Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been “considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived.”

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You may recognize the name, and you will also recognize his principles – and yes, they do relate to sales.  Yes, it may seem unlikely, but his principles relate to the occupation of sales in a less than scientific way.   These are actually Newton’s Laws of Motion, and they are universally accepted.  Physics is physics and math is math, yet some things are naturally transferrable to what we do, and these fit that bill.

We will quickly examine two of Newton’s more famous laws and how they relate to sales and the sales process.

Law – Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

This is the law of inertia.  It relates to us that nothing changes until someone does something to change it.

Example I - A sales professional sits in the office contemplating the future, and trying to figure out how he or she is going to make their quarterly goals.  The sales manager calls the rep in and advises that in the last two quarters the quarterly goal was not met.  The manager advised, “Something has got to change quickly and we will be sitting down and discussing it two weeks from now.”

Object – The Sales Rep

State of Motion – Inaction, lethargy, sitting on one’s rear end

External Force – The manager’s promise that action will be taken and the admonition that it would be discussed two weeks from now.

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Example II – A highly performing regional sales unit, the best in the country for this Fortune 500 organization, was doing everything correctly.  The sales unit recently was noted as 21st out of the 22 regional sales operations for the company.  Sinking so low has been difficult, but it was suggested that it was because of the numerous defections from the sales unit.  They had lost their best sales professionals, and the results showed it.

Object – The sales unit

State of Motion – High performance

External Force – Personnel losses, recruitment of the unit’s sales professionals, depletion of talent

Law - For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The strength of this law is that you must anticipate the reaction when you take the action.  This is the best known, and one that is particularly relatable to sales and the sales process.  If you ever step off of a skateboard onto a platform, you feel the skateboard move opposite the way you are attempting to advance.  The movement of the skateboard is considered the reaction.  If you are not careful, you will fall flat on your face.  It is only logical in physics, and in other activities.

Example – A notable employer plans a lucrative sales ‘sprint’ contest to attempt to spur the sale of widgets as it is the most profitable product in the portfolio.  In the process, the sales of the company’s flagship product, ‘gizmos’, suffers and the organization, long considered to be number one in sales of gizmos falls to the number 2 in the sale of that product and thus loses its leadership position and notoriety.

Action – Imposing a sprint campaign to sell widgets

Equal and Opposite Reaction – Sales markedly decreased in the sales of another important product to the point of losing market leadership; activity and presumably sales increase on widgets.

Law – What goes up…must come down!

We cannot forget the most well known of Newton’s Laws: The Law of Gravity. This one is well known, and very simple.  It is the saying that you heard from y0ur mother, your father, or even your coach.  Don’t act like a jerk when you are on the top or on the way to the top, because very few sales professionals get to the top and never come down.   Success is not necessarily fleeting, but it is obvious that many sales professionals forget that over the long haul it is not promised.

We all know sales professionals that have had problems with that issue.

The Balancing Act!

Everything that is done to the sales force by an employer has a reaction, and everything that you do as a sales professional has some ‘physics’ attached to it well.

Be calculated and careful in your moves and anticipate how those moves will be received, as well as whether they get the intended results.

One of the best manager’s I had the pleasure of working for (J.G.), continuously stressed to me that many actions could have unintended consequences, and we should think things out carefully and be prepared for all consequences.  Sometimes you can do everything right, but affect other variables in a way that will one day manifest themselves as ‘a problem’ as a result of your actions.

I have always said that you should “Do the Right Thing!” (Excuse me Spike Lee!), but in many cases, there is a possibility that there is more than one, “Right Thing”.  Have business confidants (people you trust that have good judgement) that can help you with decision making and always make your decisions in light of the advice you get as well as your best judgment.  Businesses have the same problem that individuals do.  Manager’s who run sales operations need to take the same course as individuals, using proper judgment and analysis.  The difference is that managers who make mistakes usually affect more than one person, and usually several in fact.

Newton’s Laws of Motion (these three) are important as when applied to the sales area they can speak to making decisions and the effect on you, your company, and your customers.  It would not hurt to know them as the concepts are universal.

You don’t have to be a scientist to think about these theories.

Be the Best.

Your comments are appreciated. You can reach me at Michael.Parker@BlackSalesJournal.com.

This is a topic that many sales professionals wrestle with, although some get adept with deceiving themselves.  Prospecting is at the foundation of many sales positions, and you cannot avoid it when in those positions.  Take a moment to read this and remember that everyone’s metrics are different based on their effectiveness. You don’t as much have to be scientific, but you do need to be formulaic.

