How To Measure Sales Success
How To Measure Sales Success is the question on most sales managers lips at this moment in time when every sales is vital, alongside measuring those who are delivering in your team.
Companies most likely to thrive are those that scrutinize their strategic sales-management plans, from forecasts to pipelines. They look hard at the cost of sales, percentage of market share, salesperson-effectiveness ratios and customer lifetime value. Conversely, companies that struggle often lack such blueprints.
Effective plans require combining an organization’s goals with the individual salesperson’s business plan with a set of metrics designed to gauge everyone’s progress in meeting those objectives. The fundamental metrics to include in “dashboards” for measuring sales team effectiveness:
Accuracy percentage for monthly forecast, by salesperson
Dollar or pound value of pipeline by stage; number of opportunities by stage
Dollar or pound value of pipeline ratio to future monthly quotas
Actual sales activity compared to a defined set of standards
Average order value
Win/loss percentages by salesperson
Beyond the Basics
As you continue developing your dashboard, consider additional metrics such as:
Value of net new account sales as percentage of total sales for month and year to date
Existing account sales as percentage of total sales, month and year to date
Salesperson profitability to sales volume
Revenue per current customer per year as percentage of total sales
Cost per lead by source
Sales-cycle time from initial contact by salesperson to decision
Number of days with sales outstanding, goal vs. actual
Blended billing consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Realization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Utilization consultant rate, goal vs. actual
Consultant backlog days, goal vs. actual
Direct sales expense as a percentage of volume, margin and quota
Looking Ahead: Leading Indicators
Leading indicators are activities or ratios that can predict revenues at least 60 days out. While simply looking at future pipeline values can provide a similar forecast, these indicators are also useful. In most cases, certain events early in the sales cycle are most likely to lead to high-percentage sales opportunities. If these begin to fall, future pipelines and revenues will probably do the same. Potential leading indicators include:
New-prospect calls made per week
Face-to-face sales calls made per week
Subject-matter expert or pre-sales tech-support calls made per week
Discovery calls made per month
Demonstrations and executive presentations made per month
Graphs comparing these numbers to dollars booked or margins generated help salespeople see the relationship between indicators and results. Finally, the ultimate goal is improving ratios and results each month and each quarter-not simply tracking them. That’s the real reason for developing a dashboard and the real route to success.
Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management president, is a recognized sales management thought leader with more than 20 years of software/technology experience, including 17 in niche market distribution with emerging and high-growth national companies. The sales management strategist is regarded worldwide as an expert in sales execution, channel management, revenue generation, sales analysis, forecasting, recruitment, and training within the sales function. Prior to founding AMGL, he led development-stage, entrepreneurial, and $250-million national vertical software sales organizations as vice president of sales.
Ken is a frequent speaker and keynote presenter at major industry conferences, including Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conferences, Cisco Systems Worldwide Partner Conference, Sales and Marketing Executives International Conference (SMEI), CA World, TechData/TechSelect Member Conferences, Ingram Micro’s XChange Conferences, SAP Partner Conference, SolidWorks World, Gartner IT Visionshare, CompTIA BreakAway, and NASBA Management Academy. He has authored two books and many articles spanning a variety of sales management topics, which have appeared in Personal Selling Power, VARBusiness, Reseller Management, Business Products Professional and SmartReseller. He is currently a columnist for Redmond Channel Partner Magazine.
Popularity: 43% [?]
Sales Manager Duties: Is being on Twitter one of them? Here are 10 Reasons why it should be.
Sales Manager Duties: Is being on Twitter one of them? Here are 10 Reasons why it should be.
As a sales manager your duties are many and varied never more so than now in the new business economy. The question is will updating Twitter be one of them.
Now that is an interesting one. Am I on twitter? the answer is yes. Have I found any value? Actually yes. For another part of our business.
The value of twitter is really rapid communication in 140 characters or less. Now that really does focus the mind.
The question I would ask you is what would be your outcome for signing up for twitter be is it part of your overall long range plan or strategy?
If it is then go for it. If not could it be?
Lets just think of some top reasons Twitter could help you:
1. It generates leads for you. Period. People you can then direct message. How good is that!
2. Its friendly to techno phobes and non geeks.
3. It gives free advertising to you, your product or service no outrageous PPC fees or yellow page advertising. Basically it costs
nothing to join.
