If you are a sales professional or want to become one, or if you are looking for a new sales job, you will face one of the toughest interview processes of any job seeker.
I met Lance Cooper on Twitter. He’s the President of SalesManage Solutions, a firm that coaches revenue managers, revenue executives, and entrepreneurs to recruit and then coach the best salespeople. Lance has a great e-zine article called “One Great Way to Make a Quantum Leap in Sales Performance” that I thought I’d share with you today because it’s so applicable to medical revenue, clinical revenue, medical sales, hospital equipment sales, medical diagnostics sales, DNA products sales, biotechnology sales, imaging sales, lab revenue, cellular/molecular products sales, surgical supply sales, clinical device sales, and clinical laboratory equipment sales. Here it is:
Do you wanna make a quantum leap in sales performance? Of course you do. However, many people use words like ‘quantum leap’ as a cliché - as an empty promise. And, there are lots of clichés. Let’s go to the next level! … to the next generation, etc. etc!
How do you increase sales performance for high-activity sales practice groups (with a sales cycle less than 90 days) beyond past results? Are you ready? Do you want the answer?
It’s simple. Help them INCREASE THEIR FACE-TO-FACE SALES TIME. Yep! - that’s it. Just increase face-to-face sales time - the amount of time your salespeople spend face-to-face “with the right prospects” each week.
In one Fortune 500 corporation’s study, salespeople spent 8% of their time each week in front of prospective new customers, or 3 to 4 hours.
What a staggering discovery! The rest of the week this sales force worked to complete administrative tasks, customer service tasks, and lead generation tasks. They handled customer problems, returned calls from previous buyers, finished and distributed paperwork (paper or Internet), and networked to uncover new leads. And, Murphy’s Law applied - “Work expanded to fill the time available,” and revenue performance decreased.
Count them. How many hours a week do you spend face-to-face with prospective customers? 2, 6, Ten, Twenty??? In high activity selling, as the number increases from Ten to 20 hours+ per week, the quantum leap takes place and sales performance radically improves.
There are many ways to increase face-to-face sales time, and I wanna leave you with one focus as a starter … At the beginning of the week, schedule the times available for meeting with prospects. To know how much time to schedule, make sure you understand how many quotes per month and week it takes to close the number of sales necessary to reach your goals. Then, decide how many first appointments you must hold each week and month to produce the right number of quotes. An example might be … 6 appointments per week produces THREE quotes which produces 1 sale.
Before the week begins, block out enough available times (including journey) for your six first appointments. Also, block out time for setting appointments by phone. The actual times you use each week for those activities may vary. But, because you block them out in advance, you set a goal for what you have to achieve with time … for the most important sales activities.
The most important revenue activities during a week are either: (1) being in front of a prospect, and (TWO) fighting to get in front of a prospect.
What would have to change for your sales team to spend more time in front of the right prospective customers? Answer this question and then go and make things better. Lance.
Article courtesy of Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pharma sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved
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