Coach a Sales Process: Manage Funnel Strength and Activities to Reach Goals

I had the following conversation with a sales team I was training a few days ago.  The team was behind sales, revenue, and margin goals year-to-date.

Our conversation started with, “What’s the goal?” They asked, “The sales goal?” I nodded.  They quickly and rather smugly announced the year’s sales’ goals by channel.  Each channel was represented in the room by one or two salespeople - capital equipment sales in two markets and aftermarket sales.  I wrote their answers on a flip chart.

I then asked, “What are the year’s sales-to-date by channel?” Without hesitation, they responded with the numbers - their confidence growing with every answer.  I continued to write.

(Impressive.  This was unusual.  Most sales teams do not know their team goal or their year-to-date progress toward its achievement.  Even more telling, most salespeople do not have goals, but that’s a story for another time.)

I then looked at them and asked, “How many quotes are pending (the number and $ amount), and one more stage up in your sales funnel how many prospects do you have - not yet quoted (the number and $ amount)?” Silence.  Confusion.

I explained, “I want to know the number of quotes still viable and awaiting a decision and how much revenue they represent.” “Do you know these numbers at this stage in your sales funnel?” Silence. “Then, I want to know how many qualified prospect deals you are chasing for an opportunity to quote and the estimated revenue they represent.”

“Do you know these numbers?” Silence - more silence ... and, some shook their heads no, while others formed and softly said the word aloud ... “no.”

I continued, “Those numbers are just as important as sales-to-date - Why?” One salesman in the group ventured a guess, “Because knowing the number of quotes and pending prospects will tell us if we are finding and working enough potential deals to achieve our goals by the end of the year.” I reinforced his answer, “Yes, and if you know how much is presently in your funnel, you also know, if in the time remaining, you have a prayer of achieving goal!” At this point in the training, everyone was beginning to nod and a coaching “ah-ah” effect had entered the room. 
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Most sales managers do not help their salespeople manage a sales funnel - it’s strength and size, and the proper amount of prospected opportunities.

When they begin to do so, these benefits occur.  They ...
- Smooth out the valleys peaks and valleys of roller coaster sales
- Focus their people on qualified prospects and strategies to win sales-in-progress (quoted deals)
- Learn to produce more accurate forecasts
- Make better strategic prospecting adjustments earlier in the goal achievement period
- Keep new lead generation at an appropriate level

All of which contribute to higher sales, lower selling expenses, and greater sales efficiencies.

Managing a sales funnel begins with defining its stages and with getting everyone on the same page with terminology.  Here’s a rather standard description of a three (3) stage sales funnel.  Stage one, at the top, contains those leads or opportunities as yet undefined for funding, needs, or when the buyer want ownership to begin (installation schedule, purchase, etc.) For leads in what we will call the Opportunities (Stage One), a salesperson has not been in front of a buying influence with a first appointment - one in which the above items are discovered.

Stage Two, Prospects, contains those opportunities in which a first appointment has occurred with a decision maker AND a salesperson has learned about the needs, situation, funding, and schedule of the pending purchase.  The rest of this stage contains subsequent appointments and advances that win the ability to quote and that occur before giving a final presentation and quote.

Stage Three, Quotes, contains all quoted deals still pending an estimated award date to you or your competition.  A final presentation to a decision maker(s) usually advances a prospect into this quoted stage.

A few notes to remember ...
1.  Make the stage description work with your business.  We have customized these for hundreds of companies.
2.  Teach everyone the stage descriptions.
3.  Be aware that the amount of time that a lead flows through every stage of the funnel ranges from 5 minutes to 5 years.
4.  Understand that the opportunity ratio is the ratio of leads to qualified prospects.  if this ratio is excessive, there might be lead generation strategies to change.
5.  Discover your closing ratio - ratio of quotes to sales.  It’s another area for improvement, training, or strategic change.
6.  Calculate selling expenses from lead to sale to help you with important decisions regarding people resources and expenditures.

