“Plan your work & work your plan“
I’ve been thinking about different factors in sales lately. Most salespeople focus on two or three of the four elements.
- Time Management
- Territory Management
- Prospect Management
- Sales Cycle Management
Most salespeople concentrate their effort on the first two and are ambivalent about the last two until the end of the month, and sales are short. The last two are just as important as the first two because of two things, chasing bad prospects and weak sales projections.
Time Management
Time management is the classic definition of the quote at the top of the article. If you do not make a plan and carry it out, you will waste time. Period.
Example: I remember one of my first days as a salesman with no experience. I headed out to “make calls” without a plan. I spent the first part of the day, driving around “looking” for a business that appeared “good” to call on. By noon, I have made one or two cold calls with poor results. That afternoon I knew I wasted a day and needed to figure out a better way. A long conversation with my sales manager helped put it in perspective. I got better by planning.
No plan results in wasted time.
Territory Management
Territory management is crucial to sales success. Some territories are small, and some cover multiple states.
Example: If you covered Texas, Lousiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas, you wouldn’t think of making one call in Dallas, then drive to Oklahoma City for your second call then back to Houston for the next one.
A few years ago, I worked with a sales rep in San Antonio. After leaving the office, we made a call in Southwest San Antonio. Then, to my surprise, we headed north on the highway ending up West of town about ten miles. Our next stop was back inside the 410 Loop South of our last call and finally headed Northeast to call on a customer outside of the outer loop about five miles. Mapping this comes to 74 miles and over 1-½ hours of travel time.
In discussing the day, I discovered this was a typical day for them. We quickly went to work on her territory management skills. Think about your territory and put together a management plan that gives more prospect time and less windshield time.
No plan results in wasted time.
Prospect Management
Prospect Management goes back to the proper qualifying of prospects. To manage your business, you must spend your time with the best opportunities in your territory. If you waste time with people or companies that are not a good fit for your company, you will make unreal sales projections and frustrate your sales manager to no end.
Example: A salesperson working for me projected the same sale to close for the third month in a row. In my office, the salesperson insisted the deal was good for the month. I said, “Fine. Let’s go see them and get this done.” They were not a prospect, and they were not closing that month. After that, we spent some quality time on qualifying an opportunity.
No plan results in wasted time.
Sales Cycle Management
Sales Cycle Management is a combination of time, territory, and prospect management. From my experience, sales cycles can get out of control if a salesperson doesn’t focus on the first three factors.
Sales cycles vary with industry, products, and sales experience. An inexperienced sales rep can stretch a 15-day sales cycle to more than a month without coaching. A six-month sales cycle may never close because it falls through the proverbial cracks.
Some industries are one or two call sales. Though they require a plan, it doesn’t have to be as extensive as a long close cycle.
The longer the sales cycle, the more management it requires. If you work in a long cycle sale, what is the plan to keep it on track and moving forward?
- Do you owe the prospect answers to questions?
- Do you owe the prospect additional specs?
- Are they waiting for your proposal?
- Are they waiting for the results of your walkthrough?
- Do you owe the prospect a summary document of your meeting with key personnel?
- Are they waiting for your financial analysis of their problem?
- Have you scheduled your company expert for his input?
- Did you schedule the next meeting? What is the purpose?
You get the idea. If a salesperson does not manage the sale, it will die.
If you don’t continue to manage the sales cycle, a sale can stretch beyond normal limits or, worse, be lost.
No plan results in wasted time.
Responsibility
The above sales factors should be a part of the onboarding training with every new hire. Just because a salesperson had years of experience doesn’t mean they are efficient. A sales manager needs to feel comfortable that the salesperson understands time, territory, prospect, and sales cycle management.
Time for some self-reflection. How do you measure yourself at the four sales factors that influence your sales? I only managed to get better after realizing I didn’t understand the basics and needed guidance.
Books, tapes, and CDs make learning easy in “automobile university,” as Zig Ziglar said. Make use of the windshield time and hone your craft.
Thoughts?