5 Essential Steps to Leading a Sales Team

Can you diagnose your business on a 'Single Sheet' of paper? Here are some key steps to help identify your essential competencies and performance metrics. Because numbers don't lie.

1) Identify Your Essential Competencies and Performance Metrics

If I asked you to list all the essential competencies that YOU are in control of - the ones that are absolutely critical for you to be successful in your sales position could you do it?

For example:

Essential Competency or not?

" Converting conversations to appointments? (yes it is)

" What about filling out paperwork? No! (That's a related task)

" What about closing ratio? (Sure it is.)

" Degree of success in turning a first appointment into an opportunity? (absolutely)

Get the picture?

Now, if you truly want to adopt a self-management sales team that will work FOR you - not against you, you first have to "access" what is an essential competency and what's merely a related competency.

To do this, sit down with the team and list any sales metrics and performance numbers inter-related to your competency numbers and your desired revenue results. (Hint: "Sales Cycle" and "Average Revenue" per sale are two.)

2) Diagnose Your Business on a Single Sheet of Paper

If I ran into you on a train or in an elevator, would you be prepared to tell me what you do (and how it benefits me or those I know) - in under 1 minute.

That's called your 30-second commercial speech or pitch. Most people don't have one, yet everybody needs one.

One way to understand more of the obvious benefits your products and services bring to the table is to start to view and diagnose your business more scientifically. You will also see how the numbers work and which areas are most important to your short and long-term success.

Ask yourself, what happens if your closing ratio reduces by 30% and your average revenue per sale increases by $2500? How does that affect your desired results?

Write your competency measurements and sales metrics on a sheet of paper. Calculate ratios in line with competencies and average numbers in line with your sales metrics. Assign your revenue object or quota. Play with the numbers and ratios to see how they are inter-related and how they affect each other.

3) Calculate your 'Magic Number'

"Not setting enough new appointments on a routine basis" is like a malignant cancerous growth slowly eating away at the heart of most sales organizations. “

The reason for this is because most of us do not identify how many new appointments are needed on a weekly basis based on individual competency numbers and performance metrics.

That's like diagnosing with blindfolds on.

Every one is different; we all have a 'Magic Number'. And it's personal to only you. If you routinely achieve it, you will routinely meet your desired results. Since it is a dynamic number that changes from week to week, it's important to understand how it is inter-related with other competency ratios, performance metrics and desired revenue results.

It's important to include your 'Magic Number' in your self-management system.

4) Train to the 'Napkin Rule'

The 'Napkin Rule' simple means, putting aside all those sales automation systems for 30 days and keep track of your essential competency and performance metrics on a single napkin.

Compute updates daily. Store the napkin in your pocket. When the napkin fills up, transfer it to a legal pad to show month to date. Have nothing else on the legal pad except your essential competency ratios and sales performance metrics. After 30 business days, transpose the legal pad metrics to your favorite computer software spreadsheet, and track it for 90 days.

This simple but powerful "Napkin Rule" will help you become the CEO of your business.

5) Run Your Numbers, Don't Run after Quota

Concentrate on your numbers NOT your quota so you can diagnose performance trends before a revenue crisis. Then you have the power to institute strategies and tactics for immediate recovery.

Here's why.

Reaching and exceeding sales quotas consistently has very little to do with product, pricing and competition. But it has everything to do with 'Process'.

Identify the core competencies that are necessary to be successful in your sales routine. Then train to Powerful Routines to increase your ratios of effectiveness. Document these meaningful business metrics and review them weekly. Build a simple but dynamic self-management system and outperform your peers and competition while assuring your revenue success.

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