Teryl @ Work

How we love to elaborate…     Both in our personal and business lives.   It is rare to find somebody who simply answers the question. In sales, it is becoming more and more critical to just say yes or no.   If you want to embroider afterwards, by all means, but tell the client you can or you can’t do it, first. That’s what they remember, the yes or the no. Being married to an engineer, I have learnt that if I don’t answer the question, he simply repeats it, until he gets a definitive answer.. As the above is extremely bad for marital relationships, I try to say yes or no first and then give the details. I thought it was just me, but I have been observing my friends and the people I work with, and it is fascinating how few one word answers are immediately available. When you are selling and a client asks you: If the widget turns blue in the dark, say yes if it does,  then  ask if that is a key part ...

Are your salespeople included in setting targets?   Very few are.  Sales targets are based on previous individual performance, sales division performance and budget requirements.   In some companies everybody gets the same target, regardless of abilities or previous successes, while in others it is an enormously complex beast with all sorts of criteria used. While the business requirements have to be met, it is important to discuss and collaborate with the salespeople themselves. Sales is a game, and each time you play a game, you should want to do better.   If you are not competitive by nature, sales can be a very tough career.  It is, anyway. More and more, sales management is about coaching, not managing, so it really important for sales managers to understand how coaching works.  There are great courses out there which guide sales managers through the coaching methodology. A simple, but structured approach to target setting with lots of commun...

 The sales cycle is pretty simple really.  It starts with a prospect, ends with a close, and starts again with the next opportunity. So how do you make the numbers work for you?   First of all, you need to understand your own numbers.  You can benchmark against other sales people, against industry standards and all manner of other statistics, but if you don't know your own hit rates, and own them, you are lost. Sales Managers put complex models together to measure sales people.   This is partly so that they are able to understand what is needed for success from each person.   Unfortunately, many sales people don't spend the time to understand the model, and do not buy into the numbers game. Lets look at a simple example: Target = R1.2 million of new sales per annum Prospect pipeline = R3.6 million Last years hit rate = 20% of pipeline 20% of pipeline = R720 000 Taking this into account, there are two possible scenarios: Improve the hit rate...