Start FAST and Create Sales Wins in 2025 | Ep 23

0:00 And we've got a very special episode today. It's been a little while since we've recorded a new episode of the podcast, and today we're going to be diving into how you can start fast and create big sales wins in twenty twenty five. Welcome to the Impact Sales Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Beck, founder of the Sales Activist. Look, no matter where you've ended up twenty twenty four, having a plan and diving into a fast start for twenty twenty five is critical to your success. Many people jump in a little bit slow, they have that year end hangover and unfortunately they get a slow start to their new year. Well, today we're going to be talking all about how you can start fast and create big sales wins in twenty twenty five. So go anywhere, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the Impact Sales Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Beck, and today we're diving into how you can start fast and create big sales wins in twenty twenty five. Look, no matter where you ended up twenty twenty four, as far as a sales year, having a plan and going into twenty twenty five aggressively pursuing that plan is critical. To your success. So today's episode, we're going to be diving into getting a fast start

1:33 and also laying the foundation for some big sales wins across the calendar year. You know, when I talk to people about what it takes to be successful in sales, one of the things that people always ask me about, you know, how do you design a sales plan? How do you look for the right component pieces, what should be included, what shouldn't be included? How do I go ahead and build a plan going to get me to reach my sales goals? And the first thing you need to start with, and I want to make sure we cover this because I think it's so important to people's success. There's all the obvious component pieces, obviously, certain things you need to be doing. You need to be prospecting, you need to be following up, you need to be doing a lot of different things to build sales momentum. But one of the things that I think is really important that needs to go into your sales plan is you need to design some built in sense of urgency about accomplishing your goals. Now why do I say that, Well, I'm going to give you an example. So many times people will start the sales year. They'll come back after the holidays. You know, they start slow. Everybody's kind of got that holiday hangover, kind of hanging in with what's going on, and things just start very slow to a new year. That can creep in from January into February, sometimes to the end of the first quarter where for things to start really start building momentum. And it's that

3:03 lack of a sense of urgency that sometimes can set people up for failure across the year. And here's what I mean. Sometimes, just getting things going, just getting that kinetic energy moving, that momentum going in your business can fuel so many other areas of your success. And starting fast in your sales year is a big part of your success. It changes how you look at things, It changes how you move forward throughout the calendar year. And let me explain why that is. Many times people struggle with certain limiting beliefs limiting factors that hold them back from being successful. You know that fear, uncertainty, and doubt can creep into what they're doing. One of the best remedies for that. One of the things that you can do to avoid that happening is getting a fast start to your year. And the reason is it takes the pressure off. It takes the pressure off of you personally.

4:06 It prevents you from overthinking things, feeling like you're constantly struggling, constantly behind your goals or objectives. So getting a fast start can pave the way for you having a very strong year. It takes the pressure off, it doesn't change how you do things. So gearing up towards that fast start really involves a very efficient plan. And in that plan, at the top of the list should be a sense of urgency. Now, how do you define a sense of urgency right, Well, it comes back to building very specific short term objectives, things that you need to accomplish. Here is what I'm going to do day one. Here is what I'm going to do day two. Here's the way you know days three through five. Look, here's the way my first week should end up. And having a very focused sense of verge agency around accomplishing those initial goals.

5:03 And it doesn't automatically guarantee success when you do that, but starting with a sense of urgency should be at the top of the list. It sets the tone. It's very much like having the right mindset. We're going to have a mindset around a sense of urgency. Okay, although we might be in day one of a new year, that means we only have three hundred and sixty four more days left before the year is over. There is a sense of urgency. We need to move forward quickly starting in day one. But what else should be in your plan? Well, you really need to make sure that you have very specific things outlined in your plan and I'm going to talk about what those things are because they will tie directly back to you having a fast start to your year as well as creating big sales wins for yourself. So the one thing that you need to make sure of when you start the new year is that you really have what is most important to your success, which is a duplicatable and scalable client acquisition system or CAS. Now what is a CAS? What does that mean? A client acquisition system? Well, it could mean a lot of different things. It all depends on how you currently go about acquiring new clients, what systems you've put in place, what processes that you follow. It needs to be duplicatable and scalable. Now, now why do I

