Ep. 251 4th Quarter Prep

It’s been an up and down year for many of you out there. No worries. Joe Pici shares strategies for finishing the year strong.

Voice over:

Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is The Sales Edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

(JP):

Hey Team, today is September 14. 16 days before the fourth quarter, as a hundred and eight days until 2022. Are we on track? Welcome to the sales State podcast number two. 51. I am your host Joe Pici. We want to thank our sponsors, which is Pici and Pici inc, which is a speaking coaching training consulting. Firm really focused on helping our clients in ourselves recapture, lost Revenue, get in front of our Target, Market, close more business, negotiate higher fees, and sell more virtually.com. That is our membership platform where every Thursday night. I’m out there live with coaching.

Training e-courses downloads and coming in the next week or so. We will have a complete 14 course. Each course will have anywhere from four to twenty five modules. The complete report Mastery sales program online on demand for you to have. So as we’re moving forward. We’re going to be talking about the importance of. Are you ready for the fourth quarter? You know, when we look, Look at the fourth quarter. We don’t have much time to get ready for it. Like I said, we’re only 16 days out the next 16 days can set you up for success or great disappointments. You know, what should you do in the next 16 days everyday, people make decisions decisions to, they want to accomplish goals. They want to start a business. They might want to lose weight. They want to create.

New content. They may want to write a book. How about launching ecourse about complete? A project? The list is endless. You know, New Year’s resolutions. Are he? You know, it’s amazing last January 2021 was going to be the best of the best will is it is it shaping up that way? You know, what you two are you paying attention to your numbers? Decisions will get you started but commitment and consistency helps you to finish. Let me say that. Again. This came to me o dark thirty this morning on my bike. Everybody makes decisions and decisions are there to get you engaged to get. You started? However, it takes tremendous commitment and consistency to finish what you start. So now is we get moving.

This podcast. I have a couple coaching tip for you. Let’s go to step one for the next 16 days. First. We want to assess and evaluate where we are and what we’ve done. So we want to take a look back. We want to look back at our first quarter. We want to look back at our second quarter. We want to look back at our. We finishing our third quarter, where we expected to be, you know, have we gotten the results, we see. We set out to get results, have to be quantifiable. They have to be measurable, you know, for example, I’ve talked to you before about my whiteboard system, but as of yesterday, okay, I’m looking at my whiteboard as of yesterday and I have out since January 1, 217 formal proposals, as quantifiable. That’s measurable that

Doesn’t lie. But on those white boards on those proposals when one closing goes to contract, I Circle it s another measurable quantifiable. I can look and say in the first three quarters. I got out this many proposals. I close this many deals. Okay. And so that is measurable. So are we are we doing what we say? We want? To do for example, let me give you a way to measure. Let’s say say January 1, you decided you wanted to lose 40 pounds, a good metric for you to see at the end of quarter 3, since you’ve lost at least 30.

Ten per quarter. You haven’t lost any, you’re gonna have a hard time, losing any in the fourth quarter. That’s what I mean about being on top of all your measurements. Another one. Let’s say January 1. You said this year 2021. I want a net $200,000. That means by the end of quarter three, you should have netted a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now, that’s it over simplification. But the more you can put numbers in quantifiable things on your You’re hot sheets. So to speak the more you can metric. The more you can really look at this thing. Visibly. That’s why I love my white boards. If you go back, maybe a year. I have a two-part podcast on whiteboarding. So first, you have to assess the metrics and the results you want to accomplish. So, but to be able to assess, you have to first have water going to be the metrics. You are.

Going to measure. So you want to get very finite with this. You really want to get detailed because detailed numbers will create detailed answers. Now, I can tell you from my experience, in many experiences of people I coach, we don’t always, like the answer Dewey me. We always like, what we see, but to make qualified decisions and moving forward. You have to understand the past. You have to understand what has been accomplished. These are real numbers. What we’re saying is we’re not talking about projections here or talking about what you’ve already done. So so we’re going to go to number two now, which is now you’re going to assess and evaluate. Am I in the right strategy and process? So first you have assessed, your metrics, you’ve looked at what you’ve accomplished. Now, you’re going to assess, do I have the right processes?

Place. Do I have the right strategies in place? Do my strategies and processes line up with the end goal. The objective, what it is. I’m wanting to accomplish. Are they vertically aligned? Will this process and strategy? Get us where we want to go. This is bogus. Corporately. This is individually. This is on everything you do. Can my plan deliver the end result? And I can See, there’s a lot of great people out there that work, very, very hard. But when they get to the end, they realize only too late that their plan of action to our business model, their strategy was not congruent or did not line up with what it was supposed to deliver. Now, the next question, we want to assess and evaluate our my process is working. Okay, I mean,

Do I process is work and the work, you’ll know by the metrics? So you’re looking at my process, my procedure, my strategic plan. Is it effective and it’s something Dawn. And I do every single week. We’re always looking at our strategic plan or low, always looking our business model. We’re always starting top down with the end in mind, but making sure our plan of action. Our Oh gee, everything we’re doing. Has the ability to get us to the end. Now. We’re into step 3. We’re going to assess and evaluate. Do we have the right people? In this includes our self? So do we have the right? People doing the right jobs and that includes. If you have a company with employees that also includes a department that also includes yourself, it also includes maybe you and your

Enter are we the right people for the job? Are we lined up with what we’re supposed to be doing? But here’s something else. Are my people or myself equipped to execute the plan and the tactics that are needed to be successful. So have I been properly equipped to do this before? We launch sell more virtually doing, literally, we signed her up for courses. We signed her up for coaching. Going to learn the whole methodology. A membership platform. We were equipping her to be able to do the job. So another question is, are my people or myself accountable to the non-negotiables that were called to execute. So do we have a set of non-negotiables? Do we have the things that that position is calling for when you have, if you’re building out a team you have the employees does every employee have a list of non-negotiable. Bubbles, what it is, I’m supposed to get done. So the first thing we moved back and are they equipped? Are they the right person? But then the next question. Are they accountable? How are you going to measure if they’re getting the job done and what if they don’t? And I did a whole podcast on what if they don’t what if the person is not getting the job done. What if we are not getting the job done. Do we have the right onboarding process? This is so important when you’re getting people started.

