As George Brontén states in his article, Why Your People Keep Missing Quota—And What to Do About It, “goals are more often missed than attained.” He explains, “Goals, without underpinning habits” are “bad for you.” Why are they bad?
The Problem of Goals Without Habits
To summarize, Brontén argues that goals have three main pitfalls: they have natural endpoints, which is to say that once a target is reached, any motivations it provided disappear. For example, “The dieter whose goal is a certain number of lost pounds may go back to eating badly and regaining weight” once they attain that goal. The second problem is that goals are often defeated by external forces completely outside of your control. For example, “If you plan to run a marathon but you’re in an accident and break your ankle, you will mis your goal.” That kind of defeat can have a lasting, demoralizing effect. And third, as you envision achieving your goals, “the brain can trick you into thinking you’ve already accomplished” them, especially when a “salesperson has mentally checked their goal off the ‘to do list’” because they have “two or three deals in the pipeline that they expect to close before the end of the quarter.” This check-off will stop from chasing new opportunities.
Now, that’s not to say goals are bad. Brontén is careful to say that developing good habits is necessary to achieving those goals. You must shift your focus away from the destination and place it more firmly on the journey itself. In the earlier example of the dieter whose goal is to lose a certain amount of weight, we all know that he would be better served by finding a healthier lifestyle that he can maintain. In that case, the lost weight is a positive consequence of that lifestyle rather than the finish line. The dieter can still have the goal of reaching a certain weight, but it would be better to think of that achievement as a mile marker along a lifelong journey of healthy living.
The Importance of Good Habits
So, why do good habits make goals easier to attain? The first reason that Brontén cites is that “Goals can be big and scary and hard,” whereas habits “are small and manageable.” Indeed, when goal-setting, one of the most common pieces of advice you should consider is the idea of breaking those goals into smaller steps can help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed. The person who sets out to build a deck in his backyard may find the overall project difficult to imagine completing, which is why he should concentrate on the deck supports before worrying about the joists and the ledgers. So when it comes to establishing good habits, a salesperson should concentrate on completing the sales process correctly, following each step, every time, especially when it comes to up-sells and add-ons. If he makes the right offers, his sales goals will usually take care of themselves.
Next, Brontén explains that habits are hard to break. We all know that’s true about the bad ones! But this is also true of good habits because all routines have a certain inertia that’s hard to derail. A marathoner who commits to morning runs will find soon feel a daily motivation to keep it up. This works in customer service, too, as the employee who makes it a point to go through every step of your sales process will complete these steps reflexively in time.
Lastly, consider that habits tend to compound, almost as if by a domino effect. As Brontén explains, “Researchers refer to ‘keystone’ habits to discuss this pattern. Keystone habits are specific small habits that readily compound into bigger habits that then result in major outcomes.” He uses the example of someone who takes the time to practice yoga regularly and how she will likely start making other healthy decisions in her life. He extends this idea into sales, saying that “salespeople who start with small keystone habits, such as checking in to their sales enabled platform and using checklists, are likely to build on those habits to establish a pattern of habits that result in high achievement.” In a sense, this phenomenon could be described as buying in to the idea behind the goals themselves: you want to be healthier, so you make healthier decisions, or you want to be the most effective at something like sales, so you always ask the right questions and make the right offers.
Fuel for Success
Brontén concludes by describing how the payoff works as a result of all these good habits. In short, salespeople are more likely to overshoot goals because the inertia of good habits will carry them beyond any arbitrary finish line. Success, then, becomes a daily routine rather than the top of a mountain to reach, which is philosophy we should all aspire to. Success is the residue of good habits.
All of these ideas underpin the importance of creating both sales and customer service processes and ensuring your employees adhere to them so that they form these critical habits. And habits can be a goal unto themselves, too. Rather than setting a goal for your store to add a specific number of up-sells next month, focus instead on setting a goal for your salespeople to make those offers 75% of the time. Additional up-sells will then be the natural consequence of that effort.
Let us help you with that. At The Brandt Group, we’re big believers in taking our clients’ sales and customer service processes and breaking them down into the small steps each employee must practice so that they can deliver on your goals. We can measure everything from the cleanliness and visual appeal of your store to whether your employees remember to welcome your customers as they walk through your doors. Add-ons, up-sells, referral requests, and other profit-enhancing habits are our specialty. Reach out to learn more!
