Do you want to make more income next year? Perhaps you have a plan to renovate, pay down your mortgage, or buy a new car, that might not happen if your earnings stay the same. Suppose you set a target to earn $25,000 more next year. If you are paid on performance, that should be realistic, assuming you know what to do to reach that goal. But wishing and hoping won’t get the results you want; the devil is in the details.
Examples of Details
- How many extra sales do you need in order to earn $25,000 more?
- What do you have to do differently in order to make them?
- What new habits do you need to develop?
- What new knowledge or expertise do you need to acquire?
- What activities do you need to alter to reach your goal?
- Do you know your performance stats? A professional ball player knows his numbers and a professional salesperson should too.
- How many attempts to contact someone does it take to finally reach them?
- How many contacts does it take to get an appointment?
- How many appointments do you need to get the opportunity to ask for a sale or to quote?
- How many times do you ask someone to buy before you get an order?
- What about your average size sale?
- Could you prospect for customers with bigger problems that require bigger solutions, which in turn pay a higher commission?
Measure Results
Keep score! Again, the devil is in the details. These leading indicators tell you if you are on track to reach your goals. Without this information, it’s difficult to know what you need to do to differently. But once you have this information – accurate data, you can analyze your next steps.
Have a Plan
You may need to work harder, or smarter, or both. I’m naturally lazy so I’d rather work smarter. I’d improve my ratios by getting better at:
- Asking for referrals so I have to make fewer cold calls.
- Making appointments so the same number of contacts would produce more meetings.
- Qualifying prospects so I’m not wasting my time – or theirs.
- Asking good questions so I truly understand their needs.
- Building rapport and trust so I can get more opportunities to quote.
- Developing proposals and ways of presenting my solutions so prospects trust the recommendations.
- Handling objections so I could make it easy for them to buy.
When you track your statistics, you know where to improve to help you reach your goal. Click here to receive a goal planning tool that will enable you to do this easily. You can reach your goals, but the devil is in the details.
Contact us to learn more about help we help organizations and sales professionals focus on the details.