The final quarter of the year can be challenging for salespeople. Not only are they working hard to achieve the current year’s sales goals, they’re also working hard at setting up a strong pipeline for Q1 of the next year.
So how do top sales producers achieve both goals? They apply three strategies to ensure they are working smarter, not harder.
Strategy #1: Extreme productivity. The playing field is level for salespeople in that everyone gets only 24 hours in a day. The best salespeople are diligent about calendar blocking their entire week. Those that don’t? They lack a plan and thus spend the first hour of the day trying to figure out what they are going to do the rest of the day!
That results in five hours of wasted time each week that could have been directed toward goal achieving activities: prospecting, account management or client-retention.
Strategy #2: Crystal clarity on their ideal client. Top sales producers continue to hit revenue goals because they are comfortable saying no. They understand that not every prospect deserves to be in their sales pipeline. No hope-and-quote selling going on here. They work only with prospects that:
- Fit their demographics and psychographics.
- Are committed to making a change and doing the hard work of change.
- Make buying decisions on value, not price.
- Treat them like a partner, not a transactional vendor.
- Appreciate and value collaboration and co-creation of solutions.
Strategy #3: Eliminate practice proposals. I’m still surprised at how many salespeople take the time to WRITE proposals, but don’t set up a specific time to REVIEW the proposal in person. They leave it up to the prospect to figure out how the salesperson’s recommendations solve their pain. Top sales producers write recommendations only for prospects that are willing to take time to schedule an appointment to review and discuss.
They know the old “send me something” results in nothing.
It’s the final quarter of the year and the building of next year. Achieve both quotas by applying extreme productivity, clarity on who you will pursue and elimination of practice proposals. Other ideas? Send them to me, as I am always looking for new and better ways to help sales professionals.
Good Selling!
