If you are ever concerned about what you are getting out of something, just look at what you’re putting into it. This is true in just about everything we do, like relationships, school and sports, but it really seems to apply to sales with most of my clients. It’s the same old story I keep hearing. “I’m really working hard, but don’t seem to be getting the results that I expected.” Well, the results you expected are a pretty good starting place for this discussion.
If you have a specific sales result you want to achieve, it is pretty easy to plot the actions and efforts necessary to achieve it. It is sort of like the “reverse engineering” that Compact did to create the IBM clone years ago. To do this, we need to define and list the steps in your sales process. You have to start with marketing to locate prospects, schedule appointments to determine needs, develop a solution, present your solution, ask for the sale, deliver promised goods and services and maintain a healthy relationship for future sales and referrals. If you define your expectations or results, then it is pretty easy to look at your effort metrics to indicate where the problems might be.
Years ago, I worked in outbound telesales. We cold-called prospects, thank goodness those days are gone, and offered a free trial of our product. There was a set of metrics that I called “the rule of halves” that proved pretty accurate as far as effort was concerned. If a sales person made fifty calls a day, they would talk to about five people who would accept the free offer. About half of them would show up for the offer and about half would express a need. About half of those folks would buy, so it looked like this. One hundred calls made yielded ten “suspects”, which gave us five prospects, giving us two and one-half proposals and hopefully, one sale. One sale out of one hundred calls is why I don’t cold call anymore, but it sure works out nice to make this point. Increase your effort at each step in the process and you’ll probably increase your results. Remember, sales efforts equal sales results!
So, if you’re not happy with what you are getting out of something, look at what your putting into it. Whether it’s sales or sports, Michael Jordan said it correctly, “I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results."
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