Want More Sales?

There is a risk of this sounding like a cheesy pick up line and yet somehow the question “Do you want more sales?” manages to grab our attention. We have a similar response to seeing the most abused marketing sign proclaiming that something is “free”.

What is it about these two statements that gets our attention? Quite simply, it is their appeal to the fact that we would actually like to have them- and quite often don't know how to get them. Sales is the lifeblood of any organization. If you are not selling you are not in business. Even charities must sell their message to the marketplace.

So how effective is your sales team? How effective is your sales process? Is sales effectiveness/sales productivity even measured in your organization? Almost all businesses measure sales results (in the form of confirmed orders, invoices and cash flow) but many fail to have such an accurate measuring gauge on the activities that create the sale.

Sales productivity focuses on maximizing your sales results while minimizing the resources required to obtain the sales - such as time, money and effort. Not being a new concept, most people very quickly relate to the statistic that 20% of your clients will often give you 80% of your sales value, that 20% of your efforts give you 80% of your results - like 20% of your products account for 80% of your sales and even the fact that 20% of your sales team will give you 60 to 80% of your sales.

When we understand this, we can focus on analyzing our success so that we can repeat it. We can analyze what is not working so well and tweak or change or stop activities to ensure that we minimize our losses. We will be exploring this topic in coming weeks and months. There are two ways to look at sales productivity:  from the business/sales manager’s perspective and from the individual sales rep’s perspective.

Any rep has to work within the framework that is created for them, so let us start by giving a quick 20 question checklist for your business to ascertain how healthy your sales productivity metrics might be.

There are obviously many more metrics than those in the checklist but this cross section will give a good indication of the potential to have to increase your sales productivity.

Sales productivity is our area of expertise and if your answer to any of these questions concerns you, we can help you to work through improving those areas. Give Mike a call 0272 987 523 - or email mike@thinkright.co.nz for a no-obligation discussion on your needs.

Here’s to your success!