What If?

By Steve Jensen

5 min read

Maybe we look at the New Year and resolutions the wrong way. We start with an end goal and work our way back to what we need to do to get there. But are we leaving something on the table when we do that?

What if we went about setting goals and resolutions in the opposite way? What if we looked at the difference each action made and added up what the total change would be by, say 2021? What I mean by that is what if we took a small metric (like time-to-close or number of starts), and we looked at the effect of small, incremental change?

Whether you are a sales leader coaching your team or a sales rep trying to achieve better results, this can be a powerful way of thinking.

As a rep, for example, say your average number of starts per year was something like 500, and that lead to $1,000,000 in Sales and $100,000 in commission to you. What if you started just 10% more opportunities—50 additional starts. What would that mean for the company and your bottom line for 2020?

It seems to me that goals set in this way are maximized, and the effort to achieve them is a known quantity from the start. Since you know what is possible, you won’t leave anything on the table.

Looking at the basic sales equation, there are four variables that can change to affect the outcome: number of starts, win rate, length of the sales cycle, and average deal value. The equation looks like this:

# * $ * %

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Knowing the basic equation lets you play “what if.” What if you increased the value of each deal? What if you sold each deal quicker? The magic of this formula is that you can see the direct result of your actions. The best example is to change everything by 10%. Start 10% more deals. Make them 10% larger. Win 10% more and do it 10% faster. The change will amaze you: it’s 47%. That’s almost 50% more sales for 10% more effort!

Using the sales formula as your own “what if” calculator is the best way to set goals and resolutions for the coming year. You will know exactly what is required and exactly what the result will be. Your strategy is laid out for you, and you can execute knowing what your hard work will achieve.

One of the great things about Xvoyant is that is has a What If calculator built-in. It takes your current level for each of the variables (which it calculates from your Salesforce entries) and shows you the result of any change.

As you move the sliders, it shows the resulting change over time.

In the screenshot above, a 10% change in each variable yields an additional $23k in sales.

And, you can work backward to establish goals.  Say you wanted to move from High Core performance to Star performance. As you change the input, it shows your resulting position. When the dot moves into Star, you can see exactly what you need to do to get there.

Think about how much better it is to say, “I am going to sell 23% more this year,” than “I am going to sell more this year.” Consider the fact that you know the activities and amounts that need to happen to get there. It will certainly give you a stronger resolution and increase your chances of achieving your goal.

If you haven’t thought about it this way before, try using this method for your 2020 resolutions. You’ll find that goals are much easier to define and that planning for each goal is simple. There are 4 types of goals:

Skill—goals centered on the learned ability to perform a task well, with focus, accuracy, and talent.

Activity— goals focused on tasks necessary to move opportunities from one stage to another.

Velocity—goals based on the speed of opportunities moving through the pipeline.

Pipeline Balance—goals based on the number of opportunities in each stage and balancing the various stages to ensure a steady flow of wins.

Beginning with the outcome allows you to easily figure how much work you need to do in these areas and how to set goals for each.

As a sales leader, this allows you to have “How Good Can You Get?” conversations. These conversations are with your most successful salespeople. This is a fun conversation that is about looking at different “what-if” scenarios where you and the salesperson identify different ways to achieve new heights. These conversations will range from performance to opportunity management, but also include career planning and the creation of unique individual development plans to build pathways to help the salesperson accomplish things that are important to them as individuals.

Using the What-If calculator, once you have zeroed in on the desired result, you can set the goals you need to accomplish. You may find that you or your team are lacking in a particular skill, or that you need to increase a specific activity. Whatever the goal, you know that it is the exact prescription for the desired outcome.

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Steve Jensen is VP of Marketing for Xvoyant.

To read more about using What-If scenarios as a part of a coaching program, see The RASR Coaching Model article from the Xvoyant Resource page.

 

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