Secret Formula for Sales Success Part VI

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

You are now to the step that determines the number that guides and directs your days. It is the number that requires moment to moment decision making. The decision that says I am going to hit my number no matter what.
You have determined how many sales contacts you need to make in order to make the required number of presentations necessary to close the number of sales required to hit your income goal. The question is how many attempts to make contact with a prospect is required in order to make that contact.  How many dials or texts or emails or facebook messages does it take to make one contact.  Do not count email blasts, text campaigns or attempts that are not targeted at a specific prospect in this number.  You must know this number and your manager will not be able to help you.  You need to live with a sheet that has 4 column headings: Dials, Emails, Text messages, Other. The rows are the working days.  You will make a mark for every dial, email, text message and any other contact method used.  At the end of each day you total your attempts.  If you have 40 attempts in a day & you made 10 contacts then you know that it takes you 4 attempts to make 1 contact. The best number to use is your rolling 30 day total of attempts and contacts.  This keeps you with a large enough and current set of results to make your number work.
Attempts require effort and a lot of attempts require a lot of effort.  This is where we begin to pay the price for success or as Zig Ziglar said "We enjoy the price of success!". Our two last calculations make this manageable and puts motivation behind the attempts.  Take the number of attempts required to make the contacts needed.  Now, divide that number by the working days in the time frame you are working with.  If it is monthly then the typical number we would use for working days is 20.  Take the total number of attempts (#A) and divide it by 20, if you are working on a monthly time frame, that gives you one of the 2 most important numbers in your formula. This is the number of attempts you must make every day to reach your goal. This is your number, it may be 20, 50 or 100 but it is your number. You didn't pull it out of the air it was statistically calculated with your income goal as the target.  This number will change as your numbers change and as you improve.  It could be that you raise your income goal and because you are improving your skills you won't need to increase your daily attempt number.
The second most important number in the formula is determined by taking your income goal and dividing it by the number of contacts required for that period of time.  The best way to do this is to break down your income goal to a monthly income goal. Then take your daily attempt number x the number if working days in the month.  Take your income goal and divide it by the number of attempts required in that month. This gives you the value of each attempt to contact you make. This boils it down to the fact that every effective attempt to contact that you make is worth $10, $20, $50 whatever your number is.  Don't waste your time or you will be losing money.
Use these 2 numbers to fuel your success. Success is about creating daily habits that work.  You now know exactly how many attempts you must make every day to have the success that you desire. No more blowing in the wind or floundering without direction.  You also know exactly how much every attempt is worth to you in dollars and cents.  What are you waiting on ? Make it happen NOW!!

Expect to Win!
--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part V

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

In the last 4 steps of the Secret Formula for Sales Success you have established your Income Goal (I), the number of sales you need to reach that income goal (#S), and the number of presentations you need to make to reach your sales number and income goal (#P). The next step is to determine how many sales contacts you must make in order to make one presentation (#C/P). This then allows you to solve for the total number of contacts you need to make to reach your presentation and sales numbers and ultimately your income goal.
First, let's define exactly what a contact is and how you should be tracking them.  A sales contact is :
1). Face to face contact with someone where what you sell is discussed.
2).  Telephone contact with someone where what you sell is discussed.
3).  Email conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
4).  Text message conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
5).  Social Media conversation with someone where what you sell is discussed.
The source of these contacts varies by industry and salesperson.  They could be a referral, lead, previous customer, call in to your business, walk in to your business, inquiry from your website, message or comment on a social media site etc. The typical outcome of these contacts is an appointment to make a presentation.  However, it could be a face to face contact  or telephone contact that leads directly into a presentation.  For example, at a car dealership a sales person greets a person on the lot for the first time and this leads directly to a walk around presentation, demo ride, write up and sale.  This scenario acheived 1 contact to 1 presentation to 1 sale. 
What we want to determine is how many of these contacts does it take to get to a presentation which includes telling them how they can own your product or in other words asking for the deal right now.  Again, you must know your numbers.  It is vital to your success that you document on paper or electronically how many people you are making contact with and how many presentations you are making.  Go back through your calendar for the last 90 days if possible and total the number of contacts you have made from the 5 sources above.  Then total the number of presentations you made in that same timeframe. Then divide your number of contacts by your number of presentations (#C/P). This gives your number of contacts needed for 1 presentation and then we take that number of contacts X our presentation number (#P) that we established yesterday.  This gives you your contact number (#C) required to reach your numbers and ultimately your income goal.
If you don't know your contact and presentation numbers, consult with your management.  But, I cannot stress enough that you must know your numbers.  The numbers don't lie!
Now that you have your (#C) you can move onto the next step.

Expect to Win!

--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part III

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A 
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

The next step is calculating the $S in order to determine the #S.  You must know your average commission or earnings per sale ($S).  If this is a varying number, in other words you are paid a commission and the amount of the sale is different from customer to customer then you need to do at least a 90 day look back and come up with your average earnings per sale. The best way to do this is to take your total earnings over the last 90 days.  Include commission, bonuses, renewal income and any other income generated by selling your product. Divide this total income number by the total number of sales made during this 90 day period.  This gives you your true average earnings per sale.  If you are paid a flat amount for every new sale then this calculation is easy.  If you are new to the profession of selling or you are new to your current position, ask management to give you a average earnings per sale for the entire sales staff for the last 90 days. I'm fact, this is a good number to have even if you are not  new to the profession or have been in your position for awhile. It would allow you to compare and gauge how you are doing against "average".   Do you need to step it up? Are you under achieving? 

