The Key to Successful B2B Sales Goal Setting

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:00]:
In this episode, you're gonna learn why new year's resolutions fail, what you can do instead, and how to get the most out of 2024. We are back for 2024 on the how to sell podcast. My name is Luigi Prestonenzi, and I am your host. Do you wanna sales, if you're a long time listener, thank you for showing up For another year, I think we are going into our 6th year of podcasting. And if you're a new listener, thank you. We hope you take away some actionable insights that'll help you sell more. And we are also back with my co host, David Chelsea's a shit team for Stuttgart.

David Fastuca [00:00:48]:
Relax. We won another game today. We are on the way back. Win.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:52]:
On the way, they beat a team who's like Salesforce coming up against

David Fastuca [00:00:56]:
A spreadsheet.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:57]:
Some start ups, some start yes. Salesforce against a spreadsheet.

David Fastuca [00:01:00]:
That That was more like that's a sales.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:03]:
They won. Yeah. So welcome, David. Happy new year.

David Fastuca [00:01:05]:
Happy new year to you, Luigi, and, to you, listening as well. It's I think for us, look, we're pumped. I I didn't take much downtime. I know you didn't because you're you have issues. We're just we're we're so excited about what the year has, for Growth Forum and the community that it's hard to to switch off, which is bad in in itself, but, Right. The the this this episode is an important one. I feel. It's an important one.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:32]:
But I think, you know, just just for everybody sitting right when you're working on something you really enjoy and you love. It's really, you know, that saying, it's not a job. I think the best part of the last sort of week for me was, not being on a podcast with you, Dave. I've got a podcast for you. Anyway, let's let's Don't worry about the banter, guys. We've got a great episode because this week, given the fact it's 2024, what often happens at the end of a new at the end of a year, start of a new year. A lot of people set those New Year's resolutions. However, the statistics show us, Dave, that something ridiculous.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:12]:
Like, only 9% of resolutions actually succeed. So out of all the resolutions people set, only 9%. And some of the other data shows that most, after 3 months, people will actually give up. So the ones that continue on after 3 months, those resolutions just get put into the bin and people just go back to the way they were doing things. And so And given that sales is very much a performance driven role where we have targets, we have goals, We thought a great way to start the year on this podcast is to help people understand and and provide a bit of a framework on how to successfully set goals so that you can make 2024 your best year yet. And there's 2 key takeaways we wanna give to all of our listeners is gonna be a takeaway. You can download them in the show notes. But there's a goal setting framework and a habit tracker.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:03:07]:
Because There's 2 parts to this. You wanna be able to set goals, but you wanted to be able to track the new habits that you're setting as part of the process.

David Fastuca [00:03:16]:
That's the missing there. Look. Yeah. It's the habit forming. I think James Clear we're both big fans of James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, and he talks about, know, in order to achieve the goals, you need to build the forming habits that allow you to continually, you know, do the action to get you towards the goal. Yeah. And the one thing that I really love about this, habit tracker that we're that we're just giving out for free here is that it's all manual. There's no automation.

David Fastuca [00:03:45]:
There's no magic tool here. It is you print it out. You fill it in every day. This forces you to think. It forces you to act on the document, and it forces you to reflect as well, which are those key benefits, that really help you achieve your goals.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:04:02]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think the very first part of this whole process, right, because if you if you look at some of the data that they say that I think 80% of the resolutions people set by February. By February, they're in the bin. Right? I think because people set resolutions And it's kind of a reactive. Oh, I'm gonna lose weight or I'm going to stop smoking or I'm going to if it's sales. I'm gonna prospect more. Right? It's it's more of a reactive suggestion or a thought.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:04:33]:
And not enough time is spent actually really thinking about the goal and going deep into the benefits. So the purpose of this episode is to provide that framework. And we'll break this down so that our listeners can go away, action, Use the framework and put it into place so that 2024 can be the best year yet. Now there is a very famous goal setting, framework. So even though the goal setting model that we're putting forward, has the SMART goal setting methodology. I mean, we didn't come up with SMART. The SMART goal setting framework. Let's start with the first part.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:14]:
It is s is for specific. For any goal that you set. It has to be specific. You can't just go, well, I want to, you know, make more sales. Right? It has to be more specific. Right? So Give it a number. Very first part is specific. Then The m needs to be measurable.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:36]:
You have to be able to measure your goal. Right? Then the a is all about attainable. Can you actually attain the goal? Then the realistic, So is it realistic?

