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It’s the same ol’ January tune – here’s how to stay true to your resolutions to truly better your business.
The New Year is always a great time to reflect and refresh. The December holidays are over, where you filled up on goodies and spent time with those closest to you. Now there are no excuses to put your best foot forward towards any and all improvement – personal and business related.
Of course, here we are going to focus on your business-related New Year resolutions—because that’s why CallSource is here! Each of our clients has dedicated representatives to help them with their particular goals (and even help them find out what their goals should be depending on their data) – but you have obviously come here for the same kind of help, and I am going to deliver for you. Ready to make 2018 your standout year? Let’s go!
Step 1: Set Goals
As a business owner or manager, hopefully, you already set specific short and long-term goals for your company. You may even have specific goals per department, per quarter, per year, etc. If you don’t have any specific goal(s) to be working towards, it’s easy to get stuck in the day-to-day.
While being “busy” in these daily monotonous tasks may feel like you accomplished something by the end of the day, in reality, this is not helping you. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean that you are accomplishing goals and growing your business.
To keep moving forward and be better, you have to make sure every aspect of your company is performing better.
And to perform better, you have to be reaching towards something other than the average, every day reactive processes.
Goal setting is a proactive process which requires preemptive thinking, managing, and performance.
It’s easy to get stuck in the reactive nature of the job—but instead of just answering the phone, putting out figurative fires, completing necessary paperwork or whatever your daily tasks may be, be sure to stop and get out of your comfort zone to work on improving your business.
CallSource’s Business Advisors always make sure to ask clients, especially new clients, what their goals are. What are they looking for insight into by working with us, and what are they working towards?
The most common answer anyone can say is: “We want to be better.”
OK—good start—but what does it take to actually get better?
Well, it takes an effort on your part as the business owner or manager, as well as the effort from your employees.
Don’t just set a goal to “be better.” See where you are at right now, and set up a timeline on processes to improve.
Be specific about your goals and communicate these goals to your team by having regular meetings, posting them in the break room or a bulletin board, on TVs, or whatever works for you.
You will need to create realistic goals.
You will need to create short-term and long-term goals.
An unrealistic goal is to say that you want your team to book 100% of appointments. A realistic goal is to say that your team is currently setting appointments at a conversion rate of 60%, and you’d like to see that improve to 75%.
Now, it is not realistic to say you want your employees to make this improvement in one month. But by setting smaller, short-term goals to reach this long-term goal, that is where you are creating successful goals.
Your team should be consistently reminded of their goals as well as their progress. Make sure to check in with regular updates. Take your goals a day, week, and month at a time.
Which leads me to step 2…
Step 2: Follow Through & Follow Up on Said Goals
It is true that slow and steady wins the race—it just takes consistent, daily, proactive effort.
So what should you be doing consistently to stay true to your goals?
Daily
Ensure your employees are staying on track with their goals as well as that you are. Block off at least 30 minutes to an hour on your calendar for proactive tasks so that you aren’t getting stuck in those hypothetical fires every day.
Weekly
If you can’t swing a weekly meeting with your employees, at least make sure to get a weekly roundup from them on what they’re working on and how it aligns with the long-term goals that were set. If you are using CallSource or any call tracking and digital attribution platform, check your data at least on a weekly basis so you can see who is improving and where there may be any setbacks to address before they start declining even more.
Monthly
You need to be having meetings with your team a minimum of once a month – period. If you want to make sure you are achieving the goals you set out, it is imperative that you are proactive in staying on track and addressing any holdups. These meetings should be looking at data and updating the team on their progress – the good and the bad. Give kudos where deserved, and highlight areas that need to be improved as well.
If you need help deciding what kind of data you should be sharing with your team, download our free team meeting slide deck here.
Always
In between all of these days, just be sure to stay cognizant of the goals you set and staying on track with meeting those goals. Write them on sticky notes at your desk, post them in the breakroom, have a poster board in your office—find ways to keep them in the forefront of yours and your employees’ mind. Don’t worry about over communicating – you want everyone to be able to recite their goals back at a moment’s notice. The only way you are going to achieve above and beyond what you previously have is to be a bit obsessed with the outcome.
Step 3: Repeat, Ad Nauseam
The above notes do not only apply to January – remember – they are for the whole year through! The more consistent you stay, the easier it will get. Sure, you will have slip-ups and setbacks, but such is life.
Just like when dieting they say one salad will not make you lose weight just as one unhealthy meal will make you gain weight, having a bad day here or there where you perhaps get off track of your goals is not going to ruin everything. As long as you get back on track the next day with you proactive measures, checking in with employees, etc., you are setting yourself up for success.
If you are ready to start not only setting realistic goals but ready to follow through on these as well and have regular progress updates, we here at CallSource are ready to help you. Download our free team meeting slide deck for better communication with your team. Also feel free to subscribe to our blog for more insights, or speak to a representative today on how you can get your personalized improvement plan for your business.
