PLAN: The Wednesday Word #WednesdayWisdom
This week’s word is plan. There’s a lot of different ways this word gets used. “The best laid plans Of Mice and Men”, “If you fail to plan you’re planning to fail.” What other colloquialisms and sayings can you come up with about the word plan?
Definition from the dictionary. Plan: a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.
Think about some things that you would like to do. Think about some things that you would like to achieve. Do you have a plan for those things?
Okay, next definition: an intention or decision about what one is going to do. Decide on, arrange in advance, design or make a plan, something to be made or built.
Now, when we look at the history of the word, the etymology, the meaning where when you come to a scheme of action design that was first recorded or used in 1706, possibly influenced by the French word, planter meaning literally to plant. And then from the Italian planta, which means again, plant or grow.
Wikipedia is going to bring this word home for us.
It’s going to say a plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources. Use to achieve an objection an objective, excuse me an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve. Wait for it… a goal.
So, let’s do an exercise that sort of brings all this home.
This exercise is not my exercise. This comes from the President of Cardone Training Technologies. Jarrod Glandt. If you’ve watched Jarrod rise through Grant’s organization, you will see somebody with a plan. He did an episode of Young Hustlers a while back about plans and about goals.
And I’m going to share with you just the bullet points of it. So when we think about plans, there’s three kinds of plants that Jarrod says you should have.
- The first one is a life plan.
- The second one is a day plan.
- And the third one is a sales plan.
All three of these things need to be put together need to be synergistic, and all three need to connect to each other. Okay. So when we look at that definition, back in Wikipedia, temporal set of intended actions, or any diagram or list with steps that details, timing and resources, okay, so let’s start with life plan.
Here’s what I want you to do.
I would like you to answer the following question. Fast forward in your brain 20 years from now, you’re 20 years in the future. What specifically does your life look like? Where do you live? Who are you with? How much money do you have in the bank? What did you do for vacation? Have a very clear specific picture of what your 20 year target or plan looks like? Where do you want to be in 20 years? What does your life look like in 20 years? And make sure these are BIG FAT JUICY GOALS.
Next step is the the day plan meaning what?
What are you going to do today because it’s really the only moment that we have to create that vision of 20 years down the road. So there needs to be some very specific steps, measurable actions that you can do every single day that starts building towards that, okay? Meaning your day plan. What are you going to do today to make your 2040 vision, plan, goal a reality.
So you got your life plan. Now we have a day plan, what are you going to do today to create that?
Next, the final piece of the puzzle is a sales plan.
So in order for you to have a successful day, you’re going to need to sell something. And it’s not until you sell something that you don’t start building and creating your 20 year picture.
Okay, so once you’re in front of a customer, when I first got into the auto industry, I was selling cars in Van Nuys, California and the vice president the company at the time. His name is Howard Tanenbaum, he gave some sage advice about how to be successful in sales, a very simple concept. He goes, you’re either with a customer, or you’re looking for one. And if you’re not doing one of those two things you should be getting better or training on, effectively looking for customers and being with customers.
So once you’re with one, so part of your day plan should be about how do I get in front of more people? And then secondly, the sales plan then is what am I going to do with them when I get in front of them? Okay, so you need a sales plan, you need a sales cycle, you need to figure out the best way to greet that person, figure out what’s important to them how to present your solution, once you’ve selected that thing, submit a proposal to them and then ask them for their business and if we don’t buy or even if you do close, we need to follow that up.
You need a sales plan to go into that.
And the thing is, these things need to be wrote for you. You do not want to get stuck thinking about any of this stuff, you want to go into work every single day with a very clear cut picture of what your life plan looks like so that you’re when you’re at work, you’re on purpose, your day plan is on purpose, it is very much focused on generating, creating your 20 year down the road, okay, and that day plan needs to be tight so it doesn’t require thought. Thought is a low level activity. Action is what we want to be doing.
And when we get into sales, when we get into the sales plan, and we’re executing on it, we need to know exactly what it is we need to know exactly where we are in it and where we need to end up which is a closed deal. Okay? So you need to work your sales plan out in a way that you don’t need to think about it that you can just now you can go. OK?
So life plan, day plan, sales plan.
Do you have one? Do you need help creating it? If you do, that’s what I’m here for. You call me
310-777-0352. You can also shoot an email out to [email protected]. Put in the subject, PLAN. And just leave me a little note, hey, I need help coming up with my life plan, my day plan or sales plan. I’m happy to be of service to you if I can in any way shape or form. Thank you so much for coming in with me on the Wednesday Word.