We are often asked, “What can I do to get better?” A very vague and general question. There are very specific things anyone can do to improve their success rate, and the key is managing your time and implementing time controls.
1. Have a Plan
-Weekly plan: assign specific times for high value sales tasks. Isolate low value tasks and schedule them too.
2. Get Control of “Fire-Fighting”.
-How do your people control the fires?
-How much time do these interruptions take?
-Which are truly important and urgent?
-Use the “3:00 file” for: 90% of fires and interruptions.
3. Make and Use Lists
-Monthly and weekly schedules
-To Do List: Daily Priorities/People to Call/Etc.
4. Link Everything to your Goals
-Give your people reasons for what they’re doing: Increase Productivity
-Measurement improves performance. Are they tracking/measuring activities and results?
5. Minimize Unplanned Activity
–Time is the sales person’s #1 asset. By reducing unscheduled time and unplanned activity, they will reduce waste.
6. Minimize Internal Meetings
-What gets accomplished in most meetings?
If you look at the cost of the meeting: # people x their salary @ hour + lost productivity or opportunity cost…can you economically justify the meetings?
Good meetings: Agenda, start & stop time, written follow-up on action steps.
7. Use Downtime
-Travel time: phone/contact
-Waiting in airports
8. “Sandwich Activities”
-Do your people have a sales call 2 hours from the office?
Have them sandwich a call on the way to the appointment and one of the way back. The same holds true for out-of-town sales calls.
9. Institute
-The Magic Word to helping your people focus…just say “NO”.
Sales people have varying degrees of need for approval. This gets them to say “yes” too many times when they should say “no.” They’ll tell you they don’t want to miss an opportunity. Help them determine what NOT to do today is also important. If they work on goals, make lists, block time they will have more opportunities and choices…to say “yes” or “no”. What can/should your people say “no” to?
10. Reinforce that “Sales is a numbers game!”
-The number is the budget or sales goal. The objective is to “retire” that number…every month, every quarter, every year.
What should each persons’ numbers look like?
Do you and they know their “metrics”?
Do you track and measure activities and results?
Metrics
Phone calls:
Appointments:
Sales calls:
Quotes or proposals:
Closed deals: Sales
Time Investment & Return
Hours per week
1) New accounts Prospecting
2) Existing accounts A,B,C Nurturing/Prospecting
3) Prime Time / Non prime Time
4) Results & R.O.I.
Pipeline / War Board
“The single most critical predictor of sales success”.
• Week to week time investment must focus on adding new opportunities, closing opportunities and deleting “deals” that are stalled or going nowhere.
While most people are probably doing SOME of these, the truth is, many people are not doing most of these – and most are not doing them consistently. If it feels like you or your sales team are “Winging It”, consistently having appointments cancel/reschedule, or not finding enough business – there needs to be more structure in all of your activity.