4. You can search for contacts using an advanced search.
Type in a key word and it will bring up all the conversations going on with that word..amazing?. So say you are interested in
one particular type of customer e.g. real estate put that in your search.You will then see a list of people.
Have a look at them and their profile if they look interesting follow them. Top tip follow the people they follow as well.
5. The law of reciprocity works. If you follow some one they will follow you back. Therefore a potential new customer. It is one
of the easiest ways to develop a tribe of followers
6. Building relationships to create wealth. Easy to do with Twitter. Don’t just twitter about your product all the time with
every tweet…boring and a great way to switch people off. Reveal a little more about you. What you like doing.
Share some free resources, top tips.This way you wiil get noticed.
I unfollow people who straight away say ” go and look at my free report” Long term sales growth comes from building
a relationship first never forget that
7. Use your communications i.e. Tweets as a way to add value to potential customers.Use somethin like www.tinycc.com to short url websites you are sharing. This will save you lots of characters!
8. With a focussed attitude it does not take much time. Check out ping.fm.
Sign up for a free account. You can even manage to tweet from your phone by SMS text in you live in the US.
In fact with ping.fm you can link all your social network accounts.
9. Make sure you have a compelling bio that draws people in and ideally a website url that offers something of value.
10. It enhances your brand helps people get a sense of you and your service. Costs very little time or effort.
It is really easy to sign up to. A top tip is go and get yourself a google mail account it is really easy to do and will help you stream line all those people that start following you when you sign up to twitter.
There are many guides out there about twitter. PLus some different software programmes some free and some paid that help you generate followers on auto pilot. Easy Tweets is one that is very popular.
Then log in and either use your own name as we do or?? why not use a keywod that is associated with your product or service offering.
So that is very much top line. to get you started. I have linked to a couple of low cost resources you can buy.
One a guide with instructional videos.
The other some software to fast track your results.
Or just google twitter advice or guides. It will get you started.
To you and your teams success
Best Wishes
Denise and Sharon
Popularity: 71% [?]
What Does President Barack Obama, The Principle of Cause- Effect and Sales Managers Have in Common?
What does Barack Obahma, the principle of Cause-Effect and Sales Managers have in common you may well ask?
During the November Presidential campaign, the principle of cause and effect was often employed by Barack Obahma. There’s a great lesson here for any sales manager not just new and aspiring sales managers!
As with most political campaigns, there seems to come a time when one of the opponents begins to criticise professionally and often very personally their fellow opponent. Sometimes it seems with little regard for the feelings of others.
There were times in the recent Presidential campaign when Presidential nominee Barack Obahma was criticised for his inexperience, lack of depth regarding policy detail and his views on foreign affairs to name a few.
Often in these situations, the recipient of the initial verbal attack launches an equal if not more critical response.
The now President Barack Obahma was an exception. Even in the face of recommendations from his campaign team to some heavy criticism, President Obahma stood firm and refused to respond. He did not want to allow himself to get thrown off track or message and be at the effect at what was happening in his environment.
Rather, his chosen response was to focus on his own campaign and “key messages”.
This was all part of a well thought out plan, where the “Effect”, was to win the Presidential campaign.
In order to do this, Obahma and his team researched Presidential campaigns dating back to J. F K’s
campaign and included the speeches of Martin Luther King. The team identified what they believed were the key success factors that ‘Caused’ a Presidential nominee to win the election.
Then they designed their campaign strategy and implemented it. One of the ‘success factors’
identified was ‘Cause and Effect’.
In simple terms;
Focus your efforts and energy on what will ‘cause’ you to get the results you want. Stop yourself from reacting to and being at the ‘effect’ of what is going on around you.
Back then to my original question.
What does President Barack Obahma, the principle of Cause- Effect and Sales Managers have in common?
It can be easy as a Sales Manager to allow yourself to be at the “effect” of others in your peer group,
senior management, your own team, even clients.
For example, at the moment you might find some of your management colleagues having a conversation about how “difficult” times are right now. Maybe even saying, “How hard it’s going to be this year to hit sales quotas and targets”.
A Sales Manager, like any other person, has a choice.
