It’s a New Year and with that comes new optimism and the need for sales, service, production, and growth plans for 2007.

Salespeople, along with their supervisors, have hopefully set realistic, yet boundary pushing, goals for the next twelve months. While selling is a science, we know that what scientist thought was true years ago may be different from today’s reality. Therefore any sales goals that are set today must be constantly reviewed, and perhaps changed, as the year progresses.

Changes in the economy, environment, and markets happen during the course of any time period and should be referred to when it’s time to evaluate a person’s progress within the sales process.

By thinking about the probability of change you can be better readied for its inevitable arrival. Tactics should be put in place for “what if” scenarios just as they are for disaster recovery firms or engineering projects.

For instance, suppose you’re selling winter outerwear and the season is exceptionally warm (as it has been in the northeastern United States), how do you mitigate the drop in heavy coat sales to the retailing public or to your wholesale accounts.

We all know that the wholesale buying season is completed far in advance of the season itself. If you’re a coat manufacturer or importer, perhaps you should make sure you make, or have made for you, coats with shells or zip-out linings so your buyers will have alternatives regardless of the weather. If you stand buy your traditions and continue to hope that the northeast (where a major portion of the U.S. population lives) will buy one-piece heavy winter coats as they have in the past, you’re banking on a possible disaster that may not be recoverable.

Retailers will have alternatives, wholesalers will have alternatives, and you will have a broader market. Even if the weather is cold, you’ve set a new image for yourself and your company. However, the weather of old seems to be a permanent thing of the past, so why not adapt. The same holds true regardless of what you’re selling. Being prepared for change, in whatever fashion it may take, enables you to have an upper hand in your market.

Creating change makes you a leader. Look at the possibility for innovation and seize it. Staying with the old way of doing things may work for now but believe me someone is working diligently to alter the product and/or service landscape.

By systematizing your ability to adapt and/or create innovation you will be able to predict changes before they occur. This will also enable the formation of a culture of proactive growth rather than reactive response. Look at market indicators constantly, check everything from the effect of weather on your sales, to the predictions of competitors coming into your space. Monitor your competitors, and your sales team constantly. Have your salespeople become scouts, not only to the possibility of leads, but also to the business environment in general. There isn’t a salesperson on this planet that sells in a vacuum. Even though some of them may act that way. Be ready and be two steps ahead.

Effective selling, servicing, and managing involve systems, as any of my clients know. The systems I teach are wrapped around the factors within the environment. Having your pulse on your surroundings will cause you to use selling strategies to their fullest. Hiding your head in the sand may be great for now but eventually you’ll suffocate.

Is there a service that you could provide that will enhance your other services or products? Are there products that would broaden your scope without losing your companies focus or core competencies? If there are and you have or can easily get the resources to introduce them, then why not do it? You can start with a test segment and build from there. Using the winter coat example. Perhaps you don’t want to invest in making all your garments with shells or zip-out liners, well – why not do a systemized trial test. If they sell you know you’re onto something. Put that situation in your world and try something new this year.

Make 2007 your year to grow by systematizing your sales, customer service, production, management, marketing and any other area of your organization. By starting new systems now, or enforcing what you already have (the problem of not enforcing systems happens more than you think), you’ll be setting a standard for proactive growth as well as enabling innovation and change.

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and Fun New Year!!