In 2016, Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University of California, conducted research on goals that reaffirmed conclusions found in prior studies over the years: individuals who write down their goals have more success attaining them than people who do not.
According to Matthews, people become 42 percent more likely to achieve their goals by writing them down on a regular basis. Yet in "Dreams fulfilled: Six easy steps," The Green Sheet, Dec. 22, 2008, issue 08:12:02, Jason Felts cited studies suggesting fewer than 4 percent of people in the United States set written goals. "The same studies show that many of that 4 percent are among the wealthiest people in the nation," he added.
Of course, it won't work to set goals, write them down and forget them; you must be consistently engaged in the process, revising goals and action steps to achieve your life's dreams. The Green Sheet has published numerous articles over the years on how to set and achieve goals. To find related articles, enter variations on "goal setting" via our Search function at www.greensheet.com.
For ISOs, merchant level salespeople (MLSs) and other pros in the payments biz, a step toward reaching lifelong dreams is to develop healthy merchant portfolios that will pay residuals for years to come. And for the industry's feet on the street, building a solid book of business entails in-person and telephone meetings with merchants. Lots of them – day in, day out. And that brings us back to the importance of writing down, not just your own goals, but your customers' goals, as well.
In Good Selling!: The Basics, Paul H. Green advised ISOs and MLSs to not become so focused on their presentations that they don't retain what merchants tell them. "To get in the habit of really listening and remembering what the prospect says, take notes during your conversation," he wrote. "Jot down a few key points the merchant makes, and if the prospect mentions anything more than once, definitely write that down. What you have to say may be important to you, but that doesn't mean it's important to your prospect."
Indeed, you need to make your prospects' goals as important as your own. So listen well and take good notes, and later, draw conclusions about what matters most to each merchant ‒ then write those priorities down.
Green wrote his seminal books on selling in the payments business at a time when MLSs were certain to have notepad and pen in hand. Smart devices weren't ubiquitous at the time. If you don't carry a pen and paper, you can record your conversations on your smartphone if your prospect agrees, enter notes into your smartphone during the meeting, or, immediately after the meeting, use your favorite customer relationship management tool to document insights about what the merchant wants to achieve. Doing this will boost your business in just the same way writing down your goals will help you fulfill your dreams. 
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