Sales Chump

There are certain consistencies that you can find amongst the majority of successful people. They plan, act, revise and repeat. There’s an old adage that says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…” With the recent happenings of the financial crisis and bankruptcy scares of just about every major industry, these words have never rung truer.

In order for a plan to work, it must be realistic and adaptable. If you don’t have these two attributes incorporated into you plan, you might as well not have a plan. The ability to adapt along the way gives you power. There is no doubt that changes will have to be made. There will also be times that you just can’t change something. In this case, focus your energies on what is possible and don’t get caught up and what you can’t change. It’s the end result that matters the most, not the turns and speed bumps along the way.

“The ends justify the means…” – Machiavelli, The Prince

Sales can be lowest paying easy work, but it is also the highest paying hard work. Planning to make a lot of money in sales? You better work hard, because there is always someone who is ready, willing and able to work a bit harder. Time management and planning is what will make you or break you. The bar is always raised a little bit the more successful you and others become. You must learn not only what is working, but the why, when, where and how.

Anyone can have a stellar month, quarter, year, etc. But, in order to survive in a sales environment and make a successful career out of it, you must plan, act, revise and repeat. Planning makes the hard work easier and acting teaches you what to change and what to keep doing for success. By acting on a solid plan, you can justify to yourself, peers and bosses why you are successful or not. By revising it along the way, you make your plan stronger and by repeating the new plan, you have strong recipe for success. Book It!!!

“What are you doing right this second to reach your goals?” – The Negotiator

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.

I hear time and time again a sales rep calling up a prospect or customer and saying things like:  I just wanted to check in with you, I just wanted to touch base or I was just follow up.  I cringe every time. 

Before any call or any appointment, a clear cut goal must be laid out.  This may sound silly but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish other than getting the sale.  There will be different goals and objectives depending how far along the sales process you are.

For example, if your making your first call, what is the goal of this call?  It may be to get a name of a decision maker, send out an information packet with a scheduled call back or appointment time, get a bill to do a savings analysis, or it may be to make a sale.  Your pitch will vary for all of these and you will be much less effective if you don’t know what that pitch or goal is.

My bigger pet peave is after a sales rep has made contact and they are “following up” on that contact.  What is the point of the follow up?  Is it to review the pricing, the terms, see if the contact has read the information, make an appointment, etc?  There are so many variables here that you won’t be able to plan for so knowing before the call what you want the outcome to be will help keep you on the right path. 

Sales reps that have clear cut goals before each contact is made with a prospect or customer have much more success than those that don’t.  Write a list of the most common goals you want to achieve on most of your phone calls and write scripts for each.  Be aware of what you want out of each call and watch your sales grow.