Sales Chump

Most sales positions require cold calls.  Whether it is to set up appointments where the sales rep visits prospects or where the sales rep tries to get more prospects to visit them; it is a necessary practice to stay successful. 

Most sales managers and sales reps focus on the total amount of cold calls per day.  This is generally because they know how many calls it will take to make X amount of sales.  This can get very tiring and a lot of reps get defeated when starting each day with such a big number of calls to make.

Instead of looking at total cold calls, try focusing on total prospects each day.  A prospect is someone that can be closed (whether it be via call, visit to prospect or visit by prospect) in the next 30-60 days depending on your industry.  This varies on each industry but typically it will take 100 calls to get 3-5 prospects.

So instead of 100 cold calls a day, a rep can focus on 4 prospects a day instead.  This not only has a positive effect psychologically on the sales rep it also puts an emphasis on quality over quantity.  Most likely a rep will make him or herself get better at each call so they don’t have to make 100.  After using this practice for a few weeks, the reps ratio will probably get better and be 75 cold calls to get 4 prospects.  After a few more weeks it may further reduce to 50 cold calls to get 4 prospects.  It will level off at some point but the ratio of cold calls to prospects almost always gets better.  This will either relieve the sales rep of stress or allow the rep to make more calls to be more successful.

Try focusing on prospects instead of gross number of cold calls daily and watch your sanity and success improve.

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.