On a recent call with a group of colleagues, one commented to me- “You do more in a day than I do in a week!” I do cram a lot in, maybe it comes from my Irish/Polish blue collar entrepreneurial family background, but work is not a four letter word for me. I feel a need to squeeze the most out of every hour I have. If I’m not working in some way at every waking hour, I feel like I am wasting time. (I am the worst person to vacation with…)

No one can change how much time they have. We all get the same 24 hours. And there are are a lot of studies that analyze how salespeople spend their time, such as the 2015 State of Sales Productivity survey by Salesforce.com and Docurated that found, “Improving productivity of existing reps is the highest driver of revenue, but sales productivity ‘projects’ are more often driven by marketing, and these projects are not their priority.”

Which would explain why so many studies have found that salespeople spend less than half their time selling, right?Yet despite the popular sales enablement tools and strategies over the past few years, salespeople are as unproductive and ineffective as ever before. Nearly half don’t make quota. Why? The solution doesn’t lie in new tools and processes (at first- because tools can help when put in the hands of an effective salesperson), the solution lies first with YOU- the salesperson. No blaming your company's (lack of) training, or your manager- ultimately your success or failure is all on you. You have everything you need to succeed, so stop whining and using the excuses that so many cling to in order to explain away why they can’t.

Think I am being harsh? Damn right I am. You wake up with the same 24 hours as everyone else. What you do with them is all up to you. So what is the one thing you can do to get the most out of your 24 hours?

If you are an inside salesperson, maybe you never thought of creating your own business plan- but that is just what it is- your own plan to build your business within your company’s business.

6 Things That an Individual Sales Action Plan Should Include

1- What is your personal goal?

Forget your company quota, if you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? However, for many of us, being motivated by money is not what drives us. Being the best, proving someone wrong (even if it is the voice in your head that says you can’t), or the freedom to design our own destiny is. No matter how intangible your goals might seem, they can be quantified. How will you know you are at your best? What does that look like? Are you the number one person in the company? What level of success will make the voice in your head or ear be quiet? There’s a number in there, you just have to find which one is a little scary to you and use it.

2- How do the numbers break down?

How many conversations do you need to have in order to get the number of customers you need to reach your personal goal? Break that number down into monthly, weekly and daily contacts you need to make. Not 100% sure what your number should be? Pick one, as long as it is more than you are doing now. Do you want to double your quota and you are contacting 25 people a day now? Easy math, now you have to do 50. You do not need an extensive CRM report to know exactly what to do before you can make a commitment. Be like Nike, just do it.

3-Where might it come from?

Okay, now where do you need to look for those conversations? Who are the people you need to talk with and where will you find them? Does your company provide leads to you? How many are they promising? Is that enough? If not, do some investigative research or ask your peers- what events do they go to? What blogs do they read? What groups or associations do they esteem and listen to? What social media channels do they spend time on? Who do you already know and how often are you talking to those people?

4-What value can you add?

What resource or insight could you share? What is important to those people and what resources can you share with them relative to that? What does your company have? If they don’t have what you need, plan to create it yourself.

5-What obstacles might stand in your way?

There is a saying that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him of your plans.” $#it happens, you can’t predict it, but you can take into account some things that may happen and what you will do about it. For example, if you are relying on your marketing department to send you leads, and they don’t send you enough- what will you do?

6- What disciplines do you need to develop?

To change your status quo, you are going to have to do things differently that you have up until this point. The true test of your commitment is what you are willing to give up for it. You may not know what those are yet or even how to do it, and for that you might want to seek outside help- either from a peer, mentor, coach, or your manager.

One last thing- a goal and plan that is kept to yourself is not likely to change a thing. As humans, we have this amazing ability to reframe and justify things in our mind. But when we share them publicly, it changes the dynamic. Now you aren’t the only one who knows about it and but creating your own personal accountability board, you are also creating your own support system.