"Time goes on. So whatever you're going to do, do it. Do it now. Don't wait"
--Robert De Niro
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma"
-Steve Jobs
I've spent most of August working from the New Hampshire beach or the Vermont hills rather than doing the daily Boston commute, which is vacation enough for me. And, I am also increasingly aware, this being a summer of a record number of business and sales planning sessions with our customers, of the one fundamental common thread among every single customer. Maybe, it's just me, maybe it's the times, and maybe it's just the simple fundamentals of business, but whatever the reason, the rally cry of this summer, and most probably all of 2017 so far has been....
Expenses are in control, productivity in general is up, cash is okay, and, as a result, everyone is now focused to the productivity of the top line. "We just need to sell more stuff" is what I consistently hear this summer from our customers who sell software, toys, chemicals, pianos and financial services just to name a few markets from this summer's sessions.
Nothing is more time bound than Sales. Sure, there are dates locked in stone for engineering's next release and for the updating of the company's HR policies and the redo of that troublesome ERP software. All of us clearly understand those critical dates. Having said that, all of the importance of those dates, in the reality of our own businesses, rests on the shoulders of our salespeople to achieve their quota numbers.
You ask any professional salesperson, that singularly simple question of "How are you doing against your quota plan?, and they will know exactly...
I've been out running on the beach most mornings at dawn. Same beach, same starting and stopping place, but the track each day and every week changes due to the changing rhythm of the tides. In June, the sun was up at 5:00, today at 6:00, and the tides have shifted 1,000 feet in a month's time. All hard boundaries of the rhythms of the seasons. All unstoppable, just like the rhythms of our businesses and our daily and monthly sales challenges.
All we can control is the activities and the plans that get to those agreed on results, so unless results-like Quota-are defined in specific short term objectives-like monthly sales metrics-then I can't build short and mid term Activities to achieve those objectives. No monthly activitiy plans, no consistent results...except by luck.
Always cascade through that simple formula of "Activities get me to Objectives which get me to Results", and I guarantee that you will create a new sense of urgency in your selling and maybe in your company's customer culture about selling value and not products.
Have a great sales day today!!! Not a great beach day, so I will spend the rest of the day selling stuff.
If you want to dive deeply into the proven concepts above and get deep into the crankcase oil of understanding how to execute on these practices. attend our upcoming Sales Management Boot Camp on October 1st-3rd, and we will bring you through guaranteed tactics to improve the productivity of your sales team by 25% in 12 months.
As a Sales Manager, at any level, if you need to create more sales and amp up the productivity of your entire sales team, attend our annual Sales Management Boot Camp on October 1st!
These always-sold-out, highly unique experiences have received hundreds of very positive testimonials. Click on below, and then give me a call or text to 617-504-4222 or email me at jack@derbymanagement to answer any of your questions .
http://www.brainshark.com/derbymanagement/vu?pi=zE6zs9Z5qzFFz0