You can either, join your colleagues and allow yourself to be at the ‘effect’ of what is going on globally right now. OR, you can focus your energy on the “cause” and what are the key things you will do and actions you will take to move your business forward.
Managing and Leading a successful Sales Team is an ‘effect’. It has specific causes.
Find a successful Sales Manager and ask them ‘What are the key things they focus on that deliver results?’ Then go and do those same things. If you implement the ‘Cause’, you will ultimately get
the ‘Effect’.
Thinking then about your Sales Representatives, the same ‘Cause, Effect’ principle applies.
Millions of people are involved in the fields of Sales and Sales Management. Sadly, the vast
majority are unaware of the ‘Cause, Effect’ principle. When they are, few truly understand it and even fewer use it.
Now you understand the principle, let me ask you a few questions.
What will it mean for you in terms of how you now generate sales with your team?
What will you do differently?
When will you start?
How will you share this principle with your Sales Team?
To your success
Sharon
Popularity: 44% [?]
Oprahs Business Mantra
This last weekend in the UK was not the best for weather. At least not in the lakes! So I decided to have a bit of a clear out. Very therapeutic. In the process as normally happens a couple of articles from one of the women’s magazines caught my eye.
It was from one of my favourite business people and a great role model. Oprah.
I am sure many people are aware of her various struggles in life. As one of a handful of billionaire business women across the globe she is worth listening to.
Putting the basic business building practices to one side for a moment. It is always worth exploring what different peoples “mantras” are. What they believe in and have experienced as being truths for them.
If you attend any seminars on building a business or being successful you will be advised to read books and articles by successful people who have done what you want to do. They are an inspiration of course. Yet also they give great insight to the mindset to develop and nurture that will bring you the results you want and deserve.
The thing is to be successful it starts with you. As a sales manager and director on the frontline for many years I discovered it all starts with me. My mindset, what I believe. The thoughts I think. The passion and desire I live. Then how I actually act on all this or not.
So read and enjoy Ophrah’s top 15. Some will resonate and some won’t. …and that is ok.
1. What you put out comes back all the time .No matter what.
(Oprah’s creed!)
2. You define your own life don’t let others define your script.
3. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present.
Only you give it power.
4. When people show you who they are believe them the first time
(A Lesson from Maya Angelou)
5. What you believe has more power than what you dream wish or hope for.
You become what you believe.
6. Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy to do something about
whatever worries you.
7. If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough.
8. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.
10 Let passion drive your profession
11. Every day brings a chance to start over.
12. When you don’t know what to do get still the answer will come.
13. Trouble don’t last always
14. Trust your instincts. Intuition does not lie.
15. If you make a choice no one agrees with your world will not fall apart
To you and your teams success,
Denise and Sharon
Popularity: 32% [?]
6 Ways Sales Managers Get Organised
Organising yourself at work is easy. It’s a great feeling to be organised don’t you think? My suspicion is if you have found this article on the blog you are on the up and up.
Why because the first sign of people moving forward is they have a keen desire to get organised. So well done you.
I remember all too well as a sales manager how difficult it was to actually get everything done. Not only your own job, but what also feels like all the team as well. Or is that just some days.
After many years of trial and error I thought I would share my top tips. I have honed these over the last few years with a little help from my friends. It’s not about lots of lists either though that is something I would advise.
So if you are really serious and want to see and experience a difference read on and give it a go
Let’s start at the very beginning.
1. Know your goals and your companies
One of the number one reason people are disorganised is because they don’t know what their priorities are. Usually because they don’t know what they are heading towards. As an experiment. Get a piece of paper and pen (or better still put it in your note book) Write down your top 5 outcomes that you want to achieve this year.
This could be:
Raise the team product knowledge
Improve my management knowledge
Increase the number of contacts made with customers.
Have at least one of my team promoted
Increase the market share by 5%
Get myself on the next IT project team etc
Then commit to do one thing a day that takes you closer to this. It does not have to be huge either e.g. It could be reading for 20 minutes to improve your management skills. Like reading this article for instance.
2. Spend the minimum amount of time on email a day possible
This might be a challenge at first! I know. We complain about it and we all love to see what’s going on?
In the new economy it is the biggest stealer of time. How about checking it twice a day and minimise it to 10 minutes max.
