Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector
According to sales consultancy The Bridge Group on average 50% of sales people are not hitting their monthly budget or quota. This research is supported by another group Sirius Decisions who say it’s even higher at 54%.
What do the winners do?
How about the other 45-50% of sales people who hit target regularly? Here’s 4 things they do:
2. Evaluate your metrics: Its critical that you clearly understand your conversions – start looking at how many calls you’ve made to get a qualified lead. If you’re making too many calls, you need to working on your messaging. Next step is to look at your appointment setting ratios. How about your meetings vs. closing metrics? Once you see a pattern work with your manager or seek outside help to improve them. An important factor in all of this is to know what best practice metrics look like for your industry.
3. Manage your time: Effectively planning your sales week is a key to consistency and driving results. Supporting this plan is knowing how to prioritise. It’s widely recognized that sales people get very little uninterrupted time to work on their priority tasks. There are phone calls, information requests, questions from clients, prospects and other staff, and a whole host of things that crop up unexpectedly.
4. Make time for learning: If you have identified competencies that are holding your performance back, set aside an extra hour a day for developing your professional skills. Spend time on learning your product or service inside and out, then ensure your industry knowledge is top notch. Undertake learnings that will be valuable to your prospects and enrol in one of the many courses offered by consummate sales professionals.
To add to this list one of my favourite authors and sales trainers Jeffrey Gitomer takes a harsher view. He says many sales people miss their quotas simply because they don’t know how to do it, are lazy or have a poor work ethic. Ouch!
That brings me to the key question. Are you on the winning side or losing side of budget achievement?
Until next time good selling!
About the author
Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
