Author and motivational speaker John Maxwell once said that “everything worthwhile is uphill." While this is a true and profound statement, I don't think that it is something that most of us do not know. So many great quotes speak to this same subject. For example, John Hawkins once said that "if success were easy, everyone would do it."
But why is it this way? Does success have to be hard? Why are the best things in life often difficult to obtain? We could get deep into the weeds with this subject and never find our way out. To avoid this, let’s narrow it down a little. Let’s simply look into being just a little bit more successful in your optical business.
Maxwell goes on to say, “most people have uphill dreams, but downhill habits”. I believe this statement to be truthful. We all have dreams for our business life; Dreams of being organized, being a better resource to help our customers, and dreams of tracking and increasing sales. The list of our professional life dreams goes on and on.
These dreams are uphill as they often require a change in us. To successfully reach these goals, we have to break old habits and create new ones. We have to change our downhills habits into uphill traits.
"You have to intentionally turn downhill sliding into uphill climbing,” says John Maxwell. I grew up in Florida and have never done much climbing, but the few times I did try and take on a mountain in North Georgia or Tennessee leave me fonder memories of sliding back down than climbing up.
What is it in your business that you need to change? What step uphill can make a change in your bottom line in 2022? It might simply be setting a sales goal in 2022 and tracking it. I speak with way too many business owners each year that do not have a defined goal for sales. Here are three easy steps to setting a goal in 2022:
1) Know Your Sales!
What did you do in total sales last year? How many patients did you see? What was the average sale per? Are you tracking the percentage of non-glare sales? Transitions? Progressive versus FT?
The more information the better. By breaking down your sales into small segments, you can easily spot wins and losses. If you have not been tracking these segments of your sales it is never too late to start. You can use data from this month to gauge your success the next month.
Don't be afraid to ask your labs too. To help us better serve our customers, IcareLabs provides detailed tracking on every statistic our accounts do. We are always happy to provide these numbers to our customers. Specifically, if it can help them achieve better sales.
2) Set Goals!
Even if it is a simple monthly total sales goal, SET IT! Even more importantly, TRACK IT DAILY. Put your monthly goal in a spreadsheet and divide the total by the number of working days in a month to calculate an average daily target. Take some time at the end of each day or first thing in the morning to record your daily sales.
Often, this is not very easy when sales are down. This number can be a Debbie Downer but should be a motivator, good or bad. Share these goals and sales numbers with your team. Think about it this way. In a football game, every player can see the score at all times. The score is the ultimate motivator. Invite your team into the game and let the numbers, good or bad, motivate them to a win.
Make sure to set two goals: One that is attainable and a stretch goal that is just out of being reachable.
3) Celebrate the Win!
If you are coming from a downturn, it might take time to reach the target. Make sure to celebrate the little wins. Make sure to share how much closer you get to your goals this week over last.
When you start hitting your goals, make sure you celebrate the win. Maybe buy your team lunch every week or month when they make the goal. Here at IcareLabs, we stoplight all of our goals:
Red = missing goal by more than 5%
Yellow = missing goal by less than 5%
Green = making goal
Our teams know that green equals something good. For some goals, we provide free lunch, while other goals may mean extra money. When we hit one of the long-term stretch goals, we try to do something special. We've
taken a group of over 100 people out to a nice steak dinner, gone bowling, and even been on a couple of dinner cruises. There is nothing like watching the sunset in the Gulf of Mexico from a boat with 100 of your friends.
Celebrating victory as a team creates an atmosphere of ownership. Employees feel empowered by knowing what a win looks like and share in the success.
Climb those mountains in 2022. We are here to help you succeed, don’t be afraid to reach out. We offer many years of experience in wholesale and retail sales, along with our Resource Center giving you training at a click of a mouse.
