The Mistake that Dooms Most Marketing & Sales Campaigns 

When it comes to building your list and maintaining a consistent flow of prospects and leads to sell to - the lifeblood of your business - it’s wise to understand your KPI’s.

Your Key Performance Indicators are where we start to make the goals you set a reality by mapping out exactly what you need to do to reach them.

In a recent post, we discussed how to create your Prospect Profile. When you create this and keep it handy, whatever marketing you do, whoever you talk to, you’ll keep this in mind so that you ensure your message connects - and even better, that it inspires trust and action from your prospects.

In this post, I’m going to switch gears for a minute and have you ask yourself a question…

Think of a time recently that caused you personal disappointment…

Maybe it was a resolution you didn’t keep?

A business goal you weren’t able to reach?

Maybe a deadline you missed?

How did you feel?

If you are like most of us… you likely felt let down and defeated. It’s human nature.

When we consider taking any action, we form prior expectations (both big and small). And if the outcome is worse than expected, we experience disappointment. 

If the outcome exceeds our expectations, we feel happy or even motivated to keep pursuing other goals.

But there is a way to deal with these unconscious emotions in a way that will not feel like a trap. So that disappointment doesn’t lead to despair. But will keep you on track and productive. So that failures become learning experiences that actually fuel growth instead of massive obstacles that keep you stuck and down.

It comes with setting the right expectations. Today, let’s set the expectations that your action can get you with the process we’ll be teaching in the workshop going forward. 

My goal for today is that you leave with an outline of the action you need to take if you intend to hit the goals you set for yourself.

How to Set Sales Expectations That You’ll Actually Hit

The secret is in your key metrics, which show you how to make your goal a reality and keep you motivated and building momentum in your sales process along the way.

Now the truth is I see the ‘expectation trap’ set in just about every marketing initiative being pitched to small business owners these days.

We hear how Content is king! And so a company says - well if it’s king...we better try.

So they write a few blog posts, but that kingdom doesn’t produce a sale...so that means content marketing doesn’t work. ‘It’s overhyped!’

Or a Facebook ads campaign is launched on a $5 a day budget for a few days and a few days later...no new sales. So Facebook ads don’t work.

The truth is many strategies out there CAN work. But without proper expectation setting and a system built up to see a strategy through, it can be difficult to continue to dedicate time, energy and resources to reap those rewards.

Look...I am guilty of it too. I see other companies doing something well and have had times where I beat myself up that some new initiative wasn’t a massive success right out of the gates. 

Even the marketing gurus out there who try and make it seem easy, in reality, had to put in a lot of hard work, a lot of testing, a lot of effort to develop their system.

So how do you align your expectations with your goals?

Start With the End In Mind to Identify KPI’s

We’re going to work backward to best prepare you for the next steps in building an active, premium prospect list.

Before you can execute, you need to plan. So that you know what you need to put in, to get your desired outcome.

For example, if your goal from this one strategy is 2 new clients a month...and you feel comfortable you can close 1 out of 4 leads you speak with. Then you know you’re going to need to speak with 8 leads every month.

Let’s say conservatively you’re aiming for 5% of your contacts to develop into a lead, a bona fide sales opportunity, in the next 30 days...That tells you that you need 160 prospects added to the top of the funnel (your prospect list), this month. 

Or roughly 40 new prospects a week.

Now those numbers might not apply to you exactly in that format and we aren’t yet factoring in time to close...but come up with a ballpark goal and the number of prospects you’ll aim to find each week. You could take it a step further and ask yourself how many prospects you need to add every day, too.

This gives you an achievable goal to aim for each week - in this example 40 prospects.

List Building, Prospecting, And Sales Is A Numbers Game

Sales is about relationships, yes. But keeping the pipeline full, with new sales opportunities coming in, is about numbers. Here’s how you can identify what your daily and weekly prospecting numbers should be:

1. Take your New Client Goal for the year - maybe it’s 5, maybe it’s 50.
2. Whatever it is, take that number and divide your goal by your closing percentage. That’s how many appointments you need this year.
3. Divide by 52 to get your weekly goal. This is how many new prospects you need to add to your list every week.

So, to recap, just take that number and divide it by the percentage of prospects you consistently turn into leads or calls. That will tell you how many Prospects you need this year...and you can simply divide by 52 to get your weekly goal.

Making Sales Goals A Reality

Once you know who you’re targeting, and you know how many prospects you need to add to your list every day, then you’ve got a plan and you’re ready to execute. 

Write this down where you can see it every day:

To hit my goal of INSERT OUTCOME, I will find X new prospects each week.

Now, this can change slightly based on your goal...maybe it’s ‘To hit my goal of 12 new coaching clients this year, I will find 30 new prospects each week.

Or  ‘To hit my goal of landing 2 reliable guest posting opportunities, I will find 5 new editors or publishers to contact each week.’

Or ‘To hit my goal of 15% growth this quarter, I will find 16 new potential affiliate partners to contact each week.’

Simple, right?

But take the time. Give yourself a weekly mission. A weekly goal to achieve - and share it with the world. It’ll make you that much more likely to get it accomplished.

Now the next logical step is how to accomplish this...

Do you ever feel like you’re struggling to get traction toward your goals?  

Like as soon as you get one plate spinning in the air, another one falls down?

Or, maybe you’ve had some success but feel like there has to be an easier way to grow? 

We’ve all been there. It’s a tough place to be. And it’s not due to a lack of effort. Or a lack of caring. 

Well...I think I have something that could really change this for you.

And I’d love it if you’d join me to see exactly how. 

No complex funnels. 

No technical experience needed. 

No elaborate funnels. 

Just an automated system to find and convert your highest value prospects into clients. 

And look, you don’t have to sign up. 

You can keep trying what you’re currently doing. 

Maybe it will get better…maybe your goals will be magically realized, without changing anything.

Usually, that’s not the way it works though, right? 

The training will be the best 90 minutes you will spend all month because i’m going to show you a foolproof way to quickly build a very targeted list and get clients RIGHT NOW. 

Click here to sign up. 

Where are you going to find these prospects? How are you going to build this list?