It is also a great time to talk to your customers and ask what they like about your service and what they would like to see improved. The way to learn from your customers is to review the past year and set goals together for what you both want to accomplish in the new year. 

The key here is whether customers include you in goal-planning sessions. If not, having them include you is a goal you might want to achieve if you expect to gather more business from them. 

I always wanted to know how my customers were looking to grow during the new year. Were they looking to expand by buying another operation? Were they planning to hire more employees and add trucks? Did they have a marketing strategy that they were looking to implement? How were they anticipating growing, and how could I be of assistance? If you know these things about your customers and they are sharing with you the details of how they see their business operating, then you can better formulate a budget for yourself and a solid plan of action. 

If you are given a new budget by your boss and then told to “hit these marks,” you might walk away scratching your head, thinking, “How is he expecting me to do this?” But if you're a forward-thinker, you should be in sync with your customers and know which are going to be growing in the new year and which might be retracting. 

I always like setting goals, both personal and professional, at the beginning of the year, and reviewing them monthly to see if I'm on target. It is wise to regularly review your goals and strategies so you can adapt and make changes where necessary. 

The goals you set down should not be static. You need to be able to pivot and make changes to best fit changing circumstances. I'm not saying that if your sales dip in the first quarter, you should try to negotiate for a lower budget; what I am saying is, if you see a dip, you need to look for new customers to expand your sales base. You might want to go from working only with existing customers to also exploring ways to acquire new customers. 

I might have started the year thinking that my main sales growth was going to come from my existing customer base, but if things changed, I needed to take the appropriate actions and change strategy to achieve solid growth numbers — regardless of whatever circumstances arise. The old saying, “Losing is not an option,” is absolutely correct when it comes to sales. 

Your success and your failure in sales are both up to you, and it is important to take full responsibility and understand this. If this is something you have struggled to understand, make it a goal this year to understand it. The best way to make the most of every situation in sales is to have solid plans that are not made in a vacuum. Seek advice from customers, other members of the sales team, the boss, and anyone else who might add value to the decision-making process. 

Another useful adage is that if you’re not making plans, you’re planning to fail. I have notebooks full of plans and ideas that I have tried to implement over the years. I try to think outside the box as much as possible and look at things from different perspectives, trying to figure out the best moves I can possibly make toward success. It is important to realize what obstacles might stand in the way of your goals, and to have plans for getting past them. It is wise to have a Plan B for how to maneuver if things change. 

Being able to plan and, most importantly, implement your plans, are highly desirable skills. They can be learned, but it takes a lot of work and discipline to put pen to paper, review, and follow through. It is important for me to share my intentions so that everyone knows what I am trying to accomplish and how driven I am to get things done. I would share my goals with my customers, letting them know how much business I was hoping we could do together in the upcoming year, and I would explain to them how I intended to earn their business and grow my market share with them. 

Customers respected the drive and the ambition I showed, and they typically showed the desire to help me achieve my goals. I found that most people appreciate it when you share goals with them, and sharing can also lead them to become vested in wanting to help you. 

Goals set at the beginning of the year, even those shared with multiple people, have little or no meaning if four months later you are just beginning to look back at those goals. You should be reviewing plans and goals monthly and checking in with customers, coworkers, and bosses, reporting your progress or lack thereof, and either thanking customers for their growth or asking what you can do to help achieve the goals you had discussed. 

It is always smart to continually review your goals and plans, and as you do this, you should be sharing results with everyone with whom you have shared the goals. This is a great way to keep on track and keep everyone vested and wanting to move toward their goals. 

The new year is here, and it’s time to have another great year of success. There is no time like the present to get this done. Good luck to everyone, and Happy New Year!