Results are not the most important part of sales!
There, I’ve said it and most of you are now closing this link.
Results are historical and backward looking. Unless you’ve got a TARDIS (time machine) like Dr Who you can’t change them.
Yet if we’re a Business owner or Sales Manager, what do we sweat on the most?
Yes, sales results!
We sweat on and pour over things that we can’t change! What we did last year, last month, last week, yesterday!
Of course sales results are important, as ultimately your business will succeed or fail on the strength of your results.
However, they’re not the most important part of sales. In sales it’s all about activity:
Sales activity should be proactive and forward looking. Yes we can learn from our sales results, but we can’t change them.
What can we learn?
Do we need to update our Vision, Mission and Objectives?
How strategic and effective was our sales plan?
Which type of activity has worked well.
Which type of activity hasn’t worked, and why?
What skills do we need to develop in our sales team?
What has, and is, changing in our target markets?
What are our Unique Selling Points? (USPs)
What are our competitors up to?
In answering these questions you can then think about sales activity plans for each of your salespeople.
In sales activity everything you do is QDQ!
Quantity – Are we doing enough activity?
Direction – Are we doing it with the right people?
Quality – With skill, knowledge & enthusiasm? On a needs-based selling basis?
These are non-compensating, for high performance you need high levels of all three.
QUANTITY
Are we doing enough activity?
e.g. # of calls, meetings, presentations, proposals
events, client calls & reviews, referrals, social media posts.
DIRECTION
Are we doing it with the right people?
Who are we targeting? Where are we spending our time?
e.g. prospects, clients / key clients, new business referrers, strategic partners, industry experts, ‘movers & shakers’, networking groups.
QUALITY
Are we doing it with skill, knowledge and enthusiasm?
Behaviours – Attitudes – Skills - Knowledge
Do we look, act and feel like the genuine article?
How well are we completing the above activities?How effective are we at building long term relationships based on openness, honesty and trust?
Do we really understand the needs of our clients and prospects? Really understand them.
How disciplined are we in how we follow up leads and opportunities?
Are we doing all of this with a positive and winning attitude?
Given the importance of all 3 aspects of QDQ, we think it’s important that each salesperson creates an\ activity plan based around the 3 areas:
Here’s a brief example of what this could look like:
Each salesperson should then review this with the Sales Manager in a regular 1:1. Probably monthly, but with regular check-ins.
The Sales Manager should ask the salesperson what’s working well in regard to this plan and what they are finding challenging. The salesperson should commit to specific activities at this 1:1:
Monthly Activity Schedule
Target Number of B2B Prospects
Based on past experience, the salesperson should then consider their ideal number of prospects. This should be stretching for them but also realistic and achievable.
Year XXXX:
Q1:
Q2:
Q3:
Q4:
There’s a relationship between the number of opportunities in your pipeline each month and meeting target. HubSpot Research found 72% of companies with less than 50 new opportunities per month didn’t achieve their revenue goals, compared to 15% with 51 to 100 new opportunities and just 4% for companies with 101 to 200 new opportunities.
The salesperson should then develop a list of current top prospects as follows:
Top Prospects
Definition:
Top prospects in order, representing:
Size and type of client.
Prospect of short-term conversion.
Desirability as a long-term client.
How many prospects are appropriate for each salesperson depends on your business.
This prospect list is vitally important because it’s where your new business will come from. The most important part of this list is the ‘Next Step’ column, what is the salesperson doing to progress the sale, bearing in mind that 80% of sales are made between the 5th to 12th contact.
So there you have it, a process for driving your sales activity. If you’d like to chat about it over a coffee please get in touch.