Building a. Sales Business Plan. In an Incredibly Tight Economy The Guertin Group. Building a Sales Business Plan in an Incredibly Tight Economy

Transcription

1 Building a Sales Business Plan In an Incredibly Tight Economy

2 About Joe Guertin.. No fluff.just real-life strategies for the new world of selling. It s a whole new world, and Joe knows that the same old sales techniques don t work anymore. Customers are time stressed and price-points have become the rule of the day. But Joe has answers. He knows the challenges companies and their sales teams to make the dramatic shift from the oncereliable methods of selling, to the new skills and habits required now. Joe, and The Guertin Group, DELIVER! One-on-one coaching and action plan development Group training local, national or worldwide Proven, results-driven follow-through Blended live/online coaching Sales process assessment Management/leadership coaching Joe is a contributing author to the book Top Dog Sales Secrets and the award-winning Selling Power Live audio series. Talk to Joe and get your company ready to kick serious butt!

3 Every business has a Business Plan. Your company probably has one. Maybe more than one. The Business Plan is an outline, a roadmap that says here s where we are, here s where we want to go, and here is how we plan to get there step-by-step. Every salesperson should have their own Business Plan. This plan is more than a set of goals. It is, very literally, a blueprint for success. A truly successful business plan is more than just numbers. It is a top-down plan that starts out with attitude and carries through to measurable activity. In addition to any revenue goals, a good Individual Sales Business Plan includes having a well thought out an Action Plan for: Personal Growth Professional Growth. Sales Development, Retention and Service While many parts of this plan are rooted in outside sales, they can be applied to inside and service positions as well.

4 Part 1: Personal and Professional Growth A Check Up from the Neck Up In the word of sales guru Zig Zigler, a personal evaluation is essential before a plan of activity can be effectively put into place. The operational word here is personal. That means it s time to be tough, and objective. Very few people have the capacity to be brutally honest about their own strengths and weaknesses, without skewing to the positive giving themselves too much credit and benefit of the doubt, to the negative being too harsh and overly critical of themselves. Personal issues that should be addressed include: #1: Organization Jessie is an organization hound. She plans every activity, writes it down, complete with anticipated time usage, and checks it off her list when done. Brian takes things as they come. He starts his day going through a stack of notes, and gets going. Dig in and get it done, he likes to say. Jessie and Brian are real people. Good salespeople, too. As you could guess, Jessie is more successful. She accomplishes more in the same amount of time that Brian struggles through. The obvious difference between them is not some form of extreme time management, but basic organization. Organization is prioritization Organization is planning to accomplish your most critical (though often less than enjoyable) tasks first. Create blocks of time throughout the week. Now you can plug in critical tasks, rather than keep them on the back-burner until you have that always elusive 'free time' to complete them. You'll find that you not only get them done, but that you get more done than ever before! And make sure you have all the essential tools you need available, preferable within arms reach.

5 Organization is time management A large part of time management is managing the day-to-day habits of you and others that little by little, whittle away at your time. These 'Time Bandits' include: Morning rituals If you work in an office, morning greetings and a little coffee maker chat is fine. Good for morale, too. But in many cases, chat tunes to in-depth conversation or storytelling, costing you valuable prime time. Home office users can be easily distracted by breaks and chores. Not to mention interruptions from friends or relatives who 'know you're home.' Frequency of activity No doubt, it s our #1 productivity tool. Yet, it s costing us in time, and in revenue. In a recent survey, of 1000 professionals found we spend nearly 1.5 hours a day processing . Reading, thinking over, writing & responding. That's seven hours a week. 28 hours a month. Not to dampen our love for the benefits, but professionals now send and receive an average of 19,200 s a year. And only 12% of those surveyed ever had any amount of productivity training. Now the other shoe drops.too much reliance on for customer communication depletes face-to-face contact, which reduces the personal connection that s so important in selling. Communicating insufficient information Salespeople can be notorious for providing their company or suppliers with insufficient information about client/prospect needs. This leads to the need for clarification, which means the inevitable interruptions throughout the day. Clutter Overstuffed drawers, misplaced files, paper mountains on the corner of the desk and post-it wallpaper sap precious hours from salespeople throughout the week. Clutter usually indicates more disorganization than activity. Procrastination People who procrastinate tend to avoid important (and often revenue-producing) activities in favor of those less threatening and more comfortable. Strategies you can put into immediate action include: Change morning rituals to take advantage of morning hours Map out key blocks of time throughout the day Put off interrupters until you're done Avoid checking/responding to s during blocked out time Clean up your work area for maximum productivity! Dig in! Defeat procrastination

6 #2: BALANCE Dozens of studies tell us that people who find ways to keep their life in balance have a higher level of energy, sharper degree of mental focus and higher level of overall job satisfaction. It s just common sense, then, that salespeople (who often spend larger amounts of time on work activity) need to take an accounting of balance, or lack of it, in their life. No sermons here just good advice. After all, we want to have the energy and focus to carry out the rest of our Sales Business Plan. Three questions to better balance: Do I tend to think about work issues morning, noon and night? Am I often lacking energy during the workday? Do I often find it hard to concentrate on work activities? Am I able to put work aside, mentally as well as physically? Do I regularly engage in non-work related family/social activity? Everyone has to answer these questions and formulate answers for themselves. #3: Discipline On January 2nd, health/fitness clubs and are filled with new customers.people who have made a New Years Resolution to get themselves into shape. But, good intentions do not always last when the good feeling of that first step fades. By the end of that same month, a far smaller number of those newly-committed members are coming through the door. We all set plans and make commitments, but, without long-lasting discipline, we get distracted, bored and drawn back into our old comfort zones. Ask yourself these discipline-related questions. Grade each one accordingly: 1) always 2)often 3) sometimes 4)seldom 5) never I pre-plan each day in advance I efficiently categorize my time throughout the day I efficiently manage my /internet time I consistently achieve my daily task goals. Interruptions don t prevent me from completing primary tasks If skills are the machine, personal discipline is the engine for success.

