First and foremost are you thinking Strategically? "Do you have what it takes to do what it takes?"

1. Did you achieve all of your personal goals in 2004?

2. Did you achieve all of your professional goals in 2004?

3. Did you have double-digit sales growth in 2004?

4. Are you expecting to achieve double-digit growth during 2005?

5. If not why not? (You'll need some QUIETIME for this one)

If the skills you used during 2004 weren't sufficient to enable you to over achieve your sales plan what makes you think last year's selling skills will enable you to achieve your sales plan during 2005?

What's needed is some radical thinking - let me explain. One of the best ways to outfox the competition is to stop thinking like them. For example, you might want to consider Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) as a role model. Back in those days - sailors sailed close to the coastline. Rumor has it that the deck hands on those early ships used to panic whenever they lost sight of the coastline. Naturally they feared for their lives because they believed, they all believed that the world was flat.

During the 1400's all of those ship's captains literally hugged the coastlines of Europe - the man who was credited with discovering America chose courage, vision, and optimism when he steered his ships perpendicular to the coastline in his quest to discover the New World.

In his new book, "Discover Your Genius - How To Think Like History's Ten Most Revolutionary Minds," author Michael Gelb offers this question - "in what ways do you hug the coastline of the familiar?"

Question ? in what ways are you hugging the coastline in your territory?

Another question ? how can you go perpendicular in your territory?

These days it's hard to discover new worlds. It's not so hard however, to discover new ways to outsmart your competition and new ways to position yourself as your customer's/prospects primary source. You gotta think Perpendicular!

Let's face it you have to become better if you want to achieve better results.

The subject is "competition." The emphasis however is going to be how you can outfox them and hopefully get bigger and better results.

Here's one way you can outfox your competition.

The single most important thing you can do every day to improve your numbers is: first, I have to tell you a story. My wife Bernadette has four girlfriends that she sees regularly. Occasionally, I'll be invited out to dinner with them as the token male. Recently, at one such dinner I was seated next to Daphne - a director at Baxter Healthcare. She started talking about her girlfriend. Now, Daphne knows about the work I do. She told me about her girlfriend who was a working single mom in sales for Baxter. Daphne went on to say that her girlfriend has been the number one sales representative for this particular division of Baxter for the last six consecutive years. By now, I was sitting on the edge of my chair, dying to find out what her secret was. Daphne went on to explain that her girlfriend's secret was simple.

Yes - her secret is simple but you may not like it. The single most important thing Daphne's girlfriend does every day is to make one more sales call whenever she thinks about ending the day. Naturally, this takes a great deal of self-discipline. But I suspect the reward in this case justifies the effort.

Just imagine that adds up to 250 additional sales calls a year, 1250 sales calls in five years, 2500 additional sales calls in ten years, and if you're able to keep up the pace it would being 5000 additional sales calls over a 20 year period.

If you want to be #1 in your sales organization you must have a written goal in order to achieve that objective. Having an objective is not enough you must have an action plan. I believe Daphne's girlfriend is onto something.

Do you have what it takes?

It doesn't matter as long as you do what it takes.

Imagine the results you'll achieve when you adopt the discipline, "One more call" and become more daring and Perpendicular in your territory.

If you want to succeed you gotta do whatever it takes.

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com