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Are you tired of barely making your numbers?
Is "this economy has to improve" keeping you from reaching the goals you deserve? Want to start blowing away your numbers instead? Start with a personal Sales Business Plan. It's going to help bring ideas, hopes and goals into focus and make them visual, manageable and virtually foolproof! I'm not just being overly-optimistic when I say…you CAN have an incredible 2009!
First, let's look at the basics. Yea, this will be kind of "Sales 101," but stick with me and I'll give you details on the nitty gritty.
Your Sales Business Plan has 3 Primary components:
1) An full and complete accounting of customers and prospects
2) An full and complete accounting of specific, weekly activity
3) A foolproof method of timely measurement
First, let's account for our customers. Ask yourself these questions:
1) Who spent money with me last year…and WHY?
Did I position myself as a valued resource and ad consultant? Were they more than satisfied with the results I helped to bring? Was it because they just happened to read my paper? Did they have extra co-op to spend? Why, exactly, did they invest in me? This will be crucial to my continued success.
2) Who will spend with me in 2006, how much will they spend, and what am I doing to assure that?
Do I have a plan in place, or do I just wait and see what happens…or hope that their old habits die hard? Am I working WITH them…or AT them?
3) Who are my 'target prospects' for 2009, what is a potential initial order,' and what am I doing to close them?
Usually, we plan this as we go, and some of that is o.k. But super-achievers have a long-range plan for those larger, slow-to-change prospects…and their actions start now.
4) How will my time be spent?
If I now spend 95% of my time with current customers…and I lose a chunk of that company's business* how will I replace it?
* I'm that eternal optimist., always believing my customers just can't live without me and that if I left my company they (and my ex-employer) would be in big trouble (note: this virtually never actually happens). BUT….customers DO LEAVE. The reasons: production cut-backs, imports, shifting of production to other facilities, new buyer = new supplier, mistakes were made and feelings hurt, mistakes made and orders cancelled, customer swallowed up by competitor, the list goes on. Rule #1 to Selling in Turbulent Times: ALWAYS have working irons in the fire!
The second component is a detailed accounting of my activity.
Make no mistake, TIME is today's currency. Waste it and it's gone. & Use it wisely and you're a winner. So many salespeople tell me they'd be much farther ahead 'if there were a few more hours in the day.' Successful salespeople WILL master this challenge!
Start by making a chart of your time usage. (In their time management seminars, Franklin Planner uses a daily diary that reveals exactly where all that time goes!) For several days, write down everything you do…phone calls, in the car, meetings, paperwork…everything. It'll be a real eye-opener.
Now create a second chart. This is your 2009 plan. On it, list how many hours each week you plan to use for each of these elements:
Planning
Internal Service
Telephone sales calls
Telephone sales calls
Face-to-face sales meetings
Face-to-face service calls
Administrative work
And List the number of hours you plan to devote to each. (I'll bet you'll find there just aren't enough hours available for what you'd LIKE to do!)
The third component is timely measurement.
I want to know every single month how I'm doing in my long-term goal quest. That does NOT mean making sure I hit last months number and am 'on track' for this month (although that, too, is extremely important). Too short term. What it does mean is tracking and grading my consistent activity. Here's an example: Back in the late 80's, I had had several months of light sales and my manager told me to bring in my weekly planner. (I knew why right away). He paged through the previous three months and said "there's your problem….insufficient business development activity." I had a dozen excuses, but he wasn't in a buying mood.
The Sales Business Plan is a 'working document. It requires that you give yourself a brutally-honest, no excuses weekly report card on BOTH customer service AND business-building activity.
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