Tweet

A Quick Method To Evaluate Your Sales Activities

Guest post by: Kerri Salls

Article Overview: It’s A New Calendar Year and a new fiscal year for most of us. So when I ask people what their biggest challenges are for the New Year it’s not surprising to hear - they want to grow the business, add new clients, increase sales and the like. These are good things to work on. But what will have to change to make it happen?

A Quick Method To Evaluate Your Sales Activities

It’s A New Calendar Year and a new fiscal year for most of us. So when I ask people what their biggest challenges are for the New Year it’s not surprising to hear - they want to grow the business, add new clients, increase sales and the like. These are good things to work on. But what will have to change to make it happen?

It is so easy to get caught up in working in the business that we can relegate the critical steps of working on the business to the bottom of the list where they may never get done. One such area is the approach to sales. As Michelle Nichols stated in her column “Savvy Selling” in Business Week: “Once a year, it’s a good idea to evaluate your various selling activities and decide which ones to continue at the same pace and which ones you want to increase, decrease or stop doing altogether.”

She suggests a simple exercise to tune-up your selling process and identify those activities most valuable to you. To begin, make a list of every sales activity you and your team invested time and or money in over the last month. Rank each activity in terms of urgency and importance (this brings us back to Stephen Covey’s four quadrants). In any business, the top sales person needs to be the owner, president, CEO (you).

Obviously, the best use of all your sales time is spent selling to qualified prospects, in front of people who need what you sell, at the price you’re offering and want to purchase it today. So it is very important to take the time to assess your prospect list, to spend more time in front of customers who can buy, to guarantee your sales grow.

Next on the list of sales priorities are those tasks that lead you to those ideal customers. These activities include: long-term sales and marketing planning (i.e., a written plan), sales training, prospecting, networking, developing and implementing marketing programs. But watch your team’s time here closely. These activities are never as valuable as “face time” with prospects and customers.

But that doesn’t include everything on the list you made. For marketing calls, brainstorming on sales campaigns, marketing materials, web page copywriting and the like, keep a list with you. These are things that you and your sales team can act on if you get to an appointment early, or if a customer is delayed. Work in the car or ask to use an empty office. So instead of those pieces of “scrap time” being lost or wasted, you make productive use of them.

You will still have selling activities on your list that can’t be justified or delegated. Maybe they were someone else’s idea that got put on your list. Maybe you tried something new and don’t see it as important or urgent to repeat. Consciously decide if you will allow these activities back on the list.

This exercise of listing and ranking sales activities is itself, important but not urgent for your business. The only way it can help you sell more is if you take the time now to work through your own list of selling activities so you can get the results of growth, increased sales, or more clients now.

Related Articles
  Simple Money Making Method Posting Url links
  3 Secrets to Succeeding Online with Your Business
  Are You Financially Responsible With Your Business?
  How To Assess Your Sales Intelligence Quota
  How Focus Helps Sales Management Effectiveness
  The Importance of Cash Flow
  3 Ways to Make Your Business More Secure
  How to Spend Your Marketing Money
  Effective Decision Making
  Get Consistent Results with Consistent Action
  Judicial Branch Needed to Keep Sales Lead Management Honest
  How To Hold Sales People More Accountable
  Sales Management Training and Focus
  7 Ways To Evaluate Your Marketing Plan
  Determining Value
  Analytics- A Marketing Managers Friend or Foe?
  Cram and Flush Theory of Technology Training Doesnt Work
  Planners vs. Actors: How to find a profitable balance between over-thinking and jumping the gun
  Marketing and Advertising Making Use of B2B: Getting the Winning Attitude
  Why an Integrated Financial Accounts?

Article Tags: sales, selling activity



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...
Re: Need help in Team Building Activity.. - Team Building Activities are my favorite part. Last time our team was out for an expedition. We got a map and had to find the cave were we also slept and on our way there were other activities. It was an extreme team building and it was organized by a specialized company.
Re: Top 10 Homebased Franchises for 2011 - Hi, great list, thanks! Quick question as far as franchises go in comparison to small businesses would you say that they are they doing well or are they suffering in today's economy?
Re: What are your June Goals? - Nice Evan, congrats on your book draft Finish the goals I didn't finish in May - smiles I want to clean up my primary Gmail account Finish my new websites Continue my 3rd edition of 3 volumes or ..... many smaller new editions Lean more about Penguin Read/re-read a book a day Evaluate Kindle There you go; that is a start since I have never posted goals before


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.

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

Leadership-A Daily Gift

Selling What Sizzles vs. Delivering Real Value

Secrets of Successful Business Partnering

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.