Finally, remember that managing a sales funnel means that you have a well-defined sales process.  And, this provides you and your salespeople with a better focus for improving sales goal achievement.  Now, put your funnel together and learn to better manage and coach sales activity levels and strategies.  You can do this.  Lance.

The Value of a Salesperson’s Time

How much do you aspire to make next year?  50,000, 100,000, 200,000??

For the sake of an example, let’s use 100,000.  You can adjust the example for your situation.  If you work 2000 hours a year (40 hours per week), you will earn $50 per hour.  Every hour that completes itself contributes the most cherished component of a salesperson’s day - time.

For high activity salespeople, with sales cycles, from initial contact to close, is 90 days or less ...
How do you handle interruptions to sales time?  How does your world interrupt your selling time.  How much of your day do you spend either in front of someone or fighting to get in front of someone?  How much of your day is spent idle?  How much of your day do you react to things rather than schedule them?  How much of your day do you spend prospecting or selling in a face-to-face meeting in order to achieve your sales goal?  And, finally ... how much of your day is spent maximizing the amount of time you spend face-to-face in front of prospects?

And, for major accounts’ sales teams, with sales cycles of 90 days and up, even 2 years or more ...
How much of your time is spent thinking about strategies?  How much of your time involves getting other peoples’ input into next steps?  How much time do you put into writing and rewriting emails, approach letters, responses to questions, powerpoints, etc.?  How much of your time is spent finding ways to get the next important advance accomplished - one that moves the sale another degree in your favor?  In other words, how do you structure your sales time to plan out the next thing to do with the right person(s) at the right time - then do the sales action - and then review your account positioning to plan out the next thing to do, etc. etc. etc.?  Plan - Do - Review, Plan - Do - Review.

For a salesperson, whether high activity or major accounts, time is valuable.  It may be used differently - it’s still valuable.  With 2000 hours in a year, one hundred thousand dollars is earned one hour at a time ... $50 dollars an hour. 

And, once gone, a salesperson cannot recover time - it’s gone - $50 or more each and every hour - burned up by waste or good intentions or a lack of understanding

At $100,000 a year - $50 an hour
At $200,000 a year - $100 an hour

How many sales do you need to make to earn $100,000?  $200,000 ... $300,000
Divide the number of sales in a year by 2000 hours in a year and you know the number of hours available for each sale.

For example, a cellular salesperson for some companies must make 1000 sales in a year to earn $100,000.
1000 sales ÷ 2000 hours = 1 sale every 2 hours (lots of face-to-face time in a week)

In some firms, a commercial real estate broker must make 10 sales in a year to earn $200,000 ...
10 sales ÷ 2000 hours = 1 sale every 200 hours (200 hours mostly made up of planning and reviewing before doing a prospecting or face-to-face activity)

So, do you value your time at $50 or more per hour?  Do you realize that what you do with time is having a dramatic effect on your family’s security or well being, or your achievement, or your security, or the recognition you receive, or just your ability to do your duty - to achieve a minimum sales amount for your company?

Remember these tips ...
- Every meeting does not need to be an hour long.
- Do not automatically say yes to any use of time.
- Every email does not instantaneously need to be responded to or even read.
- The use of the Internet needs to improve your sales during sales time.
- When someone wants to talk with you for “30 sec,” do you just react and by your actions say, “Yes?”
- Schedule more of your day calendar into blocks of productive time.
- Block out time to find new opportunities (lead generation) and time to prospect them on the phone.
- Block out appointment time for face-to-face sales calls.
- Block out time for important strategy sessions (major accounts)
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We often forget about our most valuable sales asset - time.  The activity trap of multiple tasks, sensory lures, and interruptions get us off track.  Let’s stop the cycle or at least begin the process of slowing it down now.  You can do it.  Keep remembering at the end of the day, and the year, what’s important - really important, and change.  Get better.  Lance.

The Wisdom of an Ant

What can salespeople learn from an ant?  What knowledge can we find in its ways?  Common varieties are only 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch long.  What could we possibly learn from this insignificant creature of the earth?

