Experts often compare sales and business to militaryoperations. In particular, the elements of a combatorder—situation, mission, execution, administration and control(SMEAC)—dovetail with sales operations. In the military, ordersmust be complete and succinct to prevent time and life loss.

The same can be said when we set goals. But let's differentiatebetween a goal and a dream. Your dreams belong to you—whether it isto own a second home, buy a sports car or to become a majorcontributor to your church, these dreams are yours.

Goals, on the other hand, are those things you must do toaccomplish your dreams. They could be personal goals (run amarathon), business goals (increase sales by X percent) or others.Sales goals allow you to set a plan to bring in the dollars thataccomplish those dreams of yours, which require money.

Related: Read Fritz Koehler's previous column,“Field of Opportunities.”

When you take any sales goal and apply the principals of acombat order, it will clarify your thinking and give an executableplan for accomplishing that goal. Learn how the SMEAC strategyapplies to a hypothetical sales situation.

Situation

I have been a property-casualty producer for 7 years. My totalbook of business is $150,000 of revenue to the agency and mypersonal income from this book is $48,000. I am hanging on by athread with my management. At this time in my career I had plannedon having a personal income of $150,000 per year, which meant thatmy book needs to be $470,000. I received training in all aspects ofbeing a producer, such as coverage and sales, but with this I havenot met the success that I should have. My technical proficiency iswhere it should be, but my sales results have beendisappointing.

Advice: Be brutally honest with yourself aboutyour current situation. You cannot properly address where you aregoing unless you know exactly where you are. Too often producersfind reasons why they are not more productive:  My staffis inadequate, there is no time to prospect with everything else Ihave to do, I don't receive management support, we do not advertiseenough, etc. These excuses are not what is standing in your way ofproducing: you are. Set your priorities and No. 1 has to be newbusiness appointments.

Mission

• By close of business on Dec. 31, 2015, my book of business willbe $500,000.

Advice: Succinctly define this mission. This isa huge step in production, but you can do it. Stretch yourself.Which would you rather do: Set a $50,000 goal per year and meet 120percent of it, or set a $120,000 goal per year and accomplish 80percent of it?

Execution

• I will retain 95 percent of all my current revenue everyyear.
• I will book $100,000 of new revenue every year beginning in2013.
• I will maintain an active pipeline of $200,000 of revenue forany 12-month period during the next 3 years calculated as follows:A $10,000 revenue account that I feel I have a 30 percent chance ofclosing will count as $3,000 of revenue.
• I will close 70 percent of all presentations that I make.
• I will qualify all prospects after my first meeting todetermine if I should move forward on the account. Not everyone whowants me to bid will get a bid. In fact, my bidding days are over.I will only make professional presentations.

Advice: This step contains a list of everythingyou will do to accomplish the mission. Each step should have itsown SMEAC planning.

Read another Koehler column, “Natural-BornSalesperson.”

Administration

• I will personally meet with the top 20 percent of my clients(based on revenue to the agency) a minimum of four times per yearfor policy delivery, a mid-year stewardship meeting, gathering ofrenewal data information and reviewing with the client and therenewal meeting.
• I will ensure my top 20 percent clients meet with their accountteams at least twice per year.
• I will have three first-time new business appointments everyweek, either with referrals, cold calling or networking.
• I will have three follow-up new business appointments everyweek.
• I will become active in networks (associations) whose meetingsare attended by my prospects.

Advice: Administration tasks accomplish eachstep of the execution process. Notice that each step addresseseither the retention goal or the new business goal. There could bemany more; hopefully, these will get you started.

Control

• I will use my contact management system to generate weeklyreports about the number and quality of prospects in my pipeline.At all times I will know the dollar amount of my pipeline for thenext 12 months.
• I will reward myself for meeting my new business appointmentgoals each week by playing golf on Friday afternoons.
• If I have not set the prerequisite number of appointments forthe following week, I will spend Friday afternoon from 1300 hoursto 1700 hours cold calling.
• I will not waste my time on prospects who generate less than$1,000 of revenue (use a revenue number that works for you).
• I will rehearse new business presentations with colleaguesprior to presenting.
• I will meet with agency/sales managers weekly to report myweekly activity in comparison to my goals.

Advice: These things measure progress towardyour goals. It is easy to fudge on this by attributing higherpercentages to prospects than they deserve. Your nature should beoptimistic, but your measurement should be pessimistic. This willkeep you from becoming overconfident.

Related: Read “Time to Recommit” by FritzKoehler.

As a producer, you are in charge. Issue your orders and thenhold yourself accountable for accomplishing your mission. No onehas more at stake than you.