 minutes.

2. Listen to a sales tape in the car every day.

3. Practice the new technique you learned as soon as you learn it.

4. Keep a journal. Log your progress, observations, important notes, and new things learned.

5. Visualize your success every day.

You say “Jeffrey, I’m too busy to incorporate all this into my schedule.” Oh, I guess you’re also making all the money in the world as well. Just in case you’re not, consider this: Every other successful salesperson in the universe incorporates these strategies and tactics into their every day success. If they have the time, perhaps you should buy back some of yours. It’s a great investment. Time is money. Your money.

FREE GitBit… Fill your sales pipeline from day one. A one page strategy to meet your individual sales goals by establishing your pipeline numbers. Just go to www.gitomer.com click FREE STUFF then click GitBit register and enter the secret word, “Pipeline”.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless. President of Charlottebased Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at 704/3331112 or email salesman@gitomer.com

1999 All Rights Reserved Don’t even think about reproducing this document without written

permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer 704/3331112.