6:35 highlight those two words, Well, I highlight them because the things that go into your client acquisition system, especially when you're planning around a new year, especially when you're building your fast start plan with a sense of urgency, is you need to have a duplicatable plan, a duplicatable client acquisition system. It can't be something that you could do for a week or just a month. It needs to be something that you can rinse and repeat and do over and over again. It needs to work that way. Now, why is that important. It's important so you aren't retreading and restarting constantly with a new plan, a new client acquisition system. It takes time for things to build up and ramp up to the generating the best results for you.

7:22 So you really need to have a client acquisition system that's duplicateable. The other piece that you need to have that's very important to your success is you need to have a scalable client acquisition system. It needs to be something that you can do two times, three times, four times as large or larger to be able to continue to grow your business. Look, if you're doing something that's working and it's generating good results for you as far as a client acquisition system, but it's not scalable, you will only limit your ability of growing and scaling your business if your plan doesn't allow for scalability, if it doesn't allow for you being able to do it at a much higher level, much more quickly. If it doesn't allow for that, then it becomes very difficult for you to grow and scale your business. Okay, And I would say that in many ways it will complicate things because what happens when you're developing your businesses. Let's say you have a workable client acquisition system. It gets you the bare minimum of what you need. Well, the problem with that if it's not scalable, is you will constantly be chasing new additions to add to your client acquisition system, or maybe different things that you add or layer on top of your client acquisition system. Now, all of that in itself is not a problem, right. All of that is a good thing. If it's working, you're only going to work to do more. Where it becomes a problem

8:54 is being pulled in too many different directions, where you're not getting the best results that you could get in the efforts that you're putting out because you have a minimally producing client acquisition system and it's not getting you where you want to go. So, now you add two other things, and those two things don't start off the way that you thought. So then you look at two more different things, and the next thing you know, you're doing five six different things and you still don't feel like you're in a place where you can grow and scale your business. So having a scalable client acquisition system is critical to your success. Now, what are the pieces of a client acquisition system? You know, if we're going to be talking about a fast start, let's pin them down.

9:38 Here's the thing that's important about this. The pieces don't matter as much as them being effective. Meaning you could get the majority of your prospects feeding your client acquisition system by walking into different meetings, maybe a networking meeting, maybe a chamber of commerce meeting, maybe walking down the street. You could meet enough people to be able to generate enough prospects. Business may not be scalable, but it could certainly be one piece of the system. Or maybe you do a lot of social media marketing. Maybe you do a lot of organic lead development on social media. Maybe you do email, maybe you do texting SMS, Maybe you do different types of things. Maybe you have paid ads going in your business. All of These are pieces of the puzzle. Now they don't all automatically fit and work with every business, But you need to decide for yourself what client acquisition system is going to generate the best results for you, What works best. It needs to be though duplicatable and scalable. Now, people ask me all the time, do I go with paid campaigns? Do I go with organic campaigns? What should I do in the development of my business? And I take the approach that if you can't grow it organically, then going in the paid route probably isn't going to get you there. If you can't crack the code of what you need to do organically a little bit. I wouldn't go down the path of

11:08 paid campaigns, and people ask me why. It's usually because there's something broken in how you're acquiring them. If you're not able to get them organically. Okay, you should only add paid campaigns when you know you've solved the mystery the puzzle organically. It's really about throwing gasoline on the fire, getting more results, you know, little rocket fuel for your success. That's where paid campaign should come in. But let's take a step back. That client acquisition system is so critical to your fast start because of one key point. It's already working to build your pipeline. It's something that is already working to bring people to you. Now, maybe you are driving that effort, maybe somebody else's, or maybe it's again a paid campaign. But that client acquisition system is critical to your success. If you don't have viable suspects that you convert into prospects for, your business will wither and die. If you don't have new potential revenue that you can try to convert and bring in house to add to your bottom line, your business will wither and die.

