Paying attention to growing sales and revenues is a challenge for many sales reps and leaders. It takes amazing, ongoing focus on the activities that lead to new revenues in order to grow business and ultimately succeed as a professional seller.
Here are three ideas you can implement – or if you are a leader, make sure your team is working on - to help you stay on course.
1) MONDAY MORNING CHECKLIST – create a list at the end of the day on Friday, or if you are like me, on Sunday afternoon and go through a sort of your prospect data to see who you need to talk with this week. Since you have prospect details in your CRM with next actions set, it should not be an issue to pull up a list of items to do, which will lead you to more revenues. If your CRM will allow you to do this inherently, that is a great thing.
One way or another you need to prioritize in order to get things done. Consider learning about the GTD (Getting Things Done) system for, well, getting things done. Using this system, created by productivity guru David Allen, you can learn how to prioritize and accomplish more.
WHAT? You don’t have your leads well organized and updated for important next actions? Start doing this! It is critical you set next actions and stay clear on further qualifying your buyers.
Know at what stage each of your prospective buyers are in and how you can add value. Using the MMC (Monday Morning Checklist) you can stay on track.
2) DAILY PROSPECTING TIME– If you are in growth mode for sales, you need to set time every day to prospect for new business. This means that unless you get 100% of your business through referrals, you need to prospect. Mark this time in your calendar so that you’re not deterred by common distractors like reading all of your email or surfing the web (even if you call it research). Block time every day and honor that time to call prospective customers and to email as necessary with the intention of moving sales opportunities forward. You've GOT to do this! How about prospecting first, THEN have your first coffee of the day, or do something else you really enjoy doing.
Drastic? Maybe, but it gets the job done.
3) MAKE A SALES HIT LIST– Yep, a "hit list". Great sales professionals don’t just work with anyone – they target a list of companies or individuals they want to do business with. This list is based on who would make a more-probable (rather than less-probable) prospective customer and who you’ve determined is the type of client you’d like to work with. For us, we look for companies that are known for being industry leaders and companies with great reputations – top tier in how they treat their own customers and their employees, with great leadership. On your list, choose some real “stretch” goal companies – ones you may think today that you have no chance at, because as you hone your presentation and value proposition, you can get closer to these dream clients. Put the list on a wall in your office or cube – look at it every day. Which company can you call on this week?
By implementing these three, simple ideas, you can help keep focus on revenue development and less on the internal issues we tend to get totally bogged down with.
What’s your strategy?
Do you have a great system in your CRM to get this done
Let us know @scoremoresales
Lori Richardson helps mid-sized companies grow revenues by solving key issues in their sales department - like recruiting, retention, diversity hiring, process, pipeline and leadership. She speaks at CEO groups on topics of sales growth. Clients include companies in the technology, telecom, manufacturing, distribution, and professional services industries. Subscribe to the award-winning blog, follow her on Twitter
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