21:51
Faizan
Most companies keep measuring the number of calls (dials) their business development and sales people make as an indicator of future sales. In working with dozens of companies I've found there's no correlation between the number of calls a person makes and their sales success. Forcing people to do more of what doesn't work is crazy.
I've seen companies' dashboards in their CRM system detail the number of calls all the sales people have made by month, by quarter and year-to-date. The weird thing is that the sales dashboards clearly showed the people who made the most calls had the least sales! No one seemed to care about that statistic.
It's easy to pick up the phone and dial a number. A person will achieve whatever call number you give them. If you want 60 calls in an 8-hour day you'll get 80. If you want 60 calls in 3 hours you'll get 60. But with disappointing results.
What's one thing you can measure that will give you the best indication of future sales success?
Meaningful conversations with stakeholders via phone (or email). When I did this for a business development group they produced spectacular results in less time. Why? When they focused on having conversations with people they did the things they needed to do to get their message relevant for the people they were targeting. They took the time to do research on the people and company they were calling on. They took the time to review the notes about the prospect in their CRM system. You took the time to set call objectives. They took the time to create engaging emails and voicemails.
What would you rather have at the end of the day? 60 calls with no progress or 1 conversation where a key stakeholder, from an ideal target prospect, who has agreed to take the next step with you.
Set up your CRM system to provide you with a dashboard that shows the number of phone and email conversations your sales people are having with prospects; read a sampling of the notes and or emails related to each conversation, so you can identify areas for improvement. You'll have a much better view into how your sales people are doing.
After each meaningful phone conversation with a stakeholder the sales person (or business development person) needs to send a letter summarizing their conversation with the stakeholder. The summary captures what was learned about the current situation, the preferred situation, and agreed to next steps.
I've seen companies' dashboards in their CRM system detail the number of calls all the sales people have made by month, by quarter and year-to-date. The weird thing is that the sales dashboards clearly showed the people who made the most calls had the least sales! No one seemed to care about that statistic.
It's easy to pick up the phone and dial a number. A person will achieve whatever call number you give them. If you want 60 calls in an 8-hour day you'll get 80. If you want 60 calls in 3 hours you'll get 60. But with disappointing results.
What's one thing you can measure that will give you the best indication of future sales success?
Meaningful conversations with stakeholders via phone (or email). When I did this for a business development group they produced spectacular results in less time. Why? When they focused on having conversations with people they did the things they needed to do to get their message relevant for the people they were targeting. They took the time to do research on the people and company they were calling on. They took the time to review the notes about the prospect in their CRM system. You took the time to set call objectives. They took the time to create engaging emails and voicemails.
What would you rather have at the end of the day? 60 calls with no progress or 1 conversation where a key stakeholder, from an ideal target prospect, who has agreed to take the next step with you.
Set up your CRM system to provide you with a dashboard that shows the number of phone and email conversations your sales people are having with prospects; read a sampling of the notes and or emails related to each conversation, so you can identify areas for improvement. You'll have a much better view into how your sales people are doing.
After each meaningful phone conversation with a stakeholder the sales person (or business development person) needs to send a letter summarizing their conversation with the stakeholder. The summary captures what was learned about the current situation, the preferred situation, and agreed to next steps.
Posted in: business
