CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
“Salesperson, your numbers are a little low for this month/quarter/year. What’s your plan for hitting your target?”
“Don’t worry, Manager… I’ve got a bunch of opportunities that will close at the end of the month/quarter/year. I expect I’ll be past my target when they come through.”
“Okay, Salesperson. Carry on….”
STOP
Whenever someone (salesperson,spouse, child) says “don’t worry…” they are starting an emotional game. Sales Managers who have a high need for approval (one of the three beliefs that cripple accountability) will go along with this game because they aren’t comfortable uncovering the real truth behind “don’t worry about it,” but they get to get their emotional needs met later when they blow up at their sales people who don’t hit their targets.
Not to discount “back loading” a pipeline. There may be real reasons why a prospect wants to wait for the end of a time period to buy, but as the Sandler Rule goes “do a little bit (prospecting) all of the time instead a lot some of the time.”It’s easy for a salesperson to look at a back loaded pipeline and think “I got it,” ignoring the little voice in their head that says, “yeah,but you don’t get a cheque 100% of the time so you need more if you want to hit your targets.”
It’s also common for sales people to stop prospecting towards the end of the year once they reach their target(or give up because they don’t believe they can hit their target). They forget that their sales targets will reset come January (for most salespeople) and if they’re in a “enterprise” type sale (6+ months) the opportunities that they start in Q3 are the ones that will close in Q1.
In both of those cases it’s on the Sales Manager to hold their team accountable for continuing to do the prospecting activities that create real opportunities in their pipeline. This is also a good time to encourage individual salespeople to increase their ROPE (return on prospecting efforts) by adding new prospecting activities and/or prospecting larger companies, new geographies or different verticals.
When prospecting activities are consistent results are consistent. When they are erratic results are erratic and usually result in “back loaded” pipelines. Don’t be held hostage by a back loaded pipeline. Hold your salespeople accountable to weekly prospecting activities and you’ll break free of peaks and valleys in your sales results. Until next time… go lead
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
Share This:
