I have a friend (let's call him George for this piece) who owns a number of fitness clubs in a suburb of a large city. He just loves January, just as everyone struggles back from the holidays, looking at the year ahead with lethargy and perhaps some angst, he prances into work as gleeful as can be. The reason is that for years he has benefited from what he calls the "New Year Resolution Syndrome".

Every January thousands of well intentioned individuals make a new year's resolution to lose weight, become healthy and reap the benefits of a fit and healthy life style. Every January, hundreds of people sign up for new memberships at his clubs committing to a year or more. The first few days of January the clubs are packed from 5:00 am to midnight. By the third week of January, the line ups at the equipments are bearable, but classes are still in full demand. But as he points out, by Valentines Day, things go back to "normal", that is no change from the traffic the clubs have in August or September.

Each year he gets this enormous cash influx in the form of annual memberships, knowing that very few will take advantage of the clubs for more than six weeks. Sadly, many people repeat this ritual each year as they "resolve to change", convinced that this year in fact, will be different, this year they are going to change the outcome.

Now I don't want to give you the impression that George is ruthless capitalist who wants these folks to fail, in fact quite the opposite. Each January he adds extra programs geared specifically at helping the "novice" and "resolving" to achieve their goals. He hires additional personal trainers and includes them in his New Year specials to help people get a proper start in their endeavors. As part of the package new members are entitled to personal assessment and an individual planner to help them stay the course. He tells me that at best, only about 30% of new members take advantage of these extras, most believe that they can go from zero to sixty all on their own, most are after instant results, instant gratification, most lack a plan, and most fail.

I asked George what the difference was between those who succeed, and those that fail year in and year out. He sighted a number of factors, but boiled it down to the following:

The lack of a planUnrealistic expectations (effort vs. results)The lack of commitmentAs I listened to him talk, I was reminded of many January sessions with sales people who not only faced similar challenges to George's clients, but failed for similar if not the same reasons. Many sales people approach their new year with great expectations, but no plan or road map as to how they will get there.

This past December we were working with a group in the Mid-West, who has not made goal in over five years, the executive wanted to make sure that 2006 will be different, not only will they make their numbers, but increase margins and improve morale. While they are one of the leaders of their sector, they are experiencing tremendous price pressure, and a steadily growing number of competitors. In order to ensure success, the teams were given their 2006 goals by December 9th, giving them ample time to plan the year ahead. On December 14th we began our formal planning exercise, of 55 sales reps:

16 knew how long their sales cycle was20 had a sense of what growth/decline they could expect from their top 10 accounts (by revenue)18 calculated how much of their goal could come from their existing accounts, and as a result what they were going to have to generate from new accountsOf the 18 above only 10 had a sense of how many prospects will have to be engaged to generate the "new accounts" needed.5 knew how many appointments would have to be generated to find the right number of "qualified" prospects.Needless to say, that very few had a handle on how they achieved the numbers they did in 2005. But they were all sure that they would make their 2006 goals, just like George's clients, they were resolved and signed up for the year.

Once we got some focus on these issues, we moved on to how they balance their time to ensure that they deliver their numbers, and more importantly, customer satisfaction. It was clear that many did not actively manage their time, but were allowing daily circumstance to dictate their activity and results. Many were running in a constant responsive state, little or no control over their day. While all were busy, few were productive from a revenue point of view. As is often the case, their efforts while were focused on things that were not priorities, with high potential clients or prospects. Once reviewed, in most cases over 70% of their time and effort was spent with clients that generated less than 35% of their revenue, many with little or no upside potential.

Of course the battle cry was that if they did not respond to "clients' request, the clients may go elsewhere. But when examined from a effort reward standpoint, that may not be such a bad thing, some of these clients were standing in the way of growth, using up valuable time that could be spent with high potential clients and prospects. But without a plan, they were unable to change this pattern, when they could have been making prospecting calls, they were tracking down a shipment; when they could have been focused on developing a plan with a high potential client, they were busy talking to the development team about specs for a clients that has not upgraded in the last three years. As a sales manager of a fleet sales force once told me, there is always a battery that needs to be driven across town.

Where many sales people and George's clients fail is in clearly articulating what it is they want to do, what steps are needed to attain it, and finally writing it down and measuring and reviewing their progress over time. George points out that those who stick with their program, usually have both long term and short term goals written down. They keep a record of their work outs, miles ran, pounds lifted, etc. They review them regularly, looking for small incremental gains, and adjust accordingly. They can't drop 35 pounds between January 2nd and February 14th, and they don't try to. They set goals that stretch them but do not break them or their resolve. Of the 55 sales people only 5 had set quarterly goals, none weekly, and the only review was the ever painful quarterly review with the regional VP which was heavy on rational and light on tangible plans and results.

Only time will tell how well this group does, and Valentines Day is only a sales cycle away, but they are equipped with a plan, focused on result generating activity, and have committed to their personal success in writing to themselves not their companies. Three have even signed up with George and are resolved to maximizing their investment in self improvement. We'll update you on their progress.