7 Part 2: Sales Development & Retention #1: A Strategy for your Current Customers This is the heart of your next year s revenue. A problem that too many companies have with sales planning is taking current customers for granted. They were there last year. They ll be there this year. After all, you do a good job and, from all accounts, they seem to like you. Big mistake. Competition, pricing, management changes, relocation and other factors can throw a wrench into your projections. And now, more than ever, it can be swift. A good plan is just that a plan. It includes projected dollars, but also includes a step-by-step strategy that will assure your success. Here s a basic plan for current, or active customers: Make a list of all your regular or periodic customers from the past year. These are the people who put food on your table. These are people we often think of as our base. We expect they ll spend as much, or even more, this year. There are 3 notations we make next to each name: 1) How much they spent with you last year, 2) How much you anticipate they ll spend this year, and 3) What steps and actions you plan to take now, and throughout the year, to assure that it will happen. I always help my clients build a three-pronged plan for current customers. One example is not to neglect the sell. It s easy to shift into our service mode with active customers, where sales calls become strictly social, like lunches, dinners or sporting events. All of those things are terrific, but, again, don t stop selling. Selling activity is what won you the account to begin with. Always be asking questions uncovering fresh needs. Bring new ideas and suggestions. You don t have to commit large blocks of time or take extraordinary measures. But it does mean you need to be consciously aware of their ongoing needs. A customer left unattended (or taken for granted) is a ripe target for a hungry competitor.

8 #2: A Strategy for Expanding your Customer Base If current customers are the heart of sales, new business is lifeblood. Here are three, basic elements of the New Business section of your Sales Business Plan: 1) The Targets Make a working list of prospective new accounts and categories. I call it a working list because it s going to grow and change throughout the year. Prospects will become customers, some will be dropped from the list, others added. When I work with sales people, we don t just make a list of names, but create a basic profile of each prospect in order to prioritize and determine potential. Everybody s situation and market varies, but one thing I m adamant about is that the target list be of adequate size. Having a handful of potential customers is almost never enough. 2) The Strategy Each company decides for themselves what activity and how much of it is enough to achieve targeted goals. Questions to be answered include: Who will be contacted? When and how? How many per-day, per-week? Who do we have to connect with? Information that must be gathered How will we follow through? The plan should also include sales supporting activities, like the active use of social networking, face-to-face networking, and continuous skill-building. 3) The Metrics Just like your current customer activity, having a system in place to measure your progress will make or break it. I ve found that different companies require different systems. It takes a little time and a lot of discipline, but helps to assure that new business development isn t just a once in a while thing, but a consistent, measurable activity Today, nobody can be complacent when it comes to new business development. It s not something we pursue when we have extra time, but a critical component of day-to-day selling.

9 #3: A Strategy to Measure your Progress That which gets measured gets done. Did you know that the first week of January is the busiest week of the year at most fitness centers? People making New Years Resolutions line up, sign up and commit themselves to new, healthier habits. Enthusiasm is high and the commitment is real. But, by the end of the month, more than half have become inconsistent about their visits. Some have stopped showing up at all. A part of the problem is personal discipline. But the bigger problem is that they re trying to do something more within the same timeframe they lived in before. Their life doesn t allow the extra time, so this new, added commitment gets lost in life s shuffle. But this isn t just about discipline. It s about getting things done. The regular performance of new activities will take up to three weeks to become habit. (A lot of standard sales training doesn t produce results because it neglects this fact.) With salespeople, I like to measure activity as well as revenue. They go hand in hand. Creating a system that measures targeted steps daily, weekly or monthly will provide an accurate barometer of progress. Depending on the company and industry, I like to set specific goals for each activity, get an agreement from salespeople that the activity is doable, then coach a activity and measure their progress. Depending on your business, all or some of these tasks should be measured: Time spent on planning Telephone contacts Face-to-face meetings (especially new business) Follow-up notes and letters Number and dollar amount of proposals If, for example, you make a commitment to someone besides yourself (a manager, spouse, for example), and report to them weekly, you ll force a habit change that will accommodate your plans. You ll see evidence of your efforts in calls made, plans presented and sales closed.

10 Planning is essential Execution is critical In surveys of buyers, one common response is the need for follow-through. As one buyer put it: they might say they re going to do something, but don t hold your breath. This creates a tremendous opportunity for the real professional. In a business climate where buyers (our consumers) have come to expect less than the best, the real pro stands out. The number one rule of following through is D-W-Y-S-Y-W-D. Do what you said you would do. Remarkably simple, yet it separates the best from the rest. The professional salesperson is always committed to three things: their profession, their customers and themselves. Stay committed. When you follow through on the little things, it tells your customer that you ll also follow through on the big things. You ll be positioned as a person of integrity. And there isn t a better kind.