Recently, I have been thinking a lot about my year-end and next year’s strategy for our sales team’s success.  As the current year comes down to those final 30 days our thoughts always turn to “what can we do to exceed our goals?” While it is always helpful to strategize, this NOT the best time to change your game plan to attempt to accelerate last minute deals to help exceed your goals; that is best done at the beginning of the year when there is enough time to be strategic about your changes. Towards the end of the year, sales should be closing the deals they have been working on for the last several weeks or months and looking ahead to 2012. This is true not just for sales but also for marketing, senior management, finance and the entire enterprise. This is also not to say you should giving up on finishing the year out with a fantastic push. What it really means is that planning and proper execution is a critical thoughtful task to be done throughout the year.

Proper planning begins with a self-analysis about what went right, or wrong this year so that you can make changes for improvement now for next year.

It is also a great time to invest this year’s left over budget on new tools that can help drive your success next year. If you want to start the new year off with an exciting way to  “show” how your company and its products can solve your customers’ real-world business problems and challenges, then it is time to look into investing the rest of your 2011 marketing or sales budget in sales tools to help you and your customers achieve greater success next year. Why wait? Make an investment in your future today.