If there’s no gray area, expectations are clear. We’re equipping them. We’re enabling it to be powerful. We’re giving them all the tools. They need to be successful. We’re holding them accountable. But then, as we bring them on, or bring yourself on, do you have an onboarding process that’s going to help them or yourself be successful. So our tree is our team or is myself, are we trained? Well enough to be successful the things we want to measure as our processes? Our people and our results because that’s what business is. This is about processes, people and results. Once we have those measurements and this is should all be done in the next 16 days, folks.

We should have this assessment actually done in 10 days. Then we have to adjust replan realign. Our process are people that will live up to the results. We want delivered. So once we’ve done our assessment, now, it’s time to readjust our process, our people, the results. We want to replant everything out, realign everything, so then we can begin to deliver the results.

We need to get the right people in the right seats. I see this all the time, you know, people hiring people. They respect, they like, they think the world of, but then they put them in a seat. They’re not equipped to be. You want to be successful in business, put the right people in the right seats, doing the right things being accountable, you’re going to score, you’re going to be above average, you’re going to be competitive and actually you’re going to out-compete the competition. So now we’re going to get the right people in the right. Each each we’re going to equip them with the right tools to be successful. We’re going to create accountability standards. And then we’re going to live by them. The minute. We have extenuating circumstances in our accountability measures. The many things. Go off the rails a minute. We’re no longer willing to hold people accountable, including ourselves to the job. They’re supposed to do. Now. We have gray area now this

And so is not doing the job. They’ve been hired to do. Why should I if they’re not being held accountable? Why should I now you’re going to face things like people coming in late people calling in, you’re going to have people not getting the job done, projects not getting in on time. You’re going to have people, not negotiating the right fees. The whole thing can crumble if accountability is not a foundational Baseline. So you want to have these things in place now, Next now, it’s time to execute. So now about 10 days out from today. You’re at the 26 were very close to starting. Okay? R92 day, run in the fourth quarter, how exciting that is. I am. So fired up. Okay. Remember this, whatever happens in the fourth quarter will determine the first quarter of 2022. It always has and always will. And so now we want to get done everything we want to be

In executing, the new plan and new processes, the right people, the right skills. We want to get people. That’s why what we do and our training. Is experiential training. When people come to our training, they’re going to be doing the things they’re going to be doing at the job. So it’s not time off. When we do Communications training. We do sales training. When we do any type of training, what they have to do. They’re going to be doing in the training room, which is not a waste of time because they’re going to do it with clients. It’s going to be in real time. So now we must make sure

We’re going to be working in a highest revenue producing activities. We don’t need to waste time by re-planning refocusing, you’re going to make sure, you know, the highest revenue producing activities for you and your team, every action, every plan, every process must align with the results you’re looking to gain. So, do you know what you want to gain in the fourth quarter? Have you done this assessment? Do you know the numbers? You need to hit the

Last 92 days of 2021. Do you know where you first? You have to look in the past in the scary thing is this history can repeat itself that. There’s not a change, you know, when you look at how many days have gone by over 200, right over 220, in better. What’s going to change. If your plan doesn’t change, if your process doesn’t change, if your execution does it change? JH. If your people don’t change, if things don’t get better, don’t expect to get better results. And so, you know, let’s, let’s not lose sight of the fourth quarter because the next 16 days can put you in an incredible position to have an incredible fourth quarter, you know, whenever I’m looking at the fourth quarter, here’s something I have to come in in mind. There are some people who are going to be taking off week for the holidays.

Some people really slow down the game in December. We don’t? We always gain ground over the fourth quarter because we don’t take weeks off. We might take a day off, but a lot of your clients. A lot of your people are going to want to make, take time off. There’s nothing wrong with that. As long as they’re operating at Peak Performance, when they’re supposed to be. So, their time off is one thing. Your time off is one thing, but don’t turn the month of December into a time off, you know, don’t turn Thanksgiving Day into five days Six Days. Seven Days. We’re looking at the fourth quarter being the momentum. So the last 16 days you grow your momentum, you put your plan of action in place. You get the players lined up, you deliver the execution you hold everybody accountable and come the fourth quarter, your operating like a machine.

She’s literally gonna Propel you in 2022 into a great first quarter. Hopefully, this is giving you some key points to take advantage and not lose this fourth quarter. Some people are going to be asleep at the wheel. Some people are going to gain an unfair advantage over their competition. That’s what you want to do. So, as we wrap this up, take out your phone type in into the text box, sales, edge, one word. Send it to five, five, six, seven, eight, take you to a link. Take you to a A splash page tremendous around a free information but take a look at some more. Sleep.com consider being a member. We’re growing that and and be looking for that course if this podcast of value to you, can you like it? Share it. Make a great comment. Thanks so much for your loyalty. Thanks for helping us grow to over 100 companies around the world countries around the world. We certainly appreciate it. Will see that our next podcast

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Thanks for listening. New episodes will air each Tuesday and Thursday. So make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and give us a five star review. The Sales Edge is sponsored by Pici and Pici Incorporated. A firm which provides training, consulting, and keynote presentations. Empowering corporations and individuals to attract and retain quality clients, for higher revenues and growth. Make more money in sales, speak with Joe in person by calling 407 947 2590 or visit www.piciandpici.com