This is the third in a series of articles that break down the exact formula you need to smash sales targets… no matter if they’re your own, or your teams goals.

If you’ve been following the series (and you should be!… subscribe here) then you’ll be aware we’re building up an acronym of steps. So far we’ve got G (Great beliefs) and R (Reasons to act).

Read on to find out (and profit from) the next step:

Today we’re all about:

Outcome Clarity

This is a really simple one and you’ve probably heard it before.

In fact, Outcome Clarity is the featured topic of everyone’s favourite personal development movie The Secret.

When you have Outcome Clarity, you know what success looks like.

It’s more than that. You’ll know what it feels, smells and sounds like!

The best sales managers know how to incentivise their teams and themselves… and they know it isn’t always as simple as offering an extra percentage or two of commission.

A real world client of mine wanted to offer a luxury car as a bonus to the top performing sales rep. My advice was simple: Take the team to the car dealership for a test drive.

Once you feel the contours of the leather seats and hear the engine purr (or roar)…. you’ve got Outcome Clarity.

The icing on the cake would be to snap a picture of the sales person in the car while they’re test driving it.

Back in the office, pin the picture right above their workstation so everyday they see where they’re headed.

Another fantastic take on Outcome Clarity is from Jonathan Fields. He wrote an article a while back, about motivating his daughter to study (check it out here). It elegantly explains the principal of Outcome Clarity with the added bonus of Jonathan’s brilliant writing style.

When your goal isn’t a car or a test drive isn’t easy to find, you’ll need a practical tool for creating Outcome Clarity in your mind.

The tool is here, pre-packaged for your convenience:

(answer these questions on paper)

How do you know when you’ve really made the sale?

Where will you be when you get final, total confirmation of your success?

What will you be feeling at that moment?

What would you look like? What expression would you be wearing?

(then visualise)

Step into the vision and see things out of your own eyes. What does the future look like when you’ve succeeded (made the sale)?

Now step out of the image and imagine it as poster of you in that moment.

Hang the poster in your mind.

Make the poster bigger.

Turn up the colours so they’re brighter… just like you can on a TV screen.

If you’re not feeling excited about making sales, it’s because you haven’t found your moment of Outcome Clarity.

It’s less about the actual selling and more about the moment the sale becomes REAL to you (or your team).

For many people, this could be the moment where they spend their earnings… or when they win the bonus incentive (like the car).

For more analytical types, it could be at the end of the month when a report of sales statistics is produced and reviewed.

It differs from person to person, but there is one thing you can be totally sure of:

All sales people need Outcome Clarity

Just like Great Beliefs and Reasons to Act…. if you don’t add Outcome Clarity into the mix, you’re not going to get even halfway decent sales results.

Make the objective clear and be sure everyone on your team knows what success tastes like.

What does sales success look like to you? Let me know in the comment section below…