Black Sales Journal

2012 may not be a memory yet, but it is effectively ‘old news’.  I hope you have made it through this year, but you have got to be looking toward the future to have a chance.  You should have completed your 2013 plan, but if not, this will help.  Effective planning and hard work are two important ingredients for success!

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I know that it seems premature to focus on 2013, as it is upon us.  1st quarter 2013 is a few weeks away.  You are probably busy trying to close out the 4th quarter of 2012.

If your manager has not done it yet, he or she will say: “What are you projecting for 2013?  I need your numbers!”  You need to be ready for that conversation, but more than that you should do the preparation as it tells you what type of a 2013 you can have.

Between now and the end of the year the management of your organization will engage in the following activities:

• Plan 2012 new production metrics
• Plan next year’s revenue from existing customers
• Set your 2012 personal goals and metrics
• Make decisions on manpower in the sales organization

Another reason to finalize your 2013 planning is that in many industries you do not want to  ‘miss’ the first quarter as this period is instrumental to reaching your annual goal.  Preparation for a strong first quarter cannot start in January 2013, as a matter of fact; it starts now.  It should benefit you by giving you focus and clarity as to what you must do to be successful.

What you can do is to prepare your production scenarios so that your conversations with your manager are productive and based on fact and logic.  You will stand out from the rest.   It is time to give good thought to next year!

Putting Together a Plan

You should be able to project your 2012 successes within the realm of reasonability, and avoid the “stab in the air” that comes with having no basis for your calculations when asked.

Your plan should be to:

• Project your 2013 success based on your knowledge of 2012 and 2011 in terms of hit ratio and total sales production.
• List your major prospects by month and quarter, with recognition of your chances of success (by percentages).
• Work your formula (Black Sales Journal 2/28/2011 – How Many Prospects Do You Really Need?) showing what you need to be successful and refine the numbers including statistics that are applicable to you and your situation.
• You should estimate your retention of existing customers, and whether they will buy at the same levels

Armed with this information, you would be able to have much more educated estimates as to what your successes will be for first quarter, and for all of 2013.  Knowing your prospects, your basic success rates, and your average account or sale size will lead you to be able to do a lot of wise forecasting.

Your Business Plan

Once you put all of the variables together, you will have the basis to put together a business plan that will show what type of success that you should be having.  Remember that you are doing it for you.  You are taking this excellent opportunity to review your 2011, and construct from this a logical projection of your efforts for 2013.

Many organizations have assistance for you in the form of Salesforce.com, Gold Mine, or other tailored sales and customer relationship management (CRM) software.  Whether they exist or not, your exercise is for you, then you can use it to fill in the blanks for any company sponsored software plan.

Your Business Plan discussion with Your Manager

Every organization is different, so your organization may have a routine in place for your conversation with your manager regarding your ‘plan’.  Most organizations have a process, although timing is not always well devised.

Here is your chance to “put a stake in the ground” on numbers and your thoughts.  Chances are your manager will be looking for higher numbers, and that may mean stretching your numbers upward.  Your manager will be pleased with, and maybe even excited about, your diligence in putting together numbers as they have to give the same requisite thought to the prospects possibilities and abilities of the sales professionals that work in their particular unit.

Benefit “You” First

Some larger organizations have already begun that process.  Much depends on the complexity of the planning cycle.  In medium and smaller organizations, the time is now.

This process is for you.  It may tell you that you have a lot of work to do, or you’re your funnel is replete with strong prospects.  Take a moment to do this exercise for your own benefit, and you will also have fodder for your sales discussion.   Remember to be honest about the prospecting part as it does you no good to plan the prospects for next year while you know that some of the prospects are actually ‘suspects’ (prospects that you doubt can come to fruition).

Be prepared for that conversation, and for the year ahead.

Always be prepared.  Your comments are welcome.

I was gifted by having a good sales manager in my career, and I considered myself a solid responsive sales manager when it was my turn.  Remember, you will not know every reason why your sales manager does something, but you will be intuitive as to whether your manager is working in your interest.  Read this and give it some thought.