Plenty.

Some years for us provide economic strength.  Others do not.  Several years may pass before this planet’s people live with greater prosperity.  What does this mean for a salesperson and activity management.  What does this mean for money management or goal achievement?

Salespeople work to achieve sales goals - personal goals - for income needs.  Some days, weeks, and months are better than others.  Like the ant, the math in our closing rates works out over time if we stay consistent in our work ethic - in our sales activities.  This is where the ant’s story fits in ...

The ant just continues to work.  It really isn’t affected by moods or a lack of caffeine or even bank rates. Ants manage their activities as if their survival was in danger.

A wise man once said, “ Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Ants don’t need managers.  They gather food when they need to gather food.  All other activities make way for harvesting the food and storing it as provisions for winter.  What if we worked in that way? What % of a sales team’s weekly work hours would be spent face-to-face with a prospect or fighting to get in front of a prospect - 50 - 60 - 75%?  For many sales teams, it’s 10% or less!

And, what happens when a sales team or salesperson gets ahead of goal?  Many slow down.  Yes.  They slow down.  Very few continue to work just as hard in the time remaining.  Most ease up away from making additional sales and storing their extra commissions in a savings account.

So, consider the ant the next time you see sales declining or inclining ... and keep on keepin on.  If you think about it, with the right salespeople, sales managers are only needed to help them work smart ... not to help them work. Be better.  You can.  Lance.

Hard Work - A Crucial Character Trait

Great salespeople work hard.  And, along with honesty and personal responsibility toward others, hard work is an essential character trait found in top sales performers.  When we recruit well, background checks, resumes, and other screening and interviewing skills focus on the discovery of this trait.

All hard work provides a profit to a salesperson. Why? ... sometimes work doesn’t produce a sale.  Even so, continuing to work hard strengthens approach methods, presentation skills, and other types of sales muscle.  It also keeps people ‘alive’ and connected to hope as the perseverance they show improves their character.

A salesperson who slows down their work over any time period will see decreases in sales and sales strength.  First, the number of prospects and opportunities they find begin to lessen, then the number of appointments decrease.  This decreases the number of presentations and quotes and finally it impacts sales revenue.  This low activity begins to erode their sales skills and instincts as the number of sales opportunities decrease.  Just like a ship that stays at harbor, the barnacles of misuse corrode their skills.  They rust.

When someone slows down or changes into a “slacker,” they often become a brother to someone who tears down a sales team.  Unproductive people look for something to take the place of their idle hands.  When they stop working, one behavior they turn to is gossip.  Slackers talk about how bad things are and about the faults of their leaders.  Their words and their sluggard work demeanor influence those around them.  So, whether they realize it or not, they begin the work of tearing down what’s around them instead of building it up.

We’ve all seen the effects of lazy salespeople - low sales, bad morale, etc.  Recently, a sales team described a lack of hard work as ... misuse of time leading to poor time management, less energy, lack of passion, gossip, excuses, pity parties, and an inability to find or get results out of opportunities.  They actually refuse to work hard.

(Note: There is nothing better than to find satisfaction in your work - to strive against the grain of mediocre production - to enjoy your work and to fight for the benefit of others.  My dad many times while we were growing up said, “I don’t care what you do ... I don’t care if you’re a ditch digger, just be the best ______ditch digger you can be.”)

When screening candidates, look for ‘hard work’ evidence in their background and resumes.

For example, if you looked into the background of my oldest son, you would find that for eight years he got up at four in the morning to develop his swimming abilities.  Or, if you talked with my business partner, you would find that he picked potatoes for years prior to college.  In other words, look for periods of time where the candidate had to sacrifice something for long periods of time in order to provide for or better themselves.  There can also be instances where this trait is learned through the expectations of the candidate’s family growing up.

Here’s one question to ask during a structured interview, “Please tell me about a time in your life when you had to sacrifice in order to achieve something important.  What did you sacrifice?  Why? (Award maximum of 5 points only if candidate mentions something notable, and that time was sacrificed and work effort was expended, and if the candidate explains the motivation as the need to achieve, win, provide for others, or reach a goal.) x no. of pts

Find salespeople who want to work hard - who want to be productive.  If you do, coaching their success becomes easier, and you, as a manager, look smart.  Finally, make sure that they are people who are honest and take personal responsibility for their actions and obligations.  Lance.

Prospecting Like a Machine

When your peers watch you, they see you prospect like a machine.  Nothing stops you from the hunt.  As a result, prospecting consistency smoothes out the hills and the valleys of sales production.  Your sales revenue rises and falls at an average equal to or above your goals.

When people look over your shoulder, they see a disciplined prospector - someone with a laser focus who puts first things first.  You schedule at least an hour each day alongside other important appointments to call your leads.  You keep your prospecting time sacrosanct.

For the hours that you set aside, you track results - contacts and first appointments set.

You work to increase your prospecting efficiency - contacts and appointments per hour, and your prospecting effectiveness - first appointments with target market leads (your ideal profile).

Those who watch, who are without your discipline, marvel at the amount of prospects you find and move into sales-in-progress (quotes).  And, they marvel at how your sales production, while rising from one month to the next, manages to stay near your goal achievement plan. 

They see a professional.  YOU.  Best regards, Lance.

Working Strategies to Win Major Accounts

If you look up the word “strategy” in various dictionaries, you find military terms like conducting, devising, or developing campaigns (or wars) to achieve a goal.  Squad leaders gather to decide approaches, methods, and lines of attack designed to win.  They spend much time planning a strategy and reviewing the results after the strategy is tactically deployed in the field.

Think about a football team that prepares for a game.  What do they know before the game begins?  What information do they use to choose what plays to run and to plan out their defensive and offensive schemes? 

During the game, what discussions occur?  How does the quarterback or coach decide what to do next?  Why do they decide to use certain plays at certain times and at certain points in the game and at certain locations on the field?

Winning major accounts require strategic thought.

Those teams and individuals who successfully win new major accounts spend more time in thought and less time in action.

They work a planned process to position what they do before they do it.  They lay out their moves in relation to all the information available.  They seek to be in the right place with right people and with right presentation.  Take your time with the “big ones.” Lance

By the way, here is a good book review of Neil Rackman’s Major Account Sales Strategy by Rob Reed see book review.

A Leap in Sales Performance

Do you want to make a quantum leap in sales performance?  Of course you do.  However, many people use words like ‘quantum leap’ as a cliché - as an empty promise.  And, there are lots of clichés.  Let’s go to the next level!  ... to the next generation! 

How do you increase performance beyond the past?  Are you ready?  Do you want the answer? 

It’s simple.  Increase face-to-face sales time.  Yes! - that’s it.  Just increase face-to-face sales time - the amount of time spent face-to-face “with the right prospects” each week.

In one Fortune 500 corporation’s study, salespeople spent 8% of their time each week in front of prospective new customers, or 3 to 4 hours.

What a staggering discovery!  The rest of the week this sales force worked to complete administrative tasks, customer service tasks, and lead generation tasks.  They handled customer problems, returned calls from previous buyers, finished and distributed paperwork (paper or Internet), and networked to uncover new leads.  And, Murphy’s Law applied - “Work expanded to fill the time available,” and sales performance decreased.

Count them.  How many hours a week do you spend face-to-face with prospective customers?  2, 6, 10, 20??? In high activity selling, as the number increases from 10 to 20 hours+ per week, the quantum leap takes place and sales performance radically improves.

What would have to change for you to spend more time in front of the right prospective customers?  Answer the question and then go and make things better.  Lance.

I’m Looking for Consistency - A Pattern

I’m a field rep and I love the idea of independence and an income opportunity without a ceiling.  I do see the possibilities, but I also feel a challenge to its accomplishment. 

What challenge? 

It’s not really time management.  No.  I think it’s self-management.

In the beginning, I’m completing new employee paperwork, learning product information, making a prospect list, and beginning to set and hold appointments.  Things start well.  I’m even making a few sales with and without the help of my sales manager. 

Then, I find that I’m missing something.  I’m still in survival.  Each month I feel the pressure to produce, and I want to produce, but something’s missing.  I’m looking for a pattern - a model - a successful process, that when I repeat the steps (1, 2, 3, etc.), I am fully confident in reaching a certain level of performance.

Words like accountability just do not quite define it.  Focus gets a little closer.  I want to know where I am in a process that, if followed, ensures my success. I want something simple - something easy that helps me stay on track.

Different activities share time with sales activities.  The activities I necessarily do range from paperwork, eating, sleeping, family needs, physical fitness, networking, phoning, returning calls, holding appointments, preparing presentations and quotes, sending out mail, product training, sales meetings, etc.

Some of these activities do not directly produce income.  They are important but not critical to making sales.

I believe what I need is self-management, but I’m thinking there’s a better set of words, and they are ... Activity Management.  Lance.

Some Sales Planning Basics

Some Basics ... Sales blocking and tackling stuff (use anything that will help you or your people) ...

The following information contains questions and comments that will help your salespeople develop new business.  They will also help create a value-focused attitude and sales tools for what you provide ... 


Ask these questions ...

1st - “Do you believe in your ability to deliver value to customers or clients?” Yes or No. 
(If you get past this one, continue. If not, do something else.) 

2nd - “Do you believe that people exist who need what you have?” 
(If you get past this one, continue. If not, do something else.) 


3rd - “What typical situations do these people face?” 

4th - “What needs and problems do they have as they face their situation?” 

5th - “What do needs/problems cost people in terms of $$ or emotional impact?” 

6th - “What typical solutions do you provide?” 

7th - “What will $$ or emotional impact will your solution bring?” 

Now, answer all of these questions on a piece of paper. 


Then, have your people do these exercises:

Help them develop three (3) tools from these questions. 

- Tool #1 ... a 30 sec. statement about what you do, who you do it for, and what typical benefits you provide. 

- Tool #2 ... an approach letter that they can mail out that asks for an appointment and explains what’s in Tool #1. 

- Tool #3 ... a set of open-ended questions that start with: who, what, where, when, why, how, describe, tell, or explain ... that when asked of prospects gets them talking about the typical situation, needs, and problems you listed in #4 above. You will use these questions when in front of prospects and you may use one or two of them when at networking events. 



Next, decide what people, vertical markets, or companies you will put on a prospecting list. List all the companies on a sheet of paper and get any information you can about who makes decisions about what you sell.  Or, when you call, simply ask the question, “Who makes decisions about ‘x.’”


Suggestions:

Now ... 

1. Join a Business Networking International group to exchange leads for prospecting. 

2. Join the Chamber of Commerce and get to know people who can give you leads to prospect. You will also meet small business owners there. 

3. Mail out ten (10) approach letters (tool #2 above) each week and call these people each week for an appointment. Read Bill Goods, “Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success” to learn what to say when you call - use a script as a basic building block to work from. 

4. Also, mail out the approach letter to referrals you receive when networking (mentioning the name of the person who gave you the referral).
5. Cold call (telephone: see Bill Good’s book above) or cross residential or company thresholds cold if you have to in the early part of your career.  

6. When you go on appointments, ask permission to ask your questions (tool #3 above).  Tell the prospect that you want to understand their present situation to see if there are need and problems you can help. Ask your questions, take notes, paraphrase your understanding and, if they have needs and problems you can help, ask to set a 2nd appointment to get back to them with a customized proposal.  If the solution is complex, and other buying influencers are present, then set appointments with them and ask them questions as well.

7. Set an appointment to present your solution and its investment. 

8. Count on doing 3 presentations to get one sale when thinking about your income. 



These basic exercises and suggestions will remove salespeople from the role of “snake-oil salesperson.” They help people work with high integrity and on the needs and problems of others. They’re just basic.  (Also read: Ron Willingham’s “Integrity Selling.” It’s one of those ‘basically“ good sales books.) Any of the above can be expanded and made better.  Do it.  Great selling. Lance.

Manage Sales Activities and Two Important Ratios

When the sales cycle is greater than ninety (90) days and begins to move toward six (6) months or greater, the closing rate is an unimportant way to manage sales performance. In these longer sales cycles, it is more important to manage the funnel size and to focus on strategies not activities (please reference Neil Rackman’s research in his book “Managing Major Account Sales"). 

For shorter sales cycles, ninety (90) days or less, activity ratios become very important and should be focused on for sales goal achievement. And, in these high activity sales teams, the following ratios are: 



1st Appointments to Quotes (or presentations) 
- This is the Opportunity Ratio and tells a person how qualified are their prospects. A higher rate means a pool of more highly qualified prospects who have needs and problems that the salesperson can help with their service or product. This measures the effectiveness of a salesperson converting 1st appointments into presentations (quotes), and is generally affected by the quality of the prospect and a salesperson’s ability to get the prospect to agree to a presentation based on existing needs and problems. 



Quotes (or presentations) to Sales 
- This is the traditional Closing Ratio, and measures the effectiveness of a salesperson’s face-to-face skills at the end of the sales cycle. In Major Account selling, the sales manager is not effective being thrown in toward the end of the sales cycle. In High Activity selling, i.e. short sales cycles, the sales manager is effective at the end of the cycle. He can help the salesperson with closing sales. (Note: If the sales cycle averages several days and can be as long as ninety (90) days, then one must look at these ratios over a year’s period of time to truly understand what they are.)

How do you track these?  Better still ... how to your salespeople track these?  And, remember, in Major Account Sales, manage the funnel size and the sales strategies for movement in the funnel.  Celebrate the advances.  Now, go and make things better.  You can.  Lance.

Sales Performance in Retail Financial or Wireless Services?

After twenty+ years of working with sales teams in banking, financial services, and other BtoB companies, I’ve discovered a foundational problem to exist in Retail Financial and Wireless Services ... And, it’s the word “Retail.”

While the banking industry has transformed itself in many ways, especially with terms like “sales,” it still has a “wait at home” mentality - or, “Build enough branches and they will come.” The people chosen for sales roles often have low social drive and and personalities that comfortably wait for business to walk in the door.  And, most though they talk the sales talk, would rather focus on operational or product issues than face an aggressive campaign for new customers.  Therefore, sales performance improvements in Retail Financial Services will need to start by installing a new system of attitudes and processes that will also include:  a better common sales language, best coaching or sales management practices, and an outside sales-focused selection process.

The Wireless Industry started out differently - with an aggressive outside sales force.  Today, it’s hard to find an outside salesperson in wireless worth much of anything.  The industry has moved toward retail.  And, even though inside reps have many opportunities for outside sales - they typically sit still and wait. (with some exceptions: like Verizon’s independent distributor: Cellular Sales).  The whole outside sales thing has slowly cooked itself into warm soup.  Meanwhile, many small businesses wish for a wireless rep they could trust - one that would keep up with their changing data and connection needs.

To improve their cultures, the selection process for both these industries must recruit salespeople suited for outside prospecting, goal achievement, and an ability to control the sales process - all within a consultancy approach. Increased sales performance will take a major step forward with GREAT recruits and GREAT “outside sales” coaching.

Sales manager coaching will center around basic sales processes like: sales planning, an activity management process, and a face-to-face sales process.  These processes, installed in retail financial and wireless organizations (reinstalled here), along with high-performance sales meetings will establish a new sales paradigm within a best practice sales system - one that progressively improves itself in incremental steps. This also means that great sales coaches will emerge as the champions of this movement - meaning that THEIR selection (the coaches) as well as the salespeople will be of upmost importance to the retail financial or wireless organization that wants increased sales performance.. Now, go and make things better.  Lance