12:23 You need to have a client acquisition system if you want to get a fast start. Spend time coming up no matter where you are right now, no matter when you watch this podcast. If you don't have a client acquisition system, start there. Build the plan. If you aren't sure how to build it, reach out to me. I'll be happy to talk with you about how to build it and construct it for your particular business. But make sure that you are building that client acquisition system. It will help you get a fast start. Okay, now, before we go further into the other piece that you need, let's talk about some of the things that you should be doing side by side in your client acquisition system.

13:05 Maybe some of these things are component pieces, maybe they are things that you're going to just sprinkle in on top of your client acquisition system. But let's talk about how you get that fast start. First is when you wrap up a calendar year, no matter how you end up, you should take a look at every prospect that you attempted to convert in the previous year, and you should be reaching out to them right now. If you didn't convert with them and reaching out and seeing did they solve the issue that you were talking to them about, did they accomplish the goal that you were trying to help them accomplish. Did they make it happen without your support.

13:48 Many times you'll find viable prospects that you didn't convert back in January or June or October. When you reach out to them at the end of the year, they're now in that point of reflecting upon their year and they acknowledge that, no, they haven't accomplished what they were hoping to accomplish. They may still need your help no matter what it is that you do, no matter what you offer, no matter what your product or your service or your differentiator is if they haven't yet solved the need or the problem that they have, you have an opportunity to re engage them. So that should be the first thing you do. Write down the names of the people that you previously proposed to and go back to them at the end of the year and check out how they ended their year. Check out how things ended for them, and do they still need your help. Now.

14:39 I know some people don't operate that way. Some people wouldn't go back and talk to people. It's a one time thing. I get it, But I'm going to tell you you're missing out in an opportunity to get a fast start. You're missing out on an opportunity to potentially get some big wins. How many big opportunities did you propose last year that you didn't win that Maybe that door remains open, Maybe that door is still there, Maybe there's just a little crack of light showing from that doorway, but you could put your foot in the door, get back in there and talk to them about what you do again. That's one thing that you should be doing as you're building and working on your client acquisition system. Look back at the people that you propose previously and see if you can breathe some life into those opportunities. Next, what you should be doing is you should be reaching out to every single one of your clients and seeing where they ended up at the calendar year and seeing if there is anything else that you can do to better help and support them, anything else that you can do to help them accomplish their goals. Now, why is that so important, They're already a client of yours. Well, in many cases, there may be other things that you can do to support them, and it may involve additional lines of revenue or business for you. Just by reaching out and speaking to your clients, you could create some additional revenue.

16:08 I know that doesn't necessarily work in every model, but for many it does. Most In fact, there could be an opportunity for you to be able to reach back out to a client, an existing client, somebody you've already built a relationship with, somebody that you already have positioned yourself as a trusted advisor and resource, and you could solve an additional or other problem for them. And that's another area that you should be focusing on right now in the development of kicking off your new year with a fast start. Which one of your clients may still need your help. The easiest client that you should be able to sell or convert is somebody who is already a client, somebody who is already working with you, Somebody who or has previously worked with you and understands the value that you bring the impact that you can have.

17:00 So those are two very quick things that you should be doing. The third thing is what I like to call my wish list. Now. My wish list is a list of suspects or prospects that I only wish that I had gotten in front of, identified, or worked with in the previous year. Do you have a wish list for yourself and your business? If you sit back and look at the calendar year of twenty twenty four, was there a long list of prospects you wish that you had worked with. Maybe you didn't even get as far as a proposal with them, but you still had identified wanting to work with them. Maybe you had just been prospecting to them constantly and you just couldn't get in the door. Well, I always keep a wish list. I write down who's on my wish list. I refresh my wish list from time to time. You know, I only take somebody off of my wish list when they become a client. Until they become a client, they remain on my wish list. So I would take the time and right down who is on your personal wish list, what clients, what prospects, what people are on your wish list, and that list should be made up of people that you've not worked with before. They don't fall into any of the other lists, and that you haven't proposed to, you haven't gotten a chance to get in front of them.

