The foolproof lack of sales early warning system.
What is the best way to predict (and fix) a coming shortfall in sales revenue?
Ever had a great quarter or month followed by a dry one? We all have at one point or another. Those of us who didn’t want that to happen again have adopted systems and processes to reduce the risk of it happening again. But, what is the quickest and easiest way to predict a coming shortfall in sales?
Every sale is preceded by an Initial Appointment. Regardless of what we sell or how many calls it takes to close that sale, they all begin with an Initial Appointment. That appointment could be a face-to-face call, a web-based call or a good old-fashioned phone call. It really makes no difference.
So what does this have to do with an early warning system? Simple. We must know how many Initial Appointments it takes to generate a sale and then figure out how many Initial Appointments must be on the calendar at any given moment to provide the number of needed sales. For instance, in our case, we need five Initial Appointments spread out over any given two-week period at any time.
Now for the final step in the process: What precedes an Initial Appointment? The conversations and dials that are necessary to set up those appointments is the answer. So, the final question to ask ourselves is how many dials are necessary to generate those five appointments. Because the dial is truly the earliest step in the selling process, I can now monitor my dials to see what my sales will be.
Given our ratios of dials to conversations of 13% and our conversations to appointments ratio of 26%, we need to dial the phone 15 times a day between those of us who sell. Not a monumental task, but a task that must be done, nonetheless.
I look at my Klpz dashboard each week and can see both the number of dials and the number of appointments we’ve got on the calendar at any given moment. If either of those numbers is low, it is an easy fix to keep our sales two months in the future from cratering. Get on the phone….
Caponi Performance Group and Contact Science jointly market the telephone prospecting and cold calling solution called Coldcalling101™. It is the only comprehensive solution to solving the biggest barrier to success in most selling organizations—the inability to secure enough Initial Appointments to begin the selling process. We accomplish that through simultaneously addressing both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. We can be reached at 817 224-9900 or at barry@coldcalling101.com. You can also find answers to many of your challenges in our books: Contrary to Popular Belief, Cold Calling DOES Work! Volume I: Effectiveness, The Art of Appointment Makingand Volume II: Efficiency, the Science of Appointment Making.
October 13th, 2011 at 4:14 am
hello, very good website, and a really good understand! at least one for my bookmarking.
February 3rd, 2012 at 7:42 am
Thank you for your kind comments. I hope you’ll continue to visit us, and if you must set appointments to generate business, check out our related website at http://www.caponipg.com…Barry