inluminent

Reflection is something that everyone should take part in on a regular basis: Take time out to reflect on the past periodically…

You see, as a sales professional, without any support staff or real direction and training from my superiors, I could easily get into a rut, if I allowed myself to, but in addition to being a super-swell guy, I’m also smart enough to realize that reflecting on the past is where I’ll learn the most.

On a daily basis I take a small amount of time to go over the days events, make sure that I’m doing what I should be doing today, and get ready for the next day. It’s now just ingrained into me as part of the normal day, but it wasn’t always like that. Take 10 minutes of your day to look over what you did, and jot down notes about those things you did today. Then write a new list of things you didn’t do today, but should have, and call that new list your ‘todo list’ for the next day. Then look over what you were supposed to do, but didn’t even start, and append it to your ‘tomorrow’ list. With this done you can go home, leave the office behind, and pick up exactly where you left off the day before, when you come in in the morning.

On a weekly basis, I do the same thing, though I have a slightly different process. I look at hard numbers on a weekly basis. Did I sell anything? Did I forget to create a proposal and send it to a client? Did I drop the ball on something else? Make a list, leave it on the desk, and go home. On Monday, I know exactly where to pick up.

I also do this same sort of thing monthly and quarterly. When I first started doing my little ‘reflection’ game, I thought I was wasting my time, but now, a few years later, I realize how much time I’ve saved, cause I don’t ‘forget’ nearly as much as I used to. I service my clients better, and I think they appreciate it. In fact, I had one call today to say he was including my site on a big proposal, just because his client has ‘money to spend’ (always a good term in the ad sales business) and he wanted to spend it where he was taken care of best during the year… so the little ‘reflection game’ pays off again.

Take some time out to reflect on your daily activites… learn something from today, and apply it tomorrow. It’s really that simple. If you don’t think you have the time to do it, you’ll pay for it in the end, somehow…

Reflect.