18:17 They're just that target that you've been always trying to get in front of. Go back, review and write your wish list and make a point of making a special effort to win those people over. Now, why do I say that about your wish lists? Shouldn't you be doing that with all of your potential clients, all of your suspects, all of your prospects. Yeah, of course, But with your wish list. I'm going to tell you there's a very special psychological reason about why you want to prioritize those people and why you want to make a special effort with them. Particularly because when you win somebody on your wish list, when you finally get to that prospect, finally get to that person and convert them as a client.

19:05 I can't even begin to tell you how energizing that is for you, How that is like steroids in your bloodstream for your sales success. Because doing business with people on your wish list can greatly accelerate your momentum and success. It will only get you more excited, It will only get you more motivated and inspired to target more people, to go farther down that wish list to continue to try to make those things accomplished. Now, of course it's not easy, but it's worth it because when you win over somebody on your personal wish list, it will accelerate your momentum and excitement about being in business about what you're working on. Okay, that wish list is a big deal, So make sure that you're making out your own wish list and targeting these things. Now, how does this relate to bigger wins in twenty twenty five. Well, many times the people that are on your wish list, many times are businesses that might be a little larger than what you're used to working with, that elephant that you've been trying to target right now, I share that because naturally and organically. What can happen when you target your wish list is you start to identify larger prospects. You start to identify prospects that are probably larger than what your typical client is or else more than likely they wouldn't be on your wish list. So it's important to build

20:36 that wish list because it starts to lay the foundation of those larger potential clients, those larger prospects that could create big wins. But how else can you create big wins? Well, I'm going to share one thing that you should all be doing already. If you're not, it's a reminder, a wake up calls, so to speak. Is you know, are you going back to your existing clients and the aspects that you talk to, and are you trying to generate warm and friendly introductions to other people? Are you out there doing that now? Personally, don't like to use the word referral. I think with many times people have a negative connotation when they hear referral. Some people tighten up when they hear the word referral and they don't want to share, and they start doing all the wrong things like over qualifying people for you and trying to do all these things. So I like to use the phrase warm and friendly introduction. Warm and friendly introduction, Like, if they walked in the room right now and we were sitting here having a cup of coffee together, would you know, give me a warm and friendly introduction. Of course they would, of course they would. It would be rude not to.

21:44 So I use the phrase warm and friendly introduction. Now, how does that impact big success? Okay, how does that impact big success? Well, when you ask people for warm and friendly introductions, you dramatically increase your odds of success and working with that potential client because you're now being edified by the person that introduced you to them. You're leveraging their relationship and it can create another source of sales momentum. That should be something that's built into your plan. But I also think you need to do something in addition to your wish list that is really important to your success. Take a look at who your average client is, take a look at that client avatar, and in addition to your personal wish list, I want you to take a look at who your average client is, your average client avatar, and then do a little research and figure out who are the larger competitors for the people that I'm currently working with, who are the people that they compete with. Who are the people that they are chasing, pursuing, competing with, trying to surpass? Who are those people? Now, I'm not, in anyway, you know, advocating some degree of competitiveness between your existing client and a potential client. I'm certainly not asking you, you know, in many cases to expect a warm and friendly introduction to somebody's direct competition.

