Everyone in business has goals that they set for themselves periodically, but meeting those goals on time is something that not everyone achieves. No one knows this better than people in sales. Ask a few sales reps how they plan to meet their goals this quarter and you’ll hear a lot of well-meaning, but vague responses like “I’m going to work harder and with greater focus than before.” That’s all well and good but you need more of a plan than that to make tangible improvements in sales performance
Tibor Shanto recently listed a few methods on the Sales Dog Blog. First off, sales reps should become very familiar with their client base. Knowing each client on an almost intimate level can give them a better understanding of where their best efforts are needed. They can then consider getting rid of the bottom feeders: those clients who take up the most time but produce the least revenue and are the most likely to disappear from your client base in near future. These clients are not worth the time; instead reps should be focusing on other leads and their more dedicated and/or profitable existing clients.
Another thing to do is to segment your client base. If it’s unclear what to segment it by, try first separating by smaller and larger clients. Smaller clients typically have a smaller payoff but also take less time to close, and vice versa for larger ones. Depending on your business, it should become clear the ratio of small to large clients that you should be going after that optimizes your revenue vs. the amount of time you spend selling.
Keep close track of your deals and over time you’ll begin to see some trends developing. You should be able to tell who your top prospects are based upon the data you have gathered. Keep a database that not only tags each client by segment but also has a record of all of the time and resources you have spent on them. Periodically, you will be able to do a simple analysis of the data which reveal the winners and losers among your prospects. Go one step further by using a sales intelligence and prospecting tools that will provide even more insights about each of your prospects and help you refine your segmentation process. It sounds like a lot of effort, but in the end you’ll have each of your leads placed into segments ranking from most desirable to least, allowing you to focus on those that will make the most of your time.
That’s time well spent.