.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} How will it go for you in 2008? What will you achieve in your sales and personal life?

I’ve gathered some sales predictions from my crystal ball, a bunch of people you think are hot prospects, a few irritated customers, a couple of tightwad purchasing agents and a sales manager in a pear tree. Some are tongue-in-cheek – or are they? Some are painful. Some are a cold slap in the face, and others will give you all the confidence you need to make 2008 your best year ever.

Here is what I predict will happen in 2008:

• Your phone calls won’t get returned.
• The prospect who says, “Call me Tuesday at 10 a.m. for the answer” won’t be there when you call.
• The prospect for your most important sales meeting will call to reschedule – months from now.
• People will tell you “No.”
• You will think of switching jobs more than once.
• Someone will tell you your price is too high. Once a week.
• You will be outsold by a competitor. And blame the customer for making a bad choice.
• You will quit early on days you make a sale instead of pushing for another one.
• Your prospect will ask you a question you don’t know the answer to at a crucial time in the presentation.
• You will think about reading a book, put it off and reach for the remote.
• You will miss selling opportunities at dinners and parties where people ask you what you do, because you have not practiced (or created) your 30-second personal commercial, and you forgot to bring a business card.
• You will be with a group of salespeople, everyone will be bragging about sales they made, and they will all be lying.
• You will send your customer to a competitor without knowing it (poor service) and wonder why you never got repeat business.
• You will wish your prices were lower. Once a week.

  v

• You will complain about your prices to your boss. Once a week.
• You will get angry at someone’s voice mail and wish it didn’t exist. Then your company will install an automated attendant system and make all your customers angry.
• Someone in your company will lose a client for you through lack of action because they felt it “wasn’t their job.”
• Someone in your company will argue with an angry customer. They will win the argument and lose the customer.
• You will have a big sale fall through. At the end of the month.
• Someone will call in a big unsolicited order. You will go around bragging how you made the sale.
• One of your co-workers will make a sale and a commission for your work. And they will take all the credit for it.
• You will bump into one of your big customers at a networking event and forget his name. (And he will be the only guy without a name tag.)
• You will lose a customer because you failed to listen.
• The boss will offer you a free seminar on “listening” and you’ll say, “I don’t have time.”
• Someone in your collections department will make a one-minute phone call to a customer and destroy a relationship that took you a year to establish.
• You will invest in a personal Web site to learn more about the Internet before it’s too late.
• You will celebrate with your customers after a big sale because they were as happy to buy as you were to sell.
• You will start 2008 selling with renewed enthusiasm.
• You will have a healthy, happy, prosperous New Year. And all your marginal sales will come through – just before the end of the month.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer