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June 16, 2009 at 08:00 PM
Top Ten Selling
Step One: Define the goals, measurements, responsibilities and timeframes for completion.
Jim missed his quota last year because of unexpected customer cancellations. He realized that he needed to do a better job of follow-up and get out in front of those cancellations. He knew that he needed to stay involved and manage the order processing all the way through delivery, installation and training. He listed every specific task that needed to be accomplished after he closed a sale and assigned completion dates to all of them. Then he determined who had responsibility for each of those steps in the process.
Each day he would start by reviewing all of the check points and critical dates for each sale in progress. He would make frequent, yet brief contact, with everyone who had responsibility for fulfillment of the order, including the customer.
That year Jim’s actual gross sales results were only slightly better than the previous year, but his cancellation rate was reduced by half of what it had been. As a result he achieved 124% of his net quota. Beyond the outstanding quota achievement, however, the real success story was that customer satisfaction improved both externally and internally as his customers and co-workers appreciated his attention and help.
Step Two: Continuously review the goals to assure that you are working on the right ones.
At the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Mathew Emmons was preparing to fire his last shot in the rifle competition. He was in the lead and expected to win a gold medal. All he needed on his last shot was a score of 7.2 to win; up until this point his lowest score had been a 9.3.
He took aim, fired and hit the bull’s-eye. The only problem was he hit the wrong target. Instead of hitting the target in his lane, he hit the target in the lane next to him. China’s Jia Zhanbo took the gold medal and Mathew ended up in eighth place. He was devastated.