23:14 Although some people won't care. Some people won't care. I know people have asked me in the past for a warm and friendly introduction, and I would introduce them to people that I knew I competed with, because I just believe that, you know, you add value wherever you can. They get better, It forces me to get better. It makes the environment better. People are getting better results, better work. The impact is greater. I don't look at as a negative. I look at it as a collaborative effort. But some people look at the more competitively. But that's not the goal of this exercise. The goal of this exercise is to identify more larger potential prospects that you could add to your wish list. People that you could add to your own wish list. Now, this is important for you to generate big sales wins because you'll find inevitably that you will identify people that are typically larger than your existing client avatar, people that are bigger, more experienced, have a bigger budget, larger and side. It just works that way, not in every case, but in many cases. So I share these things because it's so critical to your success that you not only get out of the gate quickly and have that defined plan, but it's critical that you take the time and reflectively work on things that maybe you haven't worked on before for you to build some big sales wins, things like your own wish list, warm and friendly introductions from your existing clients, and ultimately building a separate list of people maybe that you know compete

24:45 or or larger than your existing clients, so you're moving up market and creating larger sales wins. The reality is it's just as easy to close a larger deal sometimes as it is a smaller deal. It's just a matter of more zeros. But for some people they're intimidated by that. Don't be The process is just the same. And finally, the last piece of the puzzle that you really need to have a fast start and to create big sales wins in twenty twenty five? Is this You need to have an easy to follow sales process. An easy to follow sales process. Now, why is that so important to your success? Because many people have these complicated, almost flow chart like sales processes to what they do. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have processes. I'm saying you need to have an easy to follow sales process, something that you can get back on track very easily, something that if you get interrupted, you can get back on track very easily. Many people struggle with sales simply because they have a complicated sales process. One little thing changes, and all of it sudden, their whole process gets thrown out of whack. People that are ultimately super successful in sales have a very simple, easy to follow sales process. It's defined, it's clear, it's easy to follow. Now, why is this so critical to your personal success? Here's why. I'm going

26:17 to tell you. There's a long list of things that are potentially going to complicate your sales process. One of those things cannot be you. It cannot be you. Think of all the other things that are going to change in the outside world that could complicate your sales process. A client's decision maker may change, their industry, may change their business, may change their budget, may change. The economic landscape, may change, you know, timelines may change. You could have all of these things complicating the sales process. You can't add to that list of complications. You need to keep your sales process simple and easy to follow. If you have a simple and easy to follow sales process, you will find yourself being able to build a fast start as well as build big sales wins in twenty twenty five.

27:07 If you're struggling with your client acquisition system or building a easy to follow sales process, I would be honored to help you with those things. It's something that I've done for well over thirty five years with you know, hundreds and hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals. It would be my pleasure to help you with those things. If I can assist you in any way sales related, just reach out to my digital assistant by texting the word sales to the number four oh nine five oh nine seven three five five. You can connect with my assistant. Grab some time on my calendar I would be happy to help you with your client acquisition system and creating an easy to follow sales process. In fact, across my thirty five plus years of sales success, I've built my own proprietary sales process that's helped me generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales transit action. So if you'd like to learn about that, just reach out to me.

28:02 It would be my pleasure to share with you. Now, I know we've covered a lot. We're getting ready to kick off a new year. Maybe you're watching this already. In the new year, watch this content closely, pay attention to what I'm sharing with you about building a fast start and big sales wins in twenty twenty five. If I can be a help or resource to you in any way, please don't hesitate to reach out. This is Joe Beck with this Sales Activist, and we'll see you soon. This is Joe Beck, founder of The Sales Activist, and I just want to thank you once again for checking out our content and learning more about how you can get a fast start and create big sales wins in twenty twenty five. Look, it's a lot of fun putting on this podcast and sharing this information with the world.

28:50 If I can be of assistance to you in any way, let me know. Feel free to message me and let me know exactly what type of content you'd love to see on the Impact Sales Podcast. We're here to provide and create a significant impact on your sales success, so make sure you follow our content continue to let us know how we can best serve and support you. This is Joe Beck, founder of a sales activist, and we'll see you soon. Take care,