Hitting Reset

The Lead - Hitting Reset

I’m headed to the mountains of Pennsylvania this week to spend some time with family. I discovered yesterday, that the house we’re staying in does not have Wifi. I expect I’ll still have some cell service, but I’m looking forward to unplugging for a few days. With three kids under the age of six, I wouldn’t describe it as vacation but rather “time away”.

I suspect some of you, especially if you’re in sales are experiencing/expecting a slow week. This week also lines up nicely with the end of Q2 and start of Q3. We’re at the halfway point in the year, which makes it a good time to take stock of where we are in relationship to our goals for the year.

So what I want to offer up this week, is a practical framework of what I’m going to ask myself at this point in the year. Here’s what I’ll take the time to do this week, as well as some questions I’m going to ask of myself.

1. Celebrate the wins - When you’re chasing a goal, it’s pretty easy to move on pretty quickly. We close a deal, have a good quarter, but the number resets. What we did before is great and all, time to move on. Time to push forward. While that’s true, it’s worth taking a moment to brag on yourself a little bit. Sales is hard, you’re going to get rejected and probably a lot. What are the three things you’re most proud of up to this point?
2. Examine the losses - Forgive the cliche, but we tend to learn more from the deals we lost. While it’s easy to gloss over wins, it can be equally easy to chalk up the losses to a prospect’s poor decision making. We can safeguard our own egos by assigning blame to something outside our control. It’s true, there are always external factors effecting our sale. But if you’re really honest with yourself, we can find opportunities to refine what we’re doing.
3. Measure the results - What I mean here, is actually looking at the goals you set out to achieve and determine where you are in relationship to them. It’s ok if you’re behind where you want to be. But I find too often the goals we set at the beginning of the year, aren’t revisited frequently. Get practical - let’s say you set a goal to close $100k in revenue and you’re at $40k so far. How many leads did you work? Talk to? What was the close rate? What’s your average deal size? Get specific about what needs to happen in the second half of 2025.
4. What do I need to go deep with? - This is essentially asking - what worked in the first half that I need to do even more of? Was there a particular aspect of your strategy that produced great results? If so, how can you double down? Too often we chase shiny objects, when the answer is right in front of us. Invest more into the things that are already going well.
5. What do I need to give up? - Maybe there was something you invested time and resource into that didn’t yield results. I’m all for giving a strategy time, but it’s worth asking - is my time better spent somewhere else? Maybe you don’t give something up, but you just recalibrate how much attention you’re giving to a specific aspect of your approach.
6. Imagine the last few days of 2025. You’ve hit your goal. What would have to be true of these next 6 months for that to be reality? - Here’s where I want you to think big, but also specific. Think things like “Reach out to 50 new prospects a week”, “Attend 4 networking meetings per month”, “Role play my discovery conversation once a week”, “Limit my social media time to 30 minutes a day”. Sure there are variables, but I bet you can get pretty honest with yourself about what’s holding you back and what’s propelling you forward. This is where we make commitments.

Taking the opportunity to step back from the day to day grind is critical in sales. I don’t find myself naturally carving out the time to do these things, and ask these questions. When I go through a busy stretch, I’m more inclined to just not think about work when the opportunity for rest comes around. Get your rest, but also take a few minutes to step back and thoughtfully consider where you are, and where you hope to be.

I hope you’re able to do that this week, and I hope this helps. Thanks again for subscribing.