As hard is it is to believe, we’re already a month into 2015. With the craziness of fourth quarter and all of the holiday activity, you’ve probably barely caught your breath. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ve already lost more of 2015 than the calendar shows.

Let’s start by looking at your pipeline. What does it look like today? If you’re like way too many producers, given the craziness and activity mentioned above, your pipeline is probably pretty close to empty.

If you were to put a prospect into your pipeline today, it will probably take a couple of months to close.

So, with January being over and considering the length of your sales cycle, you are effectively a quarter into the new year. And, just guessing that fourth quarter of 2015 will be just as crazy as the last couple of ones you just survived, your 2015 “sales year” is now only about 6 months long.

I wouldn’t say its time to panic, but I am suggesting it’s time to approach your pipeline and sales activity with a sense of urgency. There is no longer a margin of error when it comes to your sales focus.

Signs that you have the necessary focus. Do you:

1. Stay out of service activities or any other activity that doesn’t lead to a new sale?
2. Do you have a clear picture of your ideal client?
3. Are you blocking out time every day for prospecting?
4. Are you maintaining a full pipeline of prospects that are systematically moving towards closing?
5. Do you know the prospects’ businesses, how they make money, and how you can help them make more?
6. Are you committed to never losing because the competition was better prepared for the opportunity?
7. Do you work every day to be smarter and more informed than you were yesterday?
8. Are you using the strength of your entire team and not trying to play the role of Lone Ranger?
9. Do you have a sales process that keeps you in control of the sales conversation?

If you couldn’t answer “Yes” to every question, you need to find more focus. If you’re not sure how to develop the focus in a particular area, send me an email ([email protected]) describing your challenge. We have ideas and resources to help in each area and are more than happy to share.

You can have the necessary sales focus for a successful 2015, you just have to ask yourself, “How badly do I really want it?”