Let's start with the total raw workdays between Monday and 12/22.
The number is 50. I know last Friday's blog said 40, but that number was "conditioned" with lots of caveats and reductions.- 50 is the raw number with no time outs for sales meetings, travel, personal time or whatever.
- You can read last Friday's blog here as to thinking-through-the-math exercise.
2 Key Activity Assumptions that will condition your work activities between now and then and ensure that you beat your Quota Plan!
"I need to get these results." That's good to think about, but...
1. You really have zero control over Results other than "hope".,
2. You also cannot control Objectives, but they are good weekly guidelines to follow.
3. You absolutely can totally control your own Activities, and you have 50 days to do that
Over 50 days, what are my Activities which will yield Results?
- Strong alignment with Marketing on MQLs is #1.
You simply cannot generate all the leads you will need to close x number of deals by the end of December without a large MQL number. In 2023, 52% of sales managers said that their revenue results were not aligned with Marketing's objectives.
This is not finger pointing at Marketing. It is to say that this week is the perfect time for every Sales Manager to agree in detail with Marketing the math equation between MQLs and SQLs. Simply define the conversion % of MQLs that will come from Marketing's activities and what % will come from activities directly created by the outreach of salespeople? This defines the agreed-on KPI that appears in your CRM as the one source of truth.
- An exact definition of the Marketing tools that Sales needs
The data says that salespeople waste 6 hours each week creating or editing their own marketing tools in such items as designing email templates and using social media. Add to this, that typically salespeople perform this activity very badly since they are always focused on closing the deal and not on the explanation of how their solution will actually provide value to specific personas.
Our 2023 data says that the topmost productive lead gen content tools for the next 50 days in priority order should be (1) Video, (2) Market Research Reports, (3) Customer Case Studies and testimonials, (4) social media content, and finally (5) email templates. In reality, you can think about #2-#4 as the content and video as a delivery mechanism.
All of these tools are very doable with minimum effort on the part of Marketing. How do I know that? I see my students activate these detailed solutions in real time over the period of just one semester, and they do this part time while attending demanding course schedules. With full time marketing experts, these tools are not only very doable, but they are what Marketing professionals do best...plus, they can assess the analytics with you.
And, in every case having this responsibility owned by Marketing is 100% better than having salespeople attempt to do this plus they would be taking time away from their primary job of working the Sales Funnel
HAVE A GREAT DAY SELLING TODAY!!!
2023 SALES PLANNING
Check out our updated sales productivity site page. Just page down to get our new edition of Writing the Winning Sales Plan for 2023.
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Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.