3. Speed up! And Get up
This is a new strategy I am having a go with. It’s working to. Let’s be honest as working in a sales environment we all like to tick things off. I have learnt this from a guy who suggests just testing it and seeing. Just do something as fast as you can. Check for errors. Hey presto there you go. Of course this is better for the admin type tasks.
My experience is that it really gets things moving and will actually free up time. Which you can then use on the important things like getting into a conversation with your team.
The other thing is getting up early. You may well do that already, if so great. If not, be outrageous and get up at 5am for a couple of days. I actually spend time doing me stuff. Boring maybe, I take the dog for a walk, read a book etc. So when I sit down at my desk I am relaxed energised and ready to really go for it. This is one strategy that results in me getting so much more done.
4. Plan your day in Time slots
This may sound a bit of a pain and trust me it is so well worth it. Plan out what you want to do preferably the end of the week before. Allocate blocks of time. It’s a great way to test if your speed strategy is working. Read you list every night before you finish to give your unconscious mind a chance to work on it overnight.
Then wait and see what surprises it has in store for you the next morning. What is great is that when you have done this for a couple of weeks you will realise what is actually important and is making a difference to your sales results and your stress levels.
5. Delegate whenever possible
As a new sales manager we are often nervous about losing control. So we think we have to do everything ourselves. Not so. Your team are very capable. Why not ask them to take responsibility for a couple of things. It will also give you the added bonus of being able to build rapport with your team even quicker.
6. Lists Files and Folders
At last what you thought I had forgot. Being able to put your hand on something just when you need it is a great way to reduce stress levels.
It is an obvious thing to do. It might surprise you that not every one has a folder and a label for everything. If you are reading this article you probably want to make a change. Why not allocate a day to clear out your folders files and desks. Re organise in a way you can find things. It’s worth giving yourself the gift of that time.
Next up. Make a list. And align it with your plan. Whether that’s a 30 or 90 day plan.
If you have a list that can be used again file it. E.g. Do you run regular team meetings? I expect as a sales manager you will. Why not have your list of everything you need to take. I even used to have a crate in the garage where I kept all my team meeting stuff. You know marker pens. Toys! (Team building can be fun as well you know)
If you are more of a geek. Great, use the many systems available to you. Ask friends what they use and find useful. Most people love sharing their ideas and new finds.
Well this change your life overnight? Who knows. Don’t organise yourself to quickly who knows what might happen.
To you and your teams success,
Denise
Popularity: 28% [?]
Sales Goals 2009: What’s possible: Part 3
So 2009 is the year that you and your team will have your best year ever, as you realise what is actually possible for all of you.
You have decided to Think big and to continue to apply that tissue that is inside your head to do some serious thinking. You see business growth can be quite simple if you follow a process. What often happens though is sales people and their managers lose focus and go off at tangents.
The simple remedy for this is planning. I know for many sales managers this is when you run the other way. Let’s be honest here, no truly great business was ever built without a strategic and tactical plan. Now don’t panic it is so much easier than you think. Break it down.
What are the big chunks?
What month?
What are the key actions?
What are the main priority goals?
Which one will give you the greatest impact quickly?
Which one is cost effective?
Plan the activities by month and week. When you do this it focuses the mind on what really is important.
It is actually good fun! Because you are taking action. Guess what so few people do it that you automatically increase your chances of success.
Did you know that less than 10 % of the world population have their goals written down?
I know from my own experience . The years sales were huge we had a plan. The years it didn’t quite go the way we wanted was at the beginning, when planning was the last thing on my mind!
At the time as a new sales manager I was so desperate to be a success and hit target/quota I was like a headless chicken. Not really thinking things through. Scared to ask for advice and wanting to be flexible to jump on any opportunity that came along. Without really thinking through the consequences.
I was deluding myself. How can you tell if you are off or on track without a plan?
With so many distractions today how do you keep focused on the 80/20 rule and maximise your time on the job? and still have time for family and friends?
Plans take thought, and investment of time and sometimes resources. Rome was not built in a day or for ten quid. You might need to invest more of your time in your people coaching and helping them. Perhaps ask your boss for some extra budget. If you have a plan and a reason you just might find they agree.
So 2009 has started. Forget 2008 don’t beat yourself up about what did or did not happen. Start afresh you deserve it. Because different results always start with what you are thinking now.
