The Science of Goal Setting: 42% More Success Instantly

The Science of Goal Setting: 42% More Success Instantly

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 215 of the business development podcast. And today we're talking all about goals. We are going to be chatting all about how do we move the needle? And even if you think goal setting is woo woo stick with me on this. This episode is going to change your life.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business.

Brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 215 of the Business Development Podcast. Today, it is my absolute pleasure to chat with you and help you achieve more with an extremely valuable skill set that you can use not only in business development, but in every aspect of your life.

Today, we're chatting all about goals. When many of us think about goals, we think about New Year's resolutions. But what if I told you that we can set goals weekly? And if we set weekly written goals, you are actually 42 percent more likely to achieve them. According to Dr. Gail Matthews of the Dominican University in California, it's absolutely true.

I don't have to tell you what being 42 percent more efficient could mean for you personally, Or your business. We can leave that to your imagination. But the practice of goal setting will move mountains for your business and your career. Don't take my word for it. Try it and see. Today, guys, I want to chat all about how I have used goal setting and hopefully set you up with an easy process that you can use both annually and weekly and even daily.

To help you achieve more. If you guys can't tell, I am absolutely, absolutely passionate about goal setting. And the funny thing is, without even really understanding it, it has probably been one of the greatest tools to help me achieve everything that I've accomplished with regards to Capital Business Development.

The Business Development Podcast and my success with clients over time. Goal setting is instrumental in my process, both at capital in this podcast and for personal growth. And I hope, like I said, I hope that today I'm able to deliver this in a way that you are able to easily implement with your businesses, because I think it will make a massive.

Massive difference in the success of your businesses and your personal achievements over time. I want to talk to my business owners first. Are you creating a successful path for your business developers and salespeople to help you achieve your annual goals? This is really a passion project for me guys.

One of the problems that I find in pretty much every single coaching session, whenever I sit down with a company for the very first time, and we have a discussion regarding goals and goal setting. They typically start at a revenue goal. So they say, you know what? Yeah, we sit down once a year, we write down the goals for the business and we set our revenue targets for the year.

The problem here is it typically doesn't present an easily understandable path for the business development team. And one of the biggest challenges that I always faced when I worked in business development on behalf of a company was Companies can set strategic revenue goals all they want. How does that translate into my success as a business developer?

How do I know that I'm doing everything that I can to help those companies achieve their goals? Later on in my career, when I went out on my own, I really dove deep into this. And I really do think that I have the strategic secret here to making your business development teams and sales teams infinitely more successful.

And it really comes down to measuring in a metric that they have control over. Remember your salespeople, your business developers, no matter what, they can't make your clients buy. They can't make clients buy no matter how great the pitch is. If the client doesn't want to buy it. The client doesn't have to buy it.

And so revenue dollars is the wrong metric to measure sales and business development success, contrary to popular belief. You have to measure success in a metric that they can understand. And we're going to get into that here in a minute. So number one, we have to create a successful path for our business developers and sales people to help you achieve your annual goals.

You as the business owner set the annual revenue goals. This is absolutely correct. This is absolutely right. We have to now take it a step further for our sales and business development teams, okay? Setting your revenue goals without your business development and sales teams is a gigantic mistake. They have to be in the room.

They have to be at the table. You have to be running this by them. That does not mean that you have to be giving them the decision, but it makes sense to keep them in the room and keep them involved in this decision making process. They have insights to your business that you may not have. Number two, once the goal is set, We have to create the roadmap to success.

We have to create a success measure your BD team can actually control, okay? Remember, business development cannot control a client buying decision, no matter how great their pitch is, no matter what they say, or how good or incredible your product is. If the client doesn't want to buy it at that time, they simply do not have to.

This is not a metric of success for your business development team. The metric for success lies in how many opportunities. Statistically, it takes to close business. They can control opportunities and new introductions. This is the secret guys. Number three, we have to measure success in meetings and achieve revenue growth.

Okay. This is the magic. Whenever I sit down with a new organization, I explain the system to them. It's like a giant light bulb goes off. Why didn't we think of this to begin with? Trust me, implement this with your business and it will be absolute magic for your business development and sales teams, and you will start to achieve your revenue goals much more often and be able to keep them on track by measuring the success rates of your business development teams.

What do I mean by this? We have to measure success in meetings. Okay. Meetings are where the magic happens. Once again, I cannot make a client buy your business development team, cannot make a client buy even your best sales people. They can make the best pitch on planet earth. If the client isn't going to buy that day, they ain't buying.

Okay. However, however, we can figure out statistically what the percentage is after a meeting that that client will buy within the year. And you can use these statistics to identify how many meetings are required throughout your year, okay? So the secret here is this. When you were setting your revenue growth in new business, remember, this typically works for new business, new business growth over the course of a year because that is what business development is focused on is new business growth.

We have to start by setting the growth goal. Okay, so let's pick a revenue growth goal in dollars. Let's go with a million dollars. Okay, we want to make a million dollars. Over the course of this next year, let's assume that a new customer to you is worth on average 100, 000. So we know in this example, if we want to grow by 1, 000, 000 in 2025 and an average customer value is 100, 000.

We have to close 10 new customers in the coming year to achieve that revenue growth number. So we know the number. We have to close 10 customers. The next number that we have to understand is, what is our customer closing percentage? Okay, this one is going to be maybe a bit more of an estimate unless you actually have this number at your organization.

But you need to start trying to understand. If I meet with a new organization, I introduce my products and services. What are the odds that they are going to buy my product and service over the coming year? Try to identify this number. Is it 50%? Is it 80%? Is it 30%? What is your closing percentage number?

Once again, if you don't have this number, take your best guess. Start with 50 50 and work from there, but let's let's just start with like a 50 50 numbers. So in this example, we know we need to close 10 new customers at 100, 000 each in order to achieve our million dollar revenue growth number for 2025.

So we have to close 10 customers. Okay, but we know that's not how many meetings we're gonna have to have. So in this example, let's take our number 10. We're going to divide that by 0. 50. 50 percent for our closing rate percentage. And what do we get 20 meetings? Okay. We need to close 20 meetings in 2025 at a closure rate of 50, 50 of 50 percent in order to achieve our growth of a million dollars in 2025.

This is magic. Now you can take this back to your team and you can say, Hey team, we've calculated that we need to close 20 meetings with potential customers in the coming year in order to close our million dollar growth rate in 2025. We are now measuring you on your success rate of accomplishing those 20 meetings over the course of a year.

We're going to check in monthly to see how you're doing. We're going to figure out where the challenges are happening and we're going to help you achieve those meetings. Now your business development people are like superheroes. They know exactly what they have to work for. They know what the goal is.

They know what they're working towards and they're going to work three times as hard to achieve it for you. It's not a pie in the sky idea. It's not a guesstimate. You need to make us a million dollars, whatever it is. It's you need to accomplish 20 meetings for us this year. And if you accomplish 20 meetings that are current closure rate percentage, the odds of you closing our revenue goal are very, very high.

This is the secret to actually achieving your growth goals. Over the course of a year, your revenue goals and aligning it with your sales teams. If we create metrics like this, we can truly give our business development and sales people something to work towards and measure. And this will be, like I said, an absolute game changer for you and your business.

Okay, the next thing we got to talk about here is for everybody. This isn't just for business owners, although it works really great for us. But it should be for anybody. And that is setting our annual goals. Okay. Our annual goals for the year. Number one, we have to write out a list. of corporate and personal goals every single year.

Guys, I have been doing this annually every year since I started Capital Business Development, and I cannot, and I mean cannot, overstate the power of this exercise. It is absolutely powerful for you personally and your business. I genuinely owe, I think, a lot of my success with my business. To simply setting goals once per year.

No, I've never accomplished all my set goals. So first off, no, I have never, ever accomplished all my set goals. And the truth is I actually likely have not achieved half of them. Okay. I put a lot of goals on a list, but every year. I make tremendous strides forward, both personally and professionally from these goals.

It really is an exercise in dreaming and a declaration to the universe that you want to do big things and call it woo woo, call it whatever you want. There is absolutely, absolutely magic. In these declarations, guys, there is magic in these declarations. I don't know how it happens.

It's really quite incredible. But every year I go back to my goals list and I've accomplished quite a few of them. And the funny thing is, is that they were all pretty ambitious goals. They might be big revenue goals. They might be public speaking goals, adding a new thing to my business, like a podcast or a coaching program.

And by the end of the year, it's happened. It's absolutely happened. And it was that simple act of just sitting down and actually writing something out on paper. Let's assume that you're 42 percent more likely to accomplish a goal simply by writing it down. Why not do this exercise? Like, I challenge you right now, whether you believe in it or not, why don't you try it?

Because science is showing you are 42 percent more likely to achieve something you actually write down on paper. It's worth a shot, right? It's worth a shot. Give it a try. Sit down. Write out an annual goals list for 2025 and just see what happens. Guys, you don't have to do it exactly how I do it. I'm just going to tell you my process.

What do I do? When do I do it? You can implement it however you like, but this is how I do it. I set my annual goals over Christmas break. Why? It's my time away from work as well. I'm sitting by the fire typically. And I will just sit down with a pen and paper, and I will just write out annual goals for the next year.

And I'll just start putting what comes to mind on this piece of paper. Do it with a partner if you like. Do it with your, with your business partner, with your wife, with your husband, whatever. It's a fun exercise to do together. So if you do have a partner and they would maybe be interested in this exercise, make a night of it, set a fire, get a good drink, get some food and write out some goals, use a notebook.

This works best written. And I know we live in this world where everyone has a phone guys. Trust me, it just doesn't work as well. It simply doesn't work as well. I don't know why I don't have the science behind why. But writing something out on paper is where the magic happens. I still use a daily notebook every single day, even though I have a phone, even though I have a computer in front of me, I am still handwriting my goals and notes every day.

I truly believe there's magic in the penned word, okay? So use an actual notepad to write these goals out. Write as many annual goals as you like. I don't care if you have 50 goals. Write as many goals as you want. Like I said, there's magic in this process. There's magic in declaring to the universe what you want to do, what you intend to do in the coming year.

Like I said, do this. You're not going to accomplish them all. That's fine. But I think you'll be surprised when you look back at these goals at the end of the year and see how many you actually did accomplish. Do two lists. So my rule here is that I like to separate it out. So I have a personal goals list.

This is for like my health, this is for my family, this is for things that I want. That Kelly Kennedy wants that has nothing to do with business, okay? And then I have another goals list that I like to have specifically for capital business development in this podcast. And I will have two goals list guys.

I'll have one for the business, one for me personally. You can separate them. You can put them together, do whatever works for you. I like to separate my goals. I have a personal and family goals side, and I have a business goals side. Do whatever you want on this front. Combine them if you like. I like to separate them.

Obviously, everything that we do here is for a one year timeline. So if you need to write this on your page and say, I will accomplish these goals in the coming year, one year. There is a timeline to these goals. Okay. It is one year. It is an annual goals list. These are all things we are trying to accomplish in the coming year.

So remember, this is an annual goals list. Okay. And once again, be open to the possibilities. Okay. No, the answer is straight up. You are not going to accomplish all your goals. If you do congratulations and write me a letter and tell me how wrong I was. Totally open to that, but understand, it's not about accomplishing all the goals.

 It's about declaring to yourself and the universe what you would like to do with your life and your business in the coming year. Trust me. I know it seems woo woo. I shit you not guys. For years, I thought all this crap was woo woo. I really did. Meditation, Writing Goals, Declaring to the Universe, right?

Like, it all seemed like, well, it's all magical thinking, right? Maybe so. Once again, maybe so. Maybe it is magical thinking. What I can say is After doing this for five years straight, I would never do it a different way. I will always write goals. I will always write annual goals, weekly goals, daily goals.

Remember guys, at 42 percent greater odds of achieving even one of these big goals, can you really afford not to? If you don't currently write weekly goals, I remember thinking how silly and woo woo it sounded. That somehow writing goals would magically make them more achievable. But it turns out, it's actually not so woo woo after all, guys.

Here are seven reasons that it actually works. Number one, clarity and commitment. Writing forces you to define exactly what you want. Making the goal more concrete instead of just a vague idea. Number two, memory reinforcement. The act of writing activates the brain's Reticular Activating System, RAS, which focuses attention on actually achieving the goals.

It focuses your subconscious, guys. the goals. Number three, increased accountability. A written goal feels more like a commitment, making you more likely to follow through. Number four, progress tracking. Seeing your goals in writing allows for regular review, making it easier to track progress and adjust as needed.

Number five. Prioritization. Written goals help distinguish between what's urgent, important, and optional, reducing overwhelm. Number six. Psychological ownership. Physically writing something down creates a sense of personal responsibility, increasing motivation to complete it. Number seven. Visual cue and reminder.

A visible goal on a notepad or whiteboard. Keeps it top of mind throughout the week, simply put writing goals, turns intention into action and takes the first step towards achieving them. I talk about the first step or the idea of a first step all the time, guys, almost everything you want to accomplish in life, no matter how big.

Starts with a single step, and that first single step is one of the hardest things to do. The funny thing about writing a goal down is it is actually an action towards achieving that goal. In some ways, it's the very first step, and once you take action, it encourages another action. It encourages another step, and one step encourages another, and encourages another.

And next thing you know, you guys are accomplishing your goals by simply writing it down in the first place. The sources I used for those seven reasons, guys, is The Psychology of Writing Down Goals by NewTechNorthwest. com 5 Reasons Why You Should Commit Your Goals to Writing by FullFocusPlanner. com Neuroscience Explains Why You Need to Write Down Your Goals If you actually want to achieve them by Forbes.

I do multiple goals lists per week, guys. And my weekly list is what I call Capital Move the Needle. I literally write down at the top of my page, guys, Capital Move the Needle. And this is anywhere between 5 and 10 things that I must accomplish during the week. These are usually growth related tasks related to my business, guys.

So, it'll be sponsorship items that I need to handle for the week. Podcast things that I need to do, like record the show, produce the show, create clips, coaching tasks. So things I need to do to help my coaching clients and my consulting clients, and they move my business forward on a weekly basis. So these are the things.

That are going to have the greatest impact on my business. There are things that I have to do to, you guessed it, move the needle. And how do I set these out? So it's not complicated guys. Like I said, I start the week I write down at the top of my page, capital move the needle, and then. I write all the goals that I need to do between five and ten things that will move the needle for my business that week.

I then number them by priority. Okay, so I'll, I'll number them. So if I have 10 things, not all 10 are created equal and I will put down what is the number one thing that if I do it will move my business forward the furthest. That gets priority one. Then what's the next thing? Priority two, all the way down to priority 10.

And you guessed it. Priority 10 might not get done. Priority 10 might not make the list for the week. It might not have been important enough. Maybe it gets bumped to the next week. But the point is, by organizing the things that will move the needle for you, prioritizing them means the most important things that will do the most for you and your business over the course of a week.

Are going to get done. Imagine what this means for you over the course of a year. Trust me guys. It's incredible. It's absolutely unbelievable what you can accomplish in a year. If you focus your time on priority tasks on things that move the needle for you and your business, and then guys, next step, real easy.

Start taking action. What I like to do after this is I will actually put in my calendar the times that I'm going to tackle these things. So that's a step further, that's a conversation for another day, but if you want to go even a step further here, you can then schedule those critical tasks into your calendar to truly make sure that you have the time allotted to handle them.

What does this do for you? It makes sure that you are clear on what you have to do this week. So you won't be wasting time. You're not going to be dilly dallying. You're going to be focusing in on your tasks and you're going to be doing the stuff that is going to move the needle for you and your business.

This is massive. Massive guys over the course of a year. And as of this recording, it is a Tuesday and I have already completed five out of my 10 move the needle tasks for the week. That's how powerful this is guys. If you just get to it, it's incredible how fast you can crush out. The things that are going to do the most for your business.

The last list that I'm going to talk to you guys about today was an absolute game changer for me, both as a business developer and a business owner and podcaster. Okay. If you only choose to set one goal list. From this entire conversation. I sure hope you take them all on. I hope you do your annual. I hope you do a move the needle weekly, and I hope that you guys tackle a daily list.

Okay, but if you are going to choose to only set one goal list, I encourage you to do this one. And that is top things to do today. I write this down every single day, guys. It's a new page of paper. And every single day, whether I'm working for a client, whether I'm working for myself, no matter what I'm doing, I write a top things to do today list, okay?

It is very similar to the weekly list and very likely actually has some of the tasks from our weekly move the needle list. But it'll also have others as they come up, okay? Write this first thing in the morning. I want you guys to get into the habit of writing your things to do today list as your first task of your business day.

So if you get to work, grab your coffee, sit down at your desk. And even before you check your LinkedIn. I want you to do your top things to do today list. Okay. What I do is this. I write five to 10 things that if you accomplish them would move the needle for you and your business today. Okay. This can include daily work tasks, but only if they are priority, you can add whatever you want to this list, but it must be done by priority.

What will have the biggest impact for you and your business today. I want you to write out all the tasks. And then I want you to number the tasks by priority on what is going to have the biggest impact for you and your business. And then I simply want you to get to it. Okay, there is absolutely magic.

Massive, massive magic in doing this list daily. It only takes like tops a couple of minutes to write this list out and prioritize it. But the impact it will have on your career, on your business, on your day, is absolutely massive. I do this list daily and it has made an incredible impact on my ability to not only achieve tasks, But achieve tasks that move my clients, me and my business forward.

Get yourself a daily notepad. Write annual, weekly, and daily goals. And watch your world completely change. And do let me know. I want to know what incredible things happen for you. I cannot wait to hear your success. That takes us to the end of today's show, guys. Thank you so much for sticking with us.

Show update. We are sitting at 238, 000 downloads, 3, 450 followers on Apple podcasts and Spotify. Please do give us a like and follow if you have not done so already. We're sitting at 2, 800 followers on LinkedIn. That is growing so rapidly guys. LinkedIn is where we post everything for the show. So if you're looking for the guest list for the coming month.

Clips from the show, everything we got going on, follow the business development podcast on LinkedIn. If you like what we offer here on the business development podcast, I host a three month business development mastery coaching program. It's six sessions over a three months held every two weeks, and we are going to help you establish an effective goal driven business development process.

That you or your employees can follow week over week, month over month, year over year to get consistent results and not only get consistent results, but grow your corporate and personal brands at the same time. This course is a game changer. Feel free to book a free discovery call with me at www.capitalbd.ca/coaching. And I look forward to meeting you. Shout outs this week. Bryan Hayes, Chris Yeung, Jayson Chakkalakal, Elia Flores, Thomas Braeuer, Shawn Neels, Colin Harms, Rodney Lover, Jemia Zagiel, Nathan Plumb, Tim Zagiel, Michelle Sami Wehbe, Tyson Hunt, Zael Miransky, Vijayan Swaminathan, Ben Spangle, Jory Evans, Brett Colvin, Gary Noseworthy, Cory Sellar, Lauren Graff, Mindy Kay

McRae Broadbent, Susan Poseika, Anders Liu-Lindberg John Pelley, Carmen Leibel, and Tash Jefferies. Until next time, you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast. And we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.