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Your sales manager can be your biggest asset.  They can have a profound effect on your income, your job title, and your longevity in your position.  If they are a successful manager, they do many activities that help you find success, yet by text book definition, the role of management is to plan, organize, lead, and control (POLC).

That description is certainly not a listing of activities that they do as much as the categories that the tasks would be assigned to.  The management role can be the most positive thing about a sales job, or it could be one of the most negative.  The person in the role will make all of the difference.

The unit sales manager or field sales manager will find and hire talent, provide important training, and will manage the ‘troops’ in the effort to make quotas.  No one is more important in the role of a new sales professional.  Additionally, if this person is good at the job, no one is more instrumental in the role of a successful sales professional, even if it’s because he removes obstacles, and stays out of the way.

I am going to share three key points that one of my former managers taught me in the course of his management of my early sales career.  I am not saying that I agreed with all of these points when I worked for him, yet it was amazing in how clear the logic was once I got into sales management.

Do the Most Important Things First!

When I was a young sales professional, I had a manager (I will call him Jim) who always had stellar sales results.  He constantly challenged the sales professionals and could mix in this motivation with some rather ‘pointy’ jabs about your performance.

He was in sales management for well over 30 years, and he knew the turf.  He was hopelessly impatient and let you know it at every turn.  His knowledge of the sales process well exceeded his product knowledge, yet believe me, he was extremely effective.

We would have meetings about our sales funnel prospects that would rival scenes from some of the greatest sales movies (such as Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992, David Mamet) and there was no doubt as to who was in charge.  The process was fluid and the expectation was simple…sell, sell, and sell.

Here are three primary points that he paid attention to:

Pay attention to the most important factors and work them!

He knew that a couple of the items that were most important were prospecting and quoting, and you could not find a rock to hide under that could shield you if you did not do these activities.  It was clear evidence that if you were doing the ‘grunt’ work, that you could have some success even if other facets were weak.

Jim would shield you from upper management, to a degree, if you were doing the most important things and making money for you and him.  The practice was successful as his units had the highest sales numbers, and he provided the highest amount of challenge, sarcasm, and support.  Eventually you would have to do some things that he did not think were important either, yet the real testament to his flexibility was that he knew when it was important to ‘show’ well.

Pay attention to your most productive sales professionals, and get the most out of them while you groom the next star for your unit.

Jim qualified for all of the sales trips because he know this important fact that.  His power and influence came from having the unit be on top.  I cannot say that I always agreed with the approach, yet it worked for him.  He knew that he had some ‘horses’ that he could ride in the present, and he would need more firepower in the future, and that was a constant vigil.  In the beginning, I was obviously opposed because when I was one of those ‘newbies’ who needed help as I found my time pre-empted by some of the veteran sales professionals.

I learned that the unit had to survive, and be on top, and that was to all of our benefit.  Having a conversation about it would not have helped, as no one wants to hear that someone else was more important.  In the end I eventually got my time, and made the most of it.

‘Smell the Breath’ of the Customer!

Be on as many calls as you can reasonably do, so that you can bring the message from the customer back to the organization.  Jim knew that if he stayed at the office that he would never have a complete feel for why sales efforts fail.  He decided that attention would be given to those who took him out to present quotations, or even to develop key prospects.

He knew that he could better explain our weaknesses in program and pricing to upper management if he heard it from the buyer without filter.  Additionally, relationships were out there to make, and being in front of the buyer allowed this to happen.

The best sales manager leads in this way, and controls in this way.  Leading sales professionals from the office does not work.  You have got to go out and ‘smell the breath of the customer’, and Jim did not take that lightly.

Relationships happen for good reason when there is a ‘connection’, and Jim was able to make connections that I was not able to make.

The Wrap-up

So when you ask that inevitable set of questions:

Why the heck is she always on me about prospects?  I feel as if I have a babysitter!

Or

What do I have to do to get some attention here?  This is ridiculous.  He spends way too much time with those two guys.

Or

What is going on with this pressure to go out on calls with me, does he not trust me?  I can’t believe that he wants to go with me…again!

You may have the answers above.

Your comments are always welcome.