You have an idea/desire about what you want you think about it, you see it in your mind . Other people have achieved it so why not you? Things start to happen and appear. You take action and down the line the faith and belief you have delivers the results you truly deserve.
Here’s to a great 2009 for you and your team.
Have a great weekend
Best Wishes
Denise
Popularity: 36% [?]
Sales Manager Challenges: Motivating Your Sales Team Part 1
Sales manager challenges will be the subject for the next few videos on the blog. Starting with motivation.
I have split this into two parts. So it is easier to digest and gives you time to process the information and the implications for you and the team.
There are key leverage points for sales managers to truly be high performing. One is the ability to be able to ” motivate” and “inspire” your team to success. The others include helping them build their skills and mindset to become unbeatable …and not just when you are there.
Getting the right people in position and then coaching them to success is vital. So OK you might not have recruited them so where do you start to improve their perfomance….and ultimatley your?
Check out the video and post your comments on the blog,
Have a great weekend,
To you and your teams success,
Sahrin and Denise
Popularity: 45% [?]
Sales Training and Development, the same or different?
As a facilitator and coach it’s gratifying to see the lights go on when Sales Managers realise the difference between training and development. So I thought I’d take a moment to discuss it.An easy way to think of this is Training is an ‘event’ and Development is a ‘process’.
Training is just like a story. Training has a beginning, middle and an end. Delegates are introduced to maybe new knowledge or skills associated with their products or services they are providing during a training event. It’s surprising how many companies think, “all we have to do is conduct some sales training and everyone will embrace the new: strategy, system, method, process, procedure, tactic, tool or product!”
Then everyone will go back to work the next day, use the new way and be an expert within a short period of time. Interestingly, some research I came across recently suggested that:
the training event contributed only 20% of the overall result of the training.
Can you believe that! An incredible 40% of the result was in the planning and preparation of delegates for the course. The final 40% relied upon the degree of follow up after the workshop. Follow up is not something that companies are especially good at doing either.
I have a question for you, “what impact do the above figures have on the return on investment of the training your company provides?”What results do you actually get then?
Well in reality, you will see a temporary positive change in behaviour in some of the learners. After a while things seem to slowly drift back to the way they were. Maybe it doesn’t drift all the way back, but the positive impact you expected fades rapidly and eventually falls short. It would n’t be unheard of for you to experience a mini revolt as some of the team resist applying what they learned:
Some of the reasons you hear from your sales people are:
1. I don’t have time to do it that way
2. I prefer my way
3. I can’t remember how to do it the new way
4. It wouldn’t work with my customers
5. I’ve had good results for a long time doing it the old way, why should I change now?
6. The training was good in theory, but this is the real world
And of course the list goes on and on Now here’s the thing. There is another often overlooked list of reasons. These are the reasons that sales managers use to avoid having their team taken away from their daily activities to attend training workshops.
Here are a few examples, you may have heard colleagues say, or even found
yourself having similar thoughts:
1. I’ve got other pressures so we can’t focus on this right now
2. I never agreed with this in the first place
3. I don’t understand why this is important to the company
4. The compensation, recognition, and rewards system still reinforces the old behaviours
5. I didn’t get this training and I did ok!
So how come a training event doesn’t create the sustainable behaviour change you’re looking for? The answer is simple and straight forward. Doing something new involves taking risks, maybe even failing. People don’t want to fail. Not everyone can appreciate that truly successful people believe the only way to learn, is to fail. So, what happens? People naturally resist change.
If that’s true then how do you realise the return on your investment? And how do you effect sustainable positive behaviour change? It’s really simple. You develop your people.
You develop your people through your daily relationship and interactions with them. As a result you can develop the person so they move from operating in a dependant way to more independent over time.
Sustainable behaviour change takes time. People learn and embrace change at different rates.
As a Sales Manager, it’s about viewing the development of your team as a marathon rather than a sprint.
Two of the key things you can do as a manager to develop your sales people is, ‘delegation and coaching’. Which are probably topics worthy of discussion another time?
Our blog and the work we do is all about development. Thought to a number of uninitiated we call our selves trainers so we are talking a common language. However we are in the business of development. Why because it is sustainable and prepares people for the laong haul rather than a quick fix.
Take Care,
Sharon
Popularity: 33% [?]
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