What Do You Want To Be? A Twist on Your New Year’s Resolution for 2025
We’ve all been asked this question when we were kids—with the most common answers being fireman or policeman for boys and nurse or teacher for girls. Today, maybe astronaut or even POTUS may be more appropriate. What I’m suggesting is a twist to the traditional New Year’s resolution—instead, asserting what you want to be “better at” in the coming year. As we come out of the winter solstice, it’s a natural time to self-assess and set goals for the year to come. In business, our goals shouldn’t be limited to more sales and better profitability (although we all have those in the back of our minds) but rather be focused on longer-term improvements that will lead to those results, and perhaps be more achievable, and therefore satisfying, day to day or month to month.
Here are some ideas:
Many of you are experts in your given fields or working on some type of certification track. Use your experience with customers, in training, or as a mentor to espouse your ideas and knowledge. If a young professional, leverage your familiarity with digital and social media (like LinkedIn, YouTube, or Blogs) to do the same. Write down your thoughts—and then craft an article or presentation to support your way of thinking and share your knowledge with others.
While it’s fairly easy to click away and ask others to connect via LinkedIn, it’s a little more thoughtful, and a lot more effective, to start attending business and professional association events and shake a few new hands. Whether IEEE, The Chamber of Commerce, Emerson Exchange, or internal training, try to seek out individuals that you always wanted to meet in person and make the contact. Don’t just sit beside friends or colleagues but take a seat at a table where you don’t know everyone.
We all have them and can likely draw a diagram to represent our own ecosystems. Take a look at what’s missing or where there’s a gap. If you’re an executive, maybe you’ve lost contact with your customers…or more likely, have yet to meet the younger generation of decision makers at your customer sites. If a mid-tier manager, reach out to your peers—at Emerson and throughout the Network. If a young marketing professional, you’re likely connected to your peers already; now take a step forward and meet with sales executives or technical resources throughout the Network.
Many of you have shown interest in using marketing as a path to more sales. A reasonable challenge might be to improve your database, expand your reach beyond current customers, or start an outreach program with email marketing. While many of these suggestions are related and will benefit from each other, start by taking on one. For example, if an email program, select a platform and begin creating emails. It’s OK if you start with a modest open rate and more generalized content. The idea is to get your audience used to receiving email communications from your company, and then move to more complex topics, as you progress. Don’t worry about ROI for the first few months or even a year, email is a muscle that needs exercise, so start building up your capabilities. If you are a sales executive, give your marketing team enough room to try a few things and see how the communications are received.
Most of us are used to hearing, “be a team player”. Being collaborative is a little different—I like to think of it as slightly altering the ingredients to create something better than the original recipe. We all have our jobs and areas of expertise but crossing the lines, every now and then, can result in something truly unique. As a technology enthusiast, I often cross the lines with technical, scientific, or engineering experts because I enjoy working with them and it truly expands my world. The results are almost always more interesting and insightful. As a sales professional or marketer, you can add a new perspective to how your product experts view the world and vice versa.
I hope you have the opportunity to embrace many of these suggestions, and “resolve” to have a successful and prosperous New Year. Please reach out to me at any time to learn more about how to achieve business and marketing excellence in your organization.
About the Author
Francine is President and CEO of Markitects, a Strategic Marketing agency that serves technology, engineering, and industrial companies. Since 1994, Markitects has introduced and positioned over 500 products, services, and companies through unique and targeted marketing communications strategies.