Losers Have Goals, Winners Have Systems [Start Your Week]

Scott Adams, best-selling author and creator of the comic strip, Dilbert, says, and I quote, “Losers have goals and winners have Systems, end quote. We’ve all set various goals throughout our lives and have failed to achieve some of those goals. What happens that causes us to miss a goal, any goal? Was the goal unreasonable and unachievable or was the goal just outside our area of expertise? Most, often, that isn’t the problem. The problem is, in most cases there was no plan.

I’ve seen this happen over and over in the seed business. Seed sellers will set a goal for the number of units of increase they want to sell over the previous year, but have no detailed planned how they’re going to get that increase. On occasion, their manager will step in to help create what they believe is a sure-fire way of achieving the goal. They take the rep’s current customer list and indicate who could buy more seed. After that exercise, they make a list of prospects for the rep to call on to get new customers. The rep is then sent out the door to make calls. That entire exercise is a waste of time if there is no step-by-step plan, or system, the rep can follow to get the increases wanted...