Grow Your Sales By Thinking Like a Farmer
Grow Your Sales By Thinking Like a Farmer
For salespeople, the sales cycle is the growing season. If the salesperson can plant enough seeds, nurture and tend those seeds, plan for possible damage, she can harvest her crop at the end of the growing season without cramming. Cramming has never worked on the farm, and it produces poor results in sales as well. Like good farmers, sales stars plant in advance, but unlike farmers, they must keep planting new crops every month to keep a continual harvest all year round.
Sales Superstars focus on two things if they want to use the farm as their model: (1) the number of qualified prospects in the sales funnel and (2) their status in the funnel. How many have you got, how would you grade them, and what are the chances that you can close each prospect?
If the number of qualified prospects is low, they must plant some more seeds—find new prospects to fill the funnel. If grading their prospects in the sales funnel reveals one or more that are shaky, then a plan must be developed to strengthen the situation and move those prospects closer to obtaining a commitment. Just like the farmer must eliminate the weeds, the sales star must eliminate any factors that slow down the harvesting of business in their sales funnel.
Sales executives and managers often forget to behave like farmers too. Because American corporations have a prevalent short-term focus on what needs to be harvested this month, many managers and executives deceive themselves (usually unintentionally) about their sales prospects, sales funnels, and sales forecasts.
Let's face it-salespeople hate to do forecasts, and so when they see their manager coming, they give them the old "hot-air pump" forecast. The "hot- air pump" forecast is all inflated with nothing but HOT prospects-those that have a "90% chance" of closing. This is the way the salesperson keeps his or her manager off their back for another 30 days. These forecasts are rarely close to accurate.
Sales managers then massage the forecast and change it by some percentage factor they developed, and then they turn it over to senior management. Usually, by the time it reaches the top levels, it is so far off that it has been a huge waste of time and resources. It also creates a lot of unnecessary stress.
So how can sales managers and senior executives behave more like farmers and get better sales results? They must plan longer-term, remembering that more emphasis is always needed on sowing than on reaping. A few changes are necessary for this implementation:
—First-line managers must shift from pressuring their people about closing business this month to helping them build a quality funnel.
—Senior management must shift from pressuring field managers to close business this month to encouraging them to build and accurately report quality funnel activity.
—Compensation should be in place to motivate managers to manage the process.
—The funnel must be graded consistently and accurately across the entire sales organization.
—Senior management must review the funnel on a regular basis and conduct quality assurance.
Honest prospect and funnel appraisal by salespeople, sales managers, and top executives results in proactive selling, greater sales, and a lot less anxiety. Salespeople, sales managers, and senior executives will all gain a competitive edge if they will put their "overalls" on and begin to approach selling in the same way farmers approach planting.
Grow Your Sales By Thinking Like a Farmer - To learn more about this author, visit George Ludwig's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
If you are a farmer and you want a good crop in August, what must you do? One thing I learned growing up in Indiana was that farmers plan ahead: soil improvement, tilling, and seeding are all done in the spring. The farmer does the bulk of the work on the front end. He manages, nurtures, and tends on the front end and then waits for everything to grow to harvest.
For salespeople, the sales cycle is the growing season. If the salesperson can plant enough seeds, nurture and tend those seeds, plan for possible damage, she can harvest her crop at the end of the growing season without cramming. Cramming has never worked on the farm, and it produces poor results in sales as well. Like good farmers, sales stars plant in advance, but unlike farmers, they must keep planting new crops every month to keep a continual harvest all year round.
Sales Superstars focus on two things if they want to use the farm as their model: (1) the number of qualified prospects in the sales funnel and (2) their status in the funnel. How many have you got, how would you grade them, and what are the chances that you can close each prospect?
If the number of qualified prospects is low, they must plant some more seeds—find new prospects to fill the funnel. If grading their prospects in the sales funnel reveals one or more that are shaky, then a plan must be developed to strengthen the situation and move those prospects closer to obtaining a commitment. Just like the farmer must eliminate the weeds, the sales star must eliminate any factors that slow down the harvesting of business in their sales funnel.
Sales executives and managers often forget to behave like farmers too. Because American corporations have a prevalent short-term focus on what needs to be harvested this month, many managers and executives deceive themselves (usually unintentionally) about their sales prospects, sales funnels, and sales forecasts.
Let's face it-salespeople hate to do forecasts, and so when they see their manager coming, they give them the old "hot-air pump" forecast. The "hot- air pump" forecast is all inflated with nothing but HOT prospects-those that have a "90% chance" of closing. This is the way the salesperson keeps his or her manager off their back for another 30 days. These forecasts are rarely close to accurate.
Sales managers then massage the forecast and change it by some percentage factor they developed, and then they turn it over to senior management. Usually, by the time it reaches the top levels, it is so far off that it has been a huge waste of time and resources. It also creates a lot of unnecessary stress.
So how can sales managers and senior executives behave more like farmers and get better sales results? They must plan longer-term, remembering that more emphasis is always needed on sowing than on reaping. A few changes are necessary for this implementation:
—First-line managers must shift from pressuring their people about closing business this month to helping them build a quality funnel.
—Senior management must shift from pressuring field managers to close business this month to encouraging them to build and accurately report quality funnel activity.
—Compensation should be in place to motivate managers to manage the process.
—The funnel must be graded consistently and accurately across the entire sales organization.
—Senior management must review the funnel on a regular basis and conduct quality assurance.
Honest prospect and funnel appraisal by salespeople, sales managers, and top executives results in proactive selling, greater sales, and a lot less anxiety. Salespeople, sales managers, and senior executives will all gain a competitive edge if they will put their "overalls" on and begin to approach selling in the same way farmers approach planting.
Grow Your Sales By Thinking Like a Farmer - To learn more about this author, visit George Ludwig's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to George's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 |
|
George Ludwig Video - George Ludwig shares the reasons sales training is critical for organizations and individuals who want to achieve sales excellence and maximize their revenues.
|
|
|
 | |||||||
|
Referred by: http://www.JustChangeIt.com
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Best Cover Letter Cash Flow Forecast Samples Law of Attraction in Action Business vs Personal English |
|
 | ||
 |
Top Social Business Blogs
Top Social Entrepreneur Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs
Top 50 Geek Business Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
