Lead Generation: Avoid The One Mistake That Will Kill Your Sales Productivity
December 29, 2009scfm 18 Comments »Sales Productivity is a factor of two things: Available time and effective use of time.
To increase a Sales Rep’s productivity we can:
Decrease time spent on non-selling activities
Increase time spent on selling activities
Make better use of selling-time
Salespeople like other professionals, have a fixed amount of available hours during the year. Although you may put in far more hours, I’ll base this number on 40 hours per week with 52 weeks in a year, and arrive at 2,080 hours total for the year. Your utilization of those 2,080 hours will determine your sales productivity and whether or not you’ll hit your revenue targets.
Non-selling Activities
All Salespeople are burdened with activities that don’t have a direct impact on revenue.
Sales forecasts, weekly sales meetings, chasing commissions, assisting with account receivables collection, travel and a myriad of other activities all contribute to a reduction in selling time.
Business-performance improvement firm Proudfoot Consulting conducts an annual survey with consistently shocking results. In their 2005 Proudfoot Productivity Report a whopping 79% of a salesperson’s time was spent on non-selling activities. Using the 2,080 hour/year figure, only 437 hours remain to be spent on actively selling to or prospecting for customers.
If you’re a Sales Rep or a Sales Manager, you won’t find this surprising. If you’re in marketing, this will give you more insight as to why Salespeople guard their time so judiciously, and chafe at following-up on leads of unknown quality.
Companies should take an inventory of tasks which divert Salespeople from being in front of customers. Then systematically create processes that will return valuable hours to the pool of selling-time. More time to sell is a good thing. However, it’s not just the amount of selling time that’s important, it’s how the time is used.
Selling time
What types of activities would you consider to be selling activities? Of the 21% of selling time found to be available by the 2005 Proudfoot study, only 11% was spent actively-selling while a full 10% was spent prospecting.
Why wouldn’t Salespeople spend all of their selling time with qualified prospects rather than prospecting? Why do they spend 10% of their available selling time cold-calling and following up with leads of un-known quality (think trade-show leads)?
Because there aren’t enough prospects!
Stuffing the funnel with leads
In an attempt to bolster the amount of time spent actively-selling, we generate leads. Leads are the life-blood of sales. Leads keep our pipelines full. Leads are the source of all revenue. As Martha Stewart might say “leads are a good thing.”
But leads aren’t necessarily prospects and if they aren’t prospects, they won’t be buyers anytime soon. Too many non-qualified leads will kill your sales productivity, lower your revenue potential and limit your ability to exceed sales quota.
Leads: The Sales Productivity Killer?
The answer isn’t to provide more leads, it’s to provide more qualified prospects. Don’t stuff the sales funnel with leads. Stuff the marketing funnel with leads. The marketing funnel is where leads should be shaken and sifted, helping qualified prospects fall through to the sales funnel where they can be closed. The more unqualified leads that make their way through to Sales, the less productive salespeople will be.
Lessons from the Gold Rush
I live in one of the historic California towns where the 49er gold rush took place. You couldn’t find gold unless you had good techniques either panning for gold in rivers, or blasting through vast layers of earth. Gold seekers were of course, known as “prospectors”.
Prospectors couldn’t find gold without a laborious search. And like prospecting for gold, finding qualified prospects requires the right techniques. However, a division of labor for executing those techniques is crucial if prospectors are to maximize their return. If assayers were asked to haul and mill the ore as well as inspect for content and quality – investors would receive far fewer gold coins at the end of the day.
Copyright © 2007 Smart About Sales, Inc.
Question about sales product
what sales managment position, is it where u go and sales the product your self ?i was ask to apply for a sales management position, …i was just wondering if thats when u actually sale the product yourself, like a sales paerson?
Tags: lead Generation, lead management, prospects, sales funnel, sales productivity
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 5:42 am
I bought several things from the 1 sale has anyone that ordered received their stuff yet I’m getting worried plus they have their money already.
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 5:53 am
thank u!!! u r so gorgeous
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Right now, pre-launch…15% seems like a lot – but its worth it to you, if this product gets the exposure you desire, along with the sales income. You can put a cap on it by setting up a royalty agreement form stating that the commission is only effective for the first 100 unit sales (figure a dollar limit on your web designers creative efforts) You can also drop the commission to 10% