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Eighth in a series
Distributor owner and swag sales coach Josh Frey answers frequently asked questions on a wide range of sales topics.
According to Urban Dictionary, an “accountabilibuddy” is someone who holds you accountable for what you said you would do.
Do you have an accountabilibuddy helping you stay focused and committed to striving for your goals? Someone on the business (or personal) side of things keeping you on track when you go off the rails?
For me, that person is my Swag Coach partner, Mike Mahoney. He and I speak daily, review our sales and action plan weekly and hold each other accountable to the commitments we have made to one another for what we set out to accomplish in 2022.
Like many of us, Mike and I work from home. We are not in an office environment or part of a sales team. We are independent business owners reporting only to ourselves. We can do as much or as little as we choose. That’s why staying focused and consistent with our sales efforts has been absolutely critical to our success. And a big piece of this success is due to holding one another’s feet to the fire. We are accountabilibuddies, and he most definitely completes me professionally.
We are such believers in this process that in 2020 we set up a accountability program for the industry called Small Group Coaching (now an MAS/CAS accredited program). Coached by distributors, for distributors, we have one singular purpose: to help one another, as industry peers, stay focused and reach our goals.
Each January we sit down together and draft our individual sales plans for our swag businesses.
We then meet monthly in small groups of four to eight distributors and report in on how we are tracking against the goals we have set. One at a time, we go around the room and report to the group whether we are on track or off track. Why? Because it forces each of us to review our plans on a regular basis, focus on the action steps we have set out to accomplish, and own up to what we are doing (or not doing) to achieve our goals. This is how we hold ourselves responsible to one another. Every. Single. Month.
Below is an example of an agenda we use for a monthly meeting with our accountability groups (modify if meeting weekly):
A. Monthly check-in: No. 1 high and No. 1 low since the previous meeting
B. Monthly tracking vs. annual plan (on/off track)
C. What’s working vs. not working?
D. Your No. 1 commitment to yourself and the group between now and the next meeting
E. No. 1 challenge: What’s getting in your way today?
F. Needs and leads: Who can help?
Depending on the number of people participating, these accountability sessions typically go from an hour to 90 minutes. Following an agenda, reporting real-time results and documenting commitments from meeting to meeting has proven to be a recipe for success for our members.
To whom do you hold yourself accountable? Do you have a colleague, coach or industry friend that is making sure you stick to your commitments? Some industry peers around the country with whom you share best practices?
If yes, then good for you and feel free to test out our agenda for success with these accountabilibuddies.
If not, consider finding an accountabilibuddy or accountability group that can help you stay focused and on track with your goals for the year. If you find the right person or group, it can make all the difference for you and the results you can achieve.
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Frey is founder of Falls Church, Virginia-based distributor On Sale Promos and the Swag Coach Program. He is a 25-year industry veteran and front-line sales coach. Josh@swagcoach.com. Visit TheSwagCoach.com to register for his next Distributors Helping Distributors show and learn more about his promo coaching programs offered.