Forget about setting goals. Do this instead.

A deep dive into why this mindset shift will help with your performance.

Elric Legloire

Sep 04, 2022

Today's newsletter takes about 3 minutes to read.

You can read everywhere that the best way to be a top performer you need to fix high and specific goals.

I did this when was an SDR at Talkpush and Chili Piper.

I set a goal of 20 demos booked in a month.

And at the end of the month, I booked 10.

So what happened?

After reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I realized that my results are nothing to do with my goals.

So I started to focus on my system, instead of my goals.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve.

Systems are about the processes that get to those results.

To achieve your goals you need to first build your systems made of single processes and habits that will take you to your goals.

For example, your goal is to get 12 qualified demos per month.

Your system to achieve this goal:

The execution of your activities
The number of emails you send per day
The quality of those emails,
How you structure your day, if you work in bursts,
The number of demos booked,
etc.

Here’re 4 problems when you focus too much on your goals:

Problem #1: Top and bottom performers have the same goals.

All SDRs want to be #1 or all SDRs want to hit quota.

But at the end of the month, only 1 SDR is the top performer, or only 5 on 10 hit quota.

So goals are not what differentiates a top performer from a bottom performer.

The system makes the difference to achieve a different outcome.

Problem #2: Hitting quota is only a short change.

As an SDR, each month, you start from scratch. So when you hit quota, it will change your life for the moment when you hit quota. You feel good and then you start again from scratch.

We think that we need to change our outcome.

When this is our system that causes this outcome.

That’s why when you focus on improving your process on a daily basis, you will feel good about that every day.

If you want to improve on the long term you need to improve your process. Fix your process and your results will fix themselves.

Problem #3: Goals restrict your happiness.

We think:

“Once I will hit quota, I’ll be happy”
“Once I’ll be the #1 SDR, I’ll be happy”

When you put your happiness into something that you can reach once a month, it restrict your happiness.

And if you don’t hit quota, you won’t be happy.

On my side, I was only focusing on the demos I was booking thinking that I will be happy or won’t get stressed about that.

So I started to focus on getting better with my outreach, and my execution.

It’s better to focus on falling in love with your process.

Because you can improve your process every day and be happy about that.

Problem #4: Goals are not aligned with your long-term progress.

Goals are great to be the top performer for 1 month.

So what happens when you are the top performer once? Do you give up and go back to your old system?

Your system is here to continue to play the SDR game every month.

Focusing on the long term isn’t about focusing on achieving your goals.

When you focus on the long term, you choose to improve your process, over and over.

Fall in love with your process.

Goals are good for planning your progress.

Keep setting goals, they are going to help you move forward.

Your process will make you move forward.

Being consistent AND improving your process is the most important to hit quota.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” By James Clear.

TDLR:

Fall in love with your process, not your goals

Thanks for reading.

Glad to be back, after a one-month break. Really excited about this newsletter and the upcoming podcast. I already recorded 4 episodes, and have 2 recordings on the calendar.

That's all for this Sunday.

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See you next week.

Happy prospecting,

Elric

PS: Here're the 3 last issues if you miss them:

If you want to read the previous ones, you can here.

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