“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

Post written by Jeremy J. Ulmer. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

1. Track Your Sales Progress. Decide what you want to specifically track and then create a printed chart for your desk, track information on-line, or write it down in a training log.

It is difficult to see how you are progressing if you have no data on where you have been. By witnessing your own progress, it will give you a nice little boost of motivation.

2. Don’t Try To Crush Your Sales Goal Right Away. Have you ever started a new workout and been totally pumped up for the first few days, only to loose momentum?

Well, instead of using 100% of your energy in such a short period of time, take some positive steps and give 75% effort, but don’t push so hard that you loose the energy and passion for the goals.

Retain some of that energy by pacing yourself effectively and slowly increase the amount of effort from there. This will help you ease into what is often a totally new positive habit you are forming, and it will keep you engaged and looking forward to getting more done the next day.

3. Join A Professional Group To Help Stay On Track. Whether the group is online or meets in person, find a group of like-minded professionals with similar goals. You will meet other people who have similar challenges that you are facing, learn from them, share ideas, get support, and celebrate successes.

4. Print Or Cut Out A Picture From A Magazine Of Your End Goal. Place it on your desk or refrigerator so you will see it everyday. As an example, if attaining a certain sales or career goal will enable you to do more traveling, print out a beautiful image of where you want to visit. Use this simple visualization technique to help you stay focused on your goal.

5. Find An Accountability Partner. Trying to stay motivated on your own can be a real challenge sometimes. Seek out a friend or peer who also has some important goals they would like to accomplish. Ask them if they would like to partner with you on staying focused on the goals you each would like to achieve. The goals do not need to be in the same category, the main thing is that you help challenge each other to stay on track. Be sure to set up a simple accountability system, such as a weekly 5 minute phone call to give status updates on your goals.

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As a sales professional, sales leader or business owner, distractions can often be the main obstacle for achieving great success.

If you have too many distractions, you will never achieve your full potential.

It is important to continue to evaluate what sales activities will be most important to reach your goals. Then, you must focus on those activities first, and make a commitment to complete them each and every day without failure.

You must remove and minimize your distractions. You will then have the time to focus on what you have determined is most important.

Here are some tips on how to minimize common distractions:

Limit your number of social networks. Determine which social networking sites are most valuable to you. You may be a member of multiple forums, on line groups, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and will be invited to join other networks as well. Pick a couple that are most helpful for you and drop the rest.

Do not log into social networking sites while you are working. Save social networking for times when you are not at work.

Block time to check your email. When you are working on a task, focus on the task. Emails constantly flying into your inbox can be a constant distraction. Schedule specific times during the day to read and send emails.

Send fewer, shorter emails. Also, don’t become dependent on emailing versus picking up the phone. There is value in the personal touch.

Shut off notifications. Are you constantly getting pinged with an email, or tweet, or text or IM? When are you actually focused and present in the moment? Don’t forget that the most important time you have is right now. Consider at times completely shutting off your computer or turning off your smartphone.

Clear off your desk. Only keep what you truly need on it. Keep it neat and tidy. Do the same for your computer desktop.

Do one thing at a time. Multitasking can be totally counterproductive.

Do the tough stuff first.

Have a cut off time. Make sure you have set times to complete your activities as well as set times to stop working. Have you ever planned a trip where you left work early at 12:00 noon? Remember how much you got done before 12:00 noon because you knew you had to leave early that day? Exactly.

The next step is to put these items into action and start minimizing your distractions today. Also, consider making a list of all other distractions you may have.

By minimizing my own distractions, I was able to be a #1 sales performer within multiple fortune 500 organizations. Now, as a sales coach, I help support my sales coaching clients achieve similar success by providing specific solutions to challenges that are holding them back from extraordinary results.

This question was asked on linkedin.com. “At what point is it a good idea to stop attempted contact with someone who showed mild to moderate interest from your initial sales pitch? If they aren’t returning calls or emails, do you continue to attempt contact or is it best to let it go?” Below is my public answer.

It depends on each individual situation.  In some cases it will be best to let it go immediately and in others it will be best to have a clear follow up process.

Each situation needs to be evaluated.  I have witnessed sales professionals/business owners chase after opportunities way too long, and I have also helped them implement a highly professional follow up method to eventually do business with very large clients.

It is essential that your follow up process does not put the prospect on the defensive or cause any pressure at all.  In general, when someone is not responding to a voice mail or phone call after they showed mild to moderate interest, it means something may have changed.  Or it means they realized they showed some interest, but have a hard time saying, “No” and they don’t want to have to tell you, that they don’t want what you have to offer.

Hence, they (may) just choose to ignore the sales person, knowing eventually they will go away.  This sometimes is easier than saying, “No thanks, we have no interest in your product or service.” So, what can you do?

First, in your meeting or conference call where they showed mild to moderate interest, it is essential that the next meeting and next step is clearly covered. (Before you leave!)  Ensure it makes sense for your business and for their business goals most importantly.  Don’t leave the meeting without next action steps in place.  That will help prevent all of this.

Yet, if it is too late, and that step was missed or steps were canceled or there was a major delay…Here are some other ideas: Make it easy for them to say “No.” Let them know it is ok, ‘if you don’t want and need this, it is not for everyone.’ You can even tell them, “It is ok to say ‘no’ and that you don’t want this.”  Guess what happens when you do this? They respect you, and feel no pressure to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

You are not trying to push anything on them either way, you are just trying to find out if there is a mutual fit or not to do business.  You clearly explain that it may not be for them, and that is ok.  Make it easy for them to say, “No thanks,” and you will quickly filter out those prospects who are a good mutual fit, and those who are not.  You will then find yourself spending more time with those who may be a good fit, versus chasing those who are not a good fit.

So, to tie this back into your question, think about how you can implement this philosophy into your selling, your voice mails and emails when you get to this stage (If you failed to set next steps or the actions plans changed)

Example: “Mr. X, I know we spoke 3 weeks ago about your specific ‘marketing goals’ and how our ‘ABC Service’ can help you achieve them this quarter.  I have not heard back yet on the information we needed to finalize the program.  I just want to let you know, it is ok, if you are no longer interested or if you don’t need this service any more, but if you could kindly let me know, either way, I would greatly appreciatete it.  Thank you.” (This will take *under* 30 seconds to deliver, which is ideal for a Voice Mail)

(This is just an example, I help clients create their own msg, that is natural/authentic to who they are, and their situation)  You could also tie this messaging into an email.