Sales Chump

Now is the time of year when salespeople revisit their client base and make decisions about how they will prepare for the coming year.

What do you do to be ready?

Here are some thoughts -

1. Visit your current customers and find out what is going on with them
2. Create a profile of your ideal client
3. Develop a sales plan for approaching other companies/individuals who match that profile
4. Start working the plan
5. Evaluate at set intervals to make sure you are on the right track

How does that sound? There are two issues here. One is making sure you have a good relationship with your current clients. After all, you want to keep them. So don’t neglect them. The second issue is defining your target market. Knowing what your ideal client looks like can help you define that market. Usually your ideal client looks like one or more of your current clients. Another reason why visiting with them is helpful.

Give it a shot. I’ll be curious to see how it goes.

Now that we are in the last few days of 2008, it’s time to start setting sales goals for 2009.  Setting goals is very important for your success.  It forces accountability and should help map out your path to success.  Just as sales calls need a script, you need a trail to your goals as well.

I like to set lofty yet obtainable goals.  Unrealistic goals can leave you demotivated and discouraged.  If you like to shoot for the starts, set two goals:  your lofty but obtainable goal and your BHAG (big harry audacious goal).  There is nothing wrong with two goals or two levels.

Break your goal out on a time-line.  You have to set smaller goals within your large goal or your large goal will be forgotten about.  You will have your yearly goal but then set weekly, monthly and quarterly goals within that year.  Don’t just take your annual goal and divide it by 12.  Think about the different times.  Are there certain months or times of year that are better for sales?  Are there certain months that are worse for sales?  Do you already have a 3 week vacation planned in the summer?  Keep these factors in mind when breaking down your time-lined goals.  It can be a consistent number at each interval but it will work better if you take all the factors into account.

Goals are great but how do you figure out what that magic number is?  High sales numbers sure do look and sound good but what specifically needs to be done to get there?  Set an amount you like (10-20% higher than 2008 for example) and then back your way into that number to really see how obtainable it is.  Sales is all numbers and figures so this should be no different.

You should be keeping track of all kinds of numbers and figures on a daily basis.  These include;  how many calls you make a day, how many doors you knock on a day, how many people come in each day, how many prospects you make, how many appointments you make and of course how many sales you make.  You also have to know what your average sale is worth. 

I’m going to keep these numbers simple (your numbers will vary but the concept will remain the same).  Let’s say you make 100 cold calls a day.  That results in 10 appointments and one sale.  That sale is worth $1,000.  Your annual goal is $150,000.  You will need to find out how many sales you will have to make first, so simply divide 150,000 by 1,000 = 150 sales.  That means for 150 sales you will need (150*100 calls= 15,000) 15,000 cold calls.  That’s (15,000/252 sales day in the year=60) 60 cold calls a day.  If that is easily obtainable, your goal needs to be raised.  If that is impossible, it should be lowered.

With the correct figures you should be able to set a goal, hold yourself accountable on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and hit your yearly figure.

Title: Integrity Selling for the 21st Century
Author: Ron Willingham
Cost: $22.95 (book only, not the course)
Available at:  Amazon.com
Website: Integrity Selling

Summary:

Integrity Selling for the 21st Century teaches a process of self-evaluation to help you become a stellar salesperson in any business climate.  Once you’ve established your own goals and personality traits, you’ll be able to evaluate them in your customers and adapt your styles to create a mroe trusting, productive relationship. - Excerpt from flap of book.

Positives:

• Common sense selling approach
• Shows you types of behaviors and shows how to work with these types
• Focuses on needs based selling

Negatives:

• The course that goes with the system is really needed with the book
• Course is expensive

Overall Opinion:

I personally have taken and completed the course as well as have read the book.  Unfortunately the book is just a small step in this.  The course is very important to go with the book as it gives you detailed methods and chapters to practice these methods and you discuss with groups.  If the course came with the book for $22.95 it would be the best deal on the planet. 

The book, however, does provide very good insight to what Ron, himself, did in situations and how this sales training idea was thought up.  It is a very common sense approach to selling and makes sense but the book does more than just state the obvious.  It dives in depth about different steps used in the selling process and ways to make each step easier.

For any new or old sales person, it is a good book to pick up and read.  Don’t just read it once, read it multiple times and read chapters over and over. You will pick something new up almost every time.

Sales Chump Rating: 4.5/5

One thing I see time and time again is a sales rep working the same account for what seems like an eternity and not getting anywhere with it.  This is very frustrating from a reps perspective and a management perspective.  If a correct sales process was followed along with follow up after follow up with no further action, it’s time to cut bait!

This scenario is going to happen at some point no matter what and the best thing to do is try to learn from it and move on.  There are plenty of other prospects that will make a decision much quicker.  This may frustrate your reps because they think they will eventually land the customer or the deal.  This could be true however the time spent on running in place could be used much more effectively to land accounts that are willing to do something now.

I give my reps two options when they must cut bait.  The first is to cut bait, but set a reminder 3-6 months down the road.  I instuct them to not look at the account in that time and then call back after those months have passed to see if the prospect has changed their mind.  Things may have changed in that time period and they may be willing to make a decision at that time.

The second is to swap off your cut bait leads to someone else on your team.  A new perspective and style is sometimes all that is needed to land the deal.  This works best when other reps take and give the leads to a certain partner or spread it around evenly.  Sales is mostly an individual game but when other employees are successful it spreads.  This has been the most effective of the two options for me. 

Another amazing thing may also happen when a rep cuts bait.  The customer is no longer pursued or chased and calls back to complete the sale on their own.  I’m not sure exactly why this occurs but it seems like they finally have time to realize this is something they are missing out on and don’t want to miss the boat when it has pushed away from the dock. 

The time at which to cut bait will be different depending on what a normal sales cycle is and what kind of product is being sold.  The sales manager needs to be aware of that time and advise the rep to cut bait and move on.  This will allow the rep to be more productive with other leads and enable them to land more, instead of just spinning their wheels.