David Fastuca [00:05:50]:
Yeah. Realistic.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:51]:
Have to think about can I actually, you know, can I actually re realize the potential of this goal in a certain time frame, which is the 4th, which is the t, which is time frame? Now some change that out to tangible, you know, but I like time frame because then your SMART goal has all the elements that'll help you really think about the goal and put a time. You've got to put a time frame around it. Right? So that's what the smart goal setting, principle is about. Now a key part of any goal, and I know, Dave, you're big on big in this with your vision board and stuff. Mhmm. It's about thinking about the benefits. And, again, I think a lot of the reasons why people fail to execute on the resolutions is because they haven't really given thought to the benefits. Right? The things that'll happen as a result of implementing the goal.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:06:47]:
So I'll give you an example. People go, well, I wanna I wanna make more money. I wanna get my commission check. But if if it's just about the commission, often as you're working And you might not be achieving a target. You mindset go, well, you know what? I'll I'll I won't worry about that now. I'll start sandbagging for the new year. And when the when the going gets tough, you kinda start to justify why you're in this position. Yeah? The reason why the benefits are so important is because that's what drives us when things get tough.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:23]:
So like anything, the commission is not the reason why we sell. The commission sales us to do things. Now, you, like me, Dave, we're family. We're we're fathers. The commission enables us to send their kids to school. Maybe give them more choices. Maybe go on family holidays. I know you're going away.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:42]:
Time at the beach. Right? Those memories. So that's what the commission helps us achieve. Yeah. It's the benefit. It's linked to the intrinsic motivators. Because extrinsic will only motivate you so much. And that's why the intrinsic motivators are so important.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:08:02]:
And that's what you get from building out the benefits. Now, Dave, just talk to us a bit about your vision board and what you have on your vision board so that we can bring the benefits into this conversation.

David Fastuca [00:08:15]:
Definitely. That's a great one. So I'm I'm just gonna bring it up here. And one of the things that I wanna touch on, that you spoke about there in relation to time, because that's where, you know, we have the best intentions to achieve our goals, but it's the time factor, that can let us down. So where I'm getting to, and it's something that you're starting to do this year, which I'm I'm proud of you. It's the blocking our time in your calendar

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:08:39]:
Yep.

David Fastuca [00:08:39]:
Right, for these tasks. So in a previous episode, you know, we spoke about, the sales our sales calculator and the amount of activity you need to do to hit your pipeline goals and the time that it takes to do that. Now unless you put that time into your calendar Yeah. When you can actually achieve these goals. So for for me, personally, I break down my goals across, 6 different categories. So it's financial, and this could be financial of the business or personal, creative. I'm a creative at heart, so I always like to have a bit of creativity, something that I'm doing, personally, for all for the business. So The creative one for 2024 is, and spoiler alert, is that Luigi and I are writing a book on sales, so that's my creative project for the year.

David Fastuca [00:09:28]:
Learning, so I've always got a learning goal. I'm always we're always looking to upgrade. You know, our whole business is based on learning and teaching. So that's a big one. Career, where I want my career to be by the end of this year. Physical, What I want this, specimen of a body to look like in the end of the video, and then relationships. And this is with my wife and and my kids. So they're they're really measurable.

David Fastuca [00:09:52]:
I give it a key theme, across each of those categories, and then I then break it down into that weekly to the monthly and then weekly habits that I need to have in place. And then I track it. I I track it bit by bit. Have I done this week? You know, one of them here is in with my career is to build my, you know, LinkedIn audience. So am I did I write my post today? Did I engage for 20 minutes today? Right. I need to tick that box off. Otherwise Yeah. You know, I didn't achieve it.

David Fastuca [00:10:23]:
So it's very measurable. It's in my face every day, and I place it in my calendar. I I I I block it in my calendar.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:31]:
And you just touched on a few things. Right? So if you want to do some reading on what Dave, spoke about, there's some really good stuff from a from a really famous personal development, author called Paul J. Meyer. And he spoke about the will of life. And that's what the wheel of life sort of speaks about. You know, these are many areas of your life, and it's important to start setting your goals across multiple areas. And that's what the goal setting framework that we're providing allows you to do. And the reason why it's so important is because those benefits, We spoke about putting the benefits in.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:11:05]:
Then the next part of the goal setting, framework that we we're providing you is, then jump into the possible obstacles that could prevent you from achieving the goal. Because if you if just like anything, if you think about those potential obstacles before they become an Fastuca, and you've come up with a potential solution, then when it happens, You've already got a soul for it, right, so that you're not freaking out. So giving a very, very clear example. When I first started running years years ago, I thought, yep. I'm gonna run a marathon. I'm gonna get out there and run. What did I do? Woke up in the morning. Alarm went off.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:11:44]:
Ah, it's too cold. I'll go tonight. Go to work. Work till a certain time. Tonight never happened. Next day, when again. And it was became a vicious circle, and I never progressed. I never had any progress.

David Fastuca [00:11:57]:
How'd you fix that?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:11:58]:
How did I fix it? Okay. So possible obstacle is not being motivated. So the night before, I got myself ready. Packed my bag. Put it in the car, ironed my shirt for work back in the days where I wore suits, put my suit in the car, went to bed with my running outfit and my runners next to my bed. So it was really simple. I eliminated all the potential barriers that'll stop me. My alarm went off.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:12:24]:
Bang. Put my runners on when in the car, off I went.

