“Sales are a Byproduct of Good Activities”
We preach this to our Salespeople all the time. What most companies have a hard time defining is what activities should our salespeople do? When we onboard a new client we like to come up with the a custom “Recipe for Success” for the sales team.
The “Recipe for Success”, Breakdown of Activities:
- Initial Presentation
- 2+ appointment
- Client Appointments
- Referrals
- Future Appointments
- # of Quotes/Proposals/Bids
- Dollar Value of Quotes/Proposals/Bids
Defining Each of these Activities:
- Initial Presentation – First Presentation to a New Prospect or a New Prospect inside of a client
- 2+ appointment-Are the appointments you schedule after the Initial Appointment until you get a sales
- Client Appointments – Meeting with Client Decision Makers which are already buying your Products & Services
- Referrals – Are contacts you receive by asking for a referral
- Future Appointments – Any “Scheduled” Appointment in the next 60 days
- # of Quotes/Proposals/Bids – Simply the # of Quotes brought in, sometimes we only count the quotes over a certain dollar value
- $ Value of Quotes/Proposals/Bids – Simply the dollar value of Quotes brought in, sometimes we only count the quotes over a certain dollar value
Why Management Should Track these Activities:
- Initial Presentation – Tells us they know how to sell an Appointment
- 2+ appointment – Tells us they can sell our Products & Services by closing to our Sales Process
- Client Appointments – Keeping up with our Clients, more Sales, Services & additional Products & Services
- Referrals – Most Salespeople say they are getting referrals, but most are not asking in a consistent manner incorporating this highly productive activity into their Sales Process. Start with 2 (which they will struggle with) then get them to 6-8 in 3 months.
- Future Appointments – If you truly believe “Sales are a Byproduct of Good Activities” then this is your most important activity to measure.
- Future Appointments tell you whether your salesperson is running their business or the Business is running them. Are they “chasing their tail?” If they get to work on Monday and if they don’t have a lot of their appointments set then they will take any appointment to hit their goals. Now imagine they walk in Monday with most of their activities already scheduled they will set better appointments because their time is at a premium.
- # of Quotes/Proposals/Bids
- Dollar Value of Quotes/Proposals/Bids
- We will discuss # of Quotes and Dollar Value of Quotes together. Clients ask me why we do both? The answer is simply “My job is to create a healthy organization.” If a salesperson brings in an anomaly, for example the huge quote you might not win. The salesperson might hit their Dollar Value of Quotes, but did not hit their # of Quotes. Vice versa, they close the huge deal but sent the last 6 weeks working on it and have nothing else in the sales pipeline.
You might want to add a few more Activities (I would not have more than a couple), but here are the basic activities you should keep track of in your company.
Happy Sales to You,
Bill
*By the way if you can tell me what TV show “Happy Sales to You” is a play on I will give you a free consultation. (Only the first 3 will win, think Cowboy)