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There is no magic to prospecting, just some real hard work, some simple tactics and gambits, and a realization that the only way to win is volume.  That is volume of calls, volume of appointments, and volume of proposals.  Without that, you will not have a volume of sales. Sales professionals who have done this long enough know that your best effort, even when well directed will still result in a certain amount of rejection and wasted time.  The key to dealing with the rejection is to make enough calls that the rejections don’t bother you and the feelings of wasted time are eclipsed by the successes that you generate. As was discussed in Black Sales Journal, 9 Prospecting Tips For The Black Sales Professional (2/10/2011), this is the most necessary of your activities, even if you are having a banner year.

What is the Definition of a Prospect?

A prospect is a potential customer that you are attempting to take to the next stage of the buying relationship.  Once they buy, they can remain a prospect, even though they are a customer for one of your products or services.  This definition will keep it simple for this discussion.

How Many Prospects Do You Really Have?

You must take an honest accounting.   How many of your prospects truly have an opportunity to move to the next level?  If there is doubt as to their potential, then they fall a “grade”. If you don’t use a system already to grade your prospects, then consider this one: Divide your prospects into 4 groups -

Grade A – High Probability, based on your relationship with the buyer, a match between buyer needs and your product.  Spend adequate time to test these prospects.

Grade B – Better than Average Probability, based on access to the decision maker, buyer needs and your product.  Spend adequate time on these as well.

Grade C – Average Probability, good match of product features and benefits.  These deserve time to develop, and should be reduced to Ds if they do not allow contact or show promise.

Grade D – Lower than Average Probability, based on difficulty with buyer access.

Kiss the Grade Ds Goodbye

Your distribution of “prospects” in the grades is important.  That is why you must be very honest with yourself.  Honest with yourself in a way that you are not honest when discussing your sales funnel with your manager.  This brutal honesty is required because you cannot succeed if you do not have the requisite number of prospects. The first thing I suggest you do is to trade off your D accounts!  If you cannot trade them to another sales professional, then I would suggest you shelve them, as they will only hurt you if you spend time or other resources on them.  D accounts may be a D because of no chance of a relationship, or because of some evidence of preference or prejudice.  Whatever it is, if it is rated a “D”, I would suggest you don’t touch it.

How Many Prospects Do You Need? – Know Your Ratios!

This depends on your goals, and the kind of sales that you are involved in.  To an even greater extent, that is dependent on you, and your sales abilities and effectiveness.  If you are still learning and honing your skills, you possibly will need more than someone who is a consummate veteran. Review your sales records, and calculate your sales ratios. Know these items:

• How many telephone calls you require to get an appointment on average?
• How many appointments it takes to get a proposal?
• How many proposals it takes to get an order?

You can get this from your records if you have been selling for a while.  It will help you construct your ratios.  Your ratios are important because they reflect your selling styles and abilities.  It makes for a good exercise. If you are successful in getting an appointment 1 out of 5 phone calls on average, you know a valuable variable.  If you also know that it takes you 2 appointments on average get 1 proposal, you know another key variable.  The combination of these builds a large part of the equation.

Now if you determine that you get an order on 1 out of every 5 proposals for a hit ratio on proposals of 20%, you know some good information. In the example above, you will note that:

In the example above, you will note that:

Successful Sales –       1

Proposals –                   5

Appointments –           10

Calls Required –          50

Your Ratios are YOUR Ratios!

You must know and respect your ratios.  They will not be exact, yet the longer that you are involved in sales, the ratios will begin to have their own rolling history.  You need to believe them as they only respect the historical, yet you also can change them. If you annual sales goal for new customers is $250,000 and the average sales of the product your company sells is $50,000, you need 5 (average) sales to reach goal. Your ratios would require the following amounts of activity:

Calls Required -            250

Appointments –              50            (1 in 5 phone calls yields an appointment)

Proposals –                     25            (2 appointments gets 1 proposals)

Sales –                               5             (20% of the proposals end in sales)

Meets goal –                  $250,000 in new customer sales

So if you take your goals, and include YOUR ratios, as opposed to the company ratios, you will get a clearer picture of what you need to do.  Remember, as a Black sales professional, your product as well as your receptiveness by the buyer affect your ratios.  There is still racial preference and racial prejudice that will weave its way into the equation.  Be prepared for it, and stock your prospect base in preparation for it. We are talking about averages so be careful.  You may need more or less.  This will serve as a starting point.

A Couple of Tips

Before I close I will drop a couple of tips regarding the impact of your activities.  In any sales job, no matter what they are called, there are activity standards (such as prospecting and quoting), and there are production standards (such as number of sales and dollars of sales.) If you are successful in getting the production standard, you will probably have a job for the next round, yet if you fail in getting your activity standard, and also fall short of your production standard, you are probably in trouble.  Be aware of your goals for both activity and results.  If you are successful in getting your activity through prospecting, and incorporate your ratios, you have a chance to reach your results Good luck and good prospecting.