David Fastuca [00:12:27]:
Yeah. Perfect.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:12:27]:
Right? That was a potential soul mindset absolutely worked. Yeah? I also visualize, which is a key part of this. Visualization works. So I visualize certain and there was a there was a big event, Gold Coast marathon. It was a family holiday. I visualized, you know, going to the theme parks, all the things. I did a little bit of a a vision. I've actually still got it from 2012.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:12:53]:
I've still got my book where I mapped out the goal. Right? So this goal setting framework that we're providing you, It's this is where it all starts. But the key thing that Dave mentioned, which is the actions. So it's critical to take a goal and break them down into as many micro actions as possible. Right? Because there's something powerful about ticking off each action if it's daily or weekly. Say it's a 12 week goal. Say you've got a sales target. It's a quarter target.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:13:26]:
You got a 12 week goal. There's something awesome about ticking things off every single day. It makes you feel like you're accomplishing and progressing.

David Fastuca [00:13:37]:
Pardon the interruption, but is your sales team not performing? You have leads, but your team struggles to close them. Well, we'll train you or your team on how to fill their own sales pipeline with ready to buy opportunities in under 60 days guaranteed. Now you're probably thinking, how does this work? Well, Luigi and I own a business called Growforum dot I o. We're the fastest growing sales and coaching and training company in the b to b space. We work with b to b businesses that sell products or services. For example, Stripe, HubSpot, Growth Thornton, and BlueRock are just a few of our clients. We work with your team, train them to self generate their own qualified deals, and keep them accountable with weekly sales coaching. Then we help you systemize your sales management so it runs on semi autopilot.

David Fastuca [00:14:28]:
Keep in mind, we're not one of those expensive outsourced sales agencies. We're helping your team in your business so that you have total control. Visit Growth Forum dot o Forum slash apply and schedule your free sales strategy review with us today. Now back to the show. Now As Louise said that, I I I was thinking and and reflecting that, you know, myself like, I'm a, you know, self proclaimed I'm a goal setting and accomplishing machine. Like, that's one of my superpowers, is that if I set a goal, I'll work relentlessly to to achieve it, but life comes in the way, and then you're reshuffling your goals and you're rejigging when you can achieve them. One of the things that have has helped me, I reckon, level up another 3 or 4 gears. And as we wrap up the show, this is this extra little tool, that I wanna, you know, give to the audience.

David Fastuca [00:15:22]:
It's a it's a third party tool. I did say there's no tech, but this little piece of tech here, And I don't say this lightly, has really changed my life and the amount of work that I get done. Now, Luigi, computer illiterate, so he finds it hard to to use these sort of things, but It's a tool called Motion. Yep. It's a calendar tool and has your to dos, but the the goal of the the benefit of it is that I'm now putting all my daily habits and to dos into motion. And then If I don't tick it off 30 minutes after the task mindset, to due, then it would automatically reschedule self based on my calendar. Now I can set work zones where I wanna focus, areas where I don't want tasks to go. If a meeting comes in or push the task out.

David Fastuca [00:16:14]:
It basically reshuffles my calendar to to perfection. And I've been using this now for 4 to 5 months, And it is unbelievable. I've even tried to move off it. I go, okay. Well, let's see what happens if I go back to my old ways and Yeah. Instant fail. Like, This has got me hooked. Now we've got no affiliation with the tool.

David Fastuca [00:16:33]:
I just love how much I wish I found this years ago. It's something that's, you know, I'm gonna be probably What's

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:39]:
it called again?

David Fastuca [00:16:40]:
It's called Motion. I'm gonna link it into the Yeah.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:42]:
Put it.

David Fastuca [00:16:43]:
Just to be honest. I was gonna put the website link into the show notes. It is a game changer. I love it, and it is helping me, and it even alerts you because you can put, okay, this task is gonna take me 8 hours, and I wanna complete it by x date. We're gonna alert you and all say, hey, David. Your effing dreaming, not in those words, but also your dreaming, it's not you're not gonna be able to fit this in. Change it, changed the amount of hours or reschedule the task, like, extend the deadline based on your based on your calendar, time free time that you have in there. So Like like Luigi and I mentioned at the start, you know, build out the habits, write down your goals, but then time blocked them in your calendar.

David Fastuca [00:17:27]:
Otherwise, you will not do them. Absolutely. Wrap this up.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:17:31]:
So and there's a couple of things. As we wrap up this episode, just think about it. Set the goal. Make it smart. Right? Think about the possible obstacles. Think about the solutions. Make sure your benefits are very clear. Get some pictures.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:17:45]:
Visualize what success will look like. Right? It'll help. There's some, you know, so much data around what visualization, manifestation actually can help you achieve. Right? It enhances motivation. It increases focus and retention. Right? It gets the universe thinking about it'll just start placing things in front of you. So start to visualize. Key thing as David said, you've got to make sure that you're planning this out.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:12]:
So get as many actions mapped out as possible and find your personal system to help you manage those actions. And a key part of any goal is get yourself an accountability buddy. Get somebody that can help you. Right? Keep you on track. It's why you have coaches. It's why you have, you know, running coaches, fitness training. If you think about Athletes have multiple coaches, nutrition, mindset, speed, whatever athlete there are, they've got multiple coaches. So get people around you that can help you win.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:47]:
It's key from an accountability perspective. Right? 2024 is here. It's a great opportunity, especially in sales. We are living in a world of abundance. So take action, download these tools, Set your goal. Hit as part of your goal, hit subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen so that you can make 2024 your best year yet.