I am shifting AWAY from “having your best year ever” and zeroing in on having a GREAT year. For the past few weeks, I have given you the list of 21.5 ideas that will drive the year’s results, and elaborated in detail on several of the elements. 

Here are five more sales concepts from my original list to put more sales on your CRM and more money in your ATM.

• Get your pipeline full. Most salespeople wait until the end of the month, in panic mode, to try to close THE ONE DEAL that they absolutely need in order to make their goal or quota. My question to you is: Why are you only focusing on one deal? Why don’t you have 20 deals you’re working so that three or four of them pop in? I’ll give you two guarantees:

1. The one deal you’re praying for will never come about.
2. If you have 20 deals you’re working, three or four will always come about.

The secret lies in the word “pipeline.” Your sale has a cycle to it, and a timeline. If it takes 90 days for you to complete a sale, you need 10 sales a month, and it takes you four appointments to make one sale, then 40 appointments a month is the minimum. Sixty appointments a month will guarantee your numbers. Eighty appointments a month will blow your numbers away. And by the way, to define pipeline a little further, if it takes you four calls to make one appointment, you need to make 320 calls to make 80 appointments. Some of you reading this are thinking the numbers I have given you are unrealistic. There’s a reason for that — you’re a small thinker. Smart salespeople figure out a way to get their company to hire sales support people. Or in many cases, they hire them themselves. If you’re going to make a lot of money, the first rule is: You can’t keep it all. 

• Make sales at breakfast. Instead of trying to get to work “on time,” make a five-dollar appointment, and buy a customer or prospective customer breakfast, and do it early. Make money while other people are driving in the traffic. I start my day so early that my mantra for the last 15 years has been “I make money while other people are sleeping.” And, if you wanna have a great year, you better decide that your workday starts earlier than it currently does. Breakfast is the easiest and most productive time to make a sales call, and build a relationship. I try to have at least 100 breakfast appointments a year – at a total cost of under $500 – and a total return on investment of – well, let’s just say, priceless.

• Double your referrals. Most people ask for referrals. Big mistake. The better way to get a referral is to earn a referral. The best way to get a referral is to give a referral. If you wanna have a great year, try to give every major customer one referral a month. One quick rule: NEVER call a referral on your own. Always ask the person who gave you the referral to call the referral. Have them call in advance so that your call won’t be a surprise.

• Record your sales presentation. If you want to hear the funniest thing you’ve ever heard in your life, record yourself making a sales presentation. This will give you a combination of hindsight and insight. The hindsight will tell you how you just screwed up the last sale. The insight will tell you what skills you need to improve in order to make the next sale. If you wanna have a great year, you must record your sales presentation once a week, and listen to it the minute you get back in the car or hang up the phone. Not only will it be revealing; it will be painful. Once you get into the habit of doing this, you will also be in the habit of improving. 

• You’re not alone. Create a mastermind. All salespeople are in the same boat. Unlimited income, rough (often uncharted) waters. The good news is: You’re not alone. Create a mastermind of noncompeting salespeople and leaders to talk about problems they have in common. If you live or die by the numbers, why not have a support team to give you a transfusion once in a while?