For years now, I’ve talked, lectured, cajoled and beaten my salesguys into submission with The Derby Law of 3,000. In a nutshell, The Derby Law says that if you work 60 hours a week (I wish that I could find that job!), which is 3,012 hours, you immediately lose 25% due to holiday, vacations, and sick time. Without going into numbing detail, you lose another 40% of the remaining time due to non-sales activities since our data from now thousands of salespeople says that only 57% of thier available time is spent both preparing for and actually making the sales call. All of this boils down to around 1,300 hours to actually sell…and now my question, as a manager, should be just how effective can I make my time and the time of my salespeople? It would be great if I could hem 90% effective, which would be perfect, but sadly impossible. If, on the other hand, they’re only 50% effective with the time they have available, then I have a really big problem. 50% would be an impossible situation to resolve. Might as well resign right away.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness, improved sales management, Sales quota, sales training
In her 1967 hit, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Aretha Franklin takes these Otis Redding lyrics to a new dimension as she blasts out “Re, Re, Re, Respect” in the middle of the song on her way to making this tune a landmark in the feminist movement, and what is often considered to be one of the best songs of the R&B era. I love music-any kind, any genre-from Timberlake to Usher to Eminem, to 40’s Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey, but Aretha’s song has a special place in my tune-filled head, so it’s not unusual when I’m truly relaxed to find that some deeply hidden player in my sub consciousness suddenly just switches on and plays “RESPECT”.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, selling, selling skills
Movin’ the Needle – How Fast to Step on the Gas?
Last week I was able to combine visiting one of my most engaging customers, Lake Sunapee Bank in the picture-perfect town of Newport, NH, with talking to my favorite economists, Brenda.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, selling, selling skills
Just got back from my almost-daily early morning walk up and down the beach. Today looks like another overcast but pleasant day, but duty calls, and I’m off to the Boston office. Last Sunday, there was fog so thick that it was hard to see the ocean since it was just at that tipping point between fog, heavy mist and light rain-all of which made my daily search for sea glass impossible.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, selling, selling skills
It’s Wednesday morning, and I, just like every other salesperson, am out on the road focused on sales for the quarter. It actually looks like a very good next couple of weeks with a proposal going out today, numbers of client assignments scheduled plus a deal transaction narrowing down to a close, and a large number of other activities in the funnel to keep me and the boys busy for a while. So, why are there questions about selling rummaging around in my head this morning?
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales effectiveness, improved sales management
As everyone knows who reads these posts, in my “spare time”, I teach business planning and marketing as a lecturer at MIT and as a marketing professor at Tufts. I love the work and student involvement, plus it provides an excellent opportunity to integrate concepts into the real world of sales and marketing tactics, both for my students and for our companies at the firm since often they become case studies in the classes.
Tags: Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales effectiveness
Very early yesterday morning, I drove to the picture-perfect New England town of Newport, New Hampshire. Since I had an early morning planning session with a key customer, I wanted to arrive early so that I could go over my notes, plus I wanted to talk to my favorite economist and her reaction to the Wednesday night Obama speech.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, marketing management
