Tweet

What Is Your Sales Team’s A. Q.?

Written by: Keith Benton

Article Overview: It has been known for some time that if you want to measure an individual’s intelligence, you administer an Intelligence Quotient test. This has been an accepted method of measuring one’s intelligence for many years. In sales management, intelligence is important, but this does not get you closer to measuring or predicting your sales team’s effectiveness or the ability to predict with any certainty the projections of future sales. How do measure this? With an A. Q. test.

What Is Your Sales Team’s A. Q.?



It has been known for some time that if you want to measure an individual’s intelligence, you administer an Intelligence Quotient test. This has been an accepted method of measuring one’s intelligence for many years. In sales management, intelligence is important, but this does not get you closer to measuring or predicting your sales team’s effectiveness or the ability to predict with any certainty the projections of future sales. How do measure this? With an A. Q. test.

A. Q. is Activities Quotient. In sales management, you have probably already figured out two primary things. One, you can never know for sure who will be successful and who will not. Every applicant will let you know in the interview process that they are the best salesperson you have ever met. However, while some will be telling the truth, some might tend to exaggerate. Second, not everyone will do what is necessary to be successful. How do you determine which camp your struggling sales person is living in? Is it a question of a lack of training or a lack of activity? This is such a simple concept; however, in talking with sales managers over the years, it is unfortunately a concept they either don’t know about or are not using.

Every sales organization should have an understanding on what the basic numbers are to make a sale. Some organizations operate on a one out of ten rule. This means for every ten people or companies that a salesperson sees, he will sell to at least one. Therefore, the A. Q. is 1/10. In the insurance industry, the sales process I teach for the A. Q. is 1/3. The question then becomes, “How long does it take that salesperson to see the number of people or companies necessary to make you’re A. Q.?” Each salesperson will differ slightly; some better, some worse. But if that salesperson knows their personal numbers, they will have a road map to run on; a basic set of numbers that will help you predict what that salesperson will sell in any given month. Does your salesperson know their numbers and, more importantly, do you?

The challenge is that we need to measure what we expect. However, one of the most dangerous traps to fall into as a manager is to micro-manage your people. I do not believe that requiring a report to keep track of every detail every day will help you predict sales outcomes. Instead, this tends to run off qualified salespeople, who would prefer spending their time on selling rather than on reports. This process of measuring expectations can be achieved with simple numbers. Depending on your sales process and flow, your questions might look a little different; however, here is the basic idea:

• How many sales introductions were done?
  
  
• How many opening meetings were done?
  
  
• How many closing meetings were done?
  
  
• How many sales were made?
  
  

It’s all in the manager’s presentation. If the salesperson understands what numbers are needed to insure their success, they will be more apt to give them to you. How can you measure their success and do any planning without the data necessary to know if they are on track or not. This will help you manage the outcomes, set goals for the salesperson, and determine if there are training issues or activity issues that need to be addressed.

Related Articles
  7 Virtual Teams that Lead Your Company
  Those idiots in sales just don’t get it
  Hiring Salespeople is Like Baseball Expansion
  21 Secrets of Establishing Effective Teams
  Extending your Expectations

Article Tags: future sales, insurance, insurance industry, intelligence quotient test, management intelligence, rsquo, sales management, sales managers, sales organization, sales person, salesperson, strong sales, telling the truth



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Hello From Marietta GA! - Hello All! My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
taxes in canada - Well in Canada we only have a few provinces and the Sales tax is slightly different. Here in Ontario the Goods & Services tax has reduced to 5% from 7% in the last year due to the promises made by the government in place.
Re: Watch What you Read - I agree. i believe more video's should be like Jeffery Gitomers video's under his Sales rant. They are typically not more than 3 minutes. His model seems to be; 1. Main Message (or Point) 2. Example 3. Next steps to put it into Action take away the extra "blabber" and you've got viewers that will come back.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Web Design in 30 Minutes - Can this be Right?

10 Reasons Your SBA Loan May Be Declined

Maximum Impact Restaurant Greening

Suggestions

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.