Your average earnings per sale or $S then allows you to determine in your formula how many sales you need to make in order to achieve your income goal.  Take your income goal and divide it by the $S and that will give you the number of sales you need in order to reach your income goal (#S).

Once you have the #S (number of sales needed to reach your income goal) you can move on to the next step.

Expect to win!

--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part II

I / $S= #S
#S X #P/S = #P
#P X #C /P = #C
#C X #A /C= #A
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A/DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

Let's begin at the beginning. Your Income Goal is where the formula starts.  Establishing your income goal is not a thoughtless task done with little planning.  I have witnessed many sales people just throw a figure out there in order to complete the formula.  I feel strongly that if your attitude towards the profession of selling is that flippant you should find something else to do.  Your income goal is the fuel behind your self motivation, self discipline and enthusiasm.
It is vital to your sales success to follow these 3 principles when setting your income goal.
1.  Include everything and everybody
     Consider all aspects of your financial life.  Your monthly bills, your               investment plan, your dreams and all that is involved in these areas should be considered when establishing your income goal.
Who is effected or involved in your financial life? Some of you have spouses or partners in life, others are single and it will not be necessary to communicate with anyone during this process.  However, if you do have someone that is effected by your income goal, you should at the very minimum explain the process and what is involved in the goal. It is very important that you allow this person to also use your income goal as their fuel for motivation and enthusiasm for your success.
2.  Stretch yourself
      It is extremely important that your income goal be exciting to consider.  It may be an amount that you have never considered to be possible.  It should be a goal that you will have to work hard for.  That you will have to grow and intentionally get better to achieve.  It should give you pride in what you do, your business, your profession.  Scare yourself, stretch yourself, make a statement to yourself, make a forever impact on your financial future.
3.  Take ownership of YOUR income goal
       This is your goal.  This is your income and your financial plan.  You say I just want to get by.  I say look at principles 1 and 2 and if you can't embrace those... never mind.  This is a goal that you never never never give up on.  If life happens and challenges come your way, you adjust and do whatever necessary but you never never never give up on achieving this goal.  The income goal is the fuel that gets you up early and stay late.  It is the motivation to do what others won't!  It is the discipline to hit your numbers.  But you have to take ownership of it first.
Embrace these 3 principles and go to work to establish your income goal.  Set it annually or monthly it doesn't matter.  Once you finish this vital first step then you can move onto step 2.

Expect to win!
--Jim

Secret Formula for Sales Success Part I

When you ask a typical salesperson what there plan is today ... The answer usually is "sell something, duh". Its amazing that they cannot give you a formula or plan to get that done.

Here is the secret formula to sales success:

I / $ PER SALE = # SALES
# SALES X # P/WU PER SALE = # P/WU
# P/WU X #C PER P/WU = #C
#C X #A PER C = #A
#A / WORKING DAYS = #A PER DAY
I / #A = VALUE OF EACH A

It doesn't appear to be simple but I assure you it is very simple.  It allows you to boil your success down to a very simple and basic formula.  It helps you to devise a very simple daily game plan to achieve whatever level of success you desire.
Here is the detailed description of this formula:

Income goal / $$ earned per sale = # of sales needed
# sales needed x # presentations / write ups needed to make 1 sale = # presentations / write ups required to reach income goal
# presentations/ write ups  required x contacts required to make 1 presentation / writeup = # of contacts needed to reach income goal
# of contacts needed x # attempts to contact needed to make a contact = # attempts needed to reach income goal
If your income goal is annual!, monthly or weekly - determine how many working days are that time frame.  Divide the total number of attempts by working days.  Also, take your income goal & divide it by the total number of required attempts. That gives you 1) how many attempts to contact you should make EVERY working day 2) how much each attempt is worth to you.

The first step is to determine your Income Goal. Annual, monthly or weekly it doesn't matter.  What do you need, want and desire?  How much do you want to give or invest? How much are your bills each month?  You do the calculation.  Spend the time and make sure you take ownership of this number and commit to your income goal.  We will then plug it in and get started on your formula.

Expect to Win!

--JW

Get Started!

I just took a look at Brian Tracy's Quote of the Day ...

 "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

-- Johann von Goethe 

This time of the year many of us have thoughts and make plans to change, improve and chase our dreams. But, do we include in that plan ... STARTING?  Goethe said that beginning is bold.  How many new year resolutions fail because the person who made them never got STARTED?  Why is getting STARTED considered bold?

Here are 3 reasons why it takes boldness to get started on a big change or improvement or chasing a dream:

1. Fear of failure

          False Evidence Appearing Real 

   

    2.   Lack of belief in self

          

          I can't, won't or don't deserve it.  

   3.   Lack of belief in the change, improvement or dream

         Do you want it?  What is the reason for the change, the need for improvement or the 

         dreaming of the dream.

Ask the right questions and all 3 of these reasons can be overcome in a very short period of time.  Delve deeply into these 3 reasons and how they apply to you. 

 I encourage you today to be bold and get STARTED!  Expect to Win!