Yesterday I did a sales training program for a great company. This company is 64 years old and makes a product whose name you would recognize immediately. The sales training was scheduled the day after the company introduced a new product. This product has great features and outstanding benefits for their customers.

The outside sales reps were given a goal to sell 25 units within the next 12 months. For the purpose of this newsletter and to maintain the privacy of the company they shall remain anonymous.

I would like to share some of the thoughts I have on how to achieve consistent selling results. Here we go...

Let's talk about the principles of GOAL SETTING. Most people think they have goals when they really only have dreams. There is a simple yet powerful goal setting model. It has five steps:

1. A true goal is in writing. Always has been, always will be. If it's not on paper it's not a goal. When you take a thought and put it to paper it becomes a goal. This is a bedrock principle to goal setting. Write it down!

2. Goals must be specific. If you're goal doesn't contain numbers, it's not specific enough. There's a huge difference between "I want to earn a lot of money" and "my goal in 2002 is to earn $125,000." The specificity of your goal is what gets your creative juices flowing.

3. To keep you focused on your goal it must have a completion date. Too many dreams fall short because they never become written goals with deadlines. There is just something empowering when you establish a self-imposed deadline.

4. Goals never get done by themselves. Goals are "what" you want to achieve. Once they are established you immediately begin to think of "how" you will achieve them. Your goals must have specific action steps or they won't get done.

5. Your goals must be prioritized. Simply stated, if you have 10 goals, you must prioritize them using the numbers 1-10. This is another way of saying first things first - always focus on what's important first. Prioritizing makes you enterprising.

There you have it, the five-step goal setting model. I believe impossible dreams become possible when they