Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Looking at your selling scorecard at the end of July will indicate that you are either at plan, behind plan or ahead of plan.  Obviously behind plan = failure to succeed, at   plan = meeting expectations, ahead of plan = selling success.  But looking at your current selling scorecard information is what we call a ‘lagging indicator'.  Similar to the way that all mutual fund companies have the disclaimer:  ‘Past results are not a guarantee of future returns', your current results are no guarantee for future success.

 

I'm sure that intellectually you understand that the results you have today are a result of previous sales activity.  And depending on your sales cycle, your current sales results as of July 30^th, can actually be a result of sales activity that took place last year.  So my question to you as you prepare for the balance of the year is:  What is your current sales activity data telling you about your selling success at the end of this year and into 1^st quarter of next year?

If you want to be able to reasonably predict the future sales health of your business, you MUST have the following data:

1. How many contacts have you made over your most recent sales cycle
2. How many of those contacts have turned into appointments
3. How many of those appointments have turned into ‘real' sales opportunities

Not knowing those smart numbers reduces your ability to predict and really know your business vs. guessing.  And knowing your business - capturing real time information - allows you to make real time adjustments and decisions.

Before you start to get tense over this because your immediate reaction to this might be - ‘this is micro-managing', stop and think about what I've said.  I haven't said anything about managing or sales management.  This is about individual sales professionals making a decision to take responsibility for their success and understanding that sales success should never be a matter of luck or bad economy.  It is about making smart decisions and smart adjustments based on smart numbers. 

The smart decisions to make today are:

• 1. Identify those sales activities / metrics (smart numbers) that lead to sales results
• 2. Establish the appropriate benchmark of performance for each activity
• 3. Track your performance of your identified activities against the benchmark
• 4. Review your sales activity results - manage yourself to your activity goals
• 5. Seek coaching when you determine that there are choke points in your activity formula that are keeping you from selling success.