What is this blog about?
Many businesses seek growth and stability. In this short blog, I explain how many more sales can be made by setting and managing Key Performance Indicators for sales people.
Ok, it may sound a little official and boring but read on as it can grow your business and aid stability. I used this tool to win major sales prizes and developed highly successful sales people with it.
Background
Before the digital age, sales people spent the vast majority of their time cold calling, visiting trading estates, writing letters, attending trade shows and driving around writing down companies names. It was an activity called Prospecting.
It was a time consuming activity, yet when a prospect had been identified, the chances of success were pretty good because buyer’s choice and competitor activity was limited.
Many good sales people I work with, do this as part of their job and make plenty of sales from it!
During my sales career, I discovered key ratios related to prospecting and selling:
- 21 door to door calls resulted in 1 sale
- 4 booked appointments resulted in 1 sale
- Every second 1st sales meetings resulted in 1 sale
- 2 sales a week earned me enough commission to pay my bills (self employed)
- At one stage during my B2B sales career I knew that 15 prospects at various stages in my sales funnel at any time would land me one chunky deal a month
Sales KPIs
The above ratios were related to the key outcomes during the sales process steps; prospecting, appointment booking, fact finding and closing. These were my key performance indicators. The level of achievements for these KPIs predicted my level of sales success. I also discovered that success would come as long as I achieved the activity levels set by my manager.
Much later I learned I was not alone in discovering this minor miracle. Sales people, who knew their numbers and ratios, were great recruits and went on to be great assets to their employers. I have worked with many of them.
- They worked the numbers rather than just one or two opportunities given to them.
- They knew that having enough prospects in the sales funnel was their ticket to success.
- They knew that it was down to them to fill the sales funnel
- They owned their sales process from start to end
- They managed their days to ensure their sales funnel was filled to the brim
Only interested in results
A sales manager who is only interested in sales results, gives the wrong impression.
Sales results can not be managed. You either got the deal or you did not. What you can manage is the activity needed to get to a sale. What’s more, sales people becoming better at the key ratios by just a small percentage will start sending your sales results sky high.
Bringing it all together
If you want your sales results to go sky high,
- work out what your sales KPIs are
- work out the ratios based on your results to date
- work it hard with the team
- enjoy your sales going sky high
If you want to know more how Sales people KPIs can grow your business, feel free to contact me for a chat. It is what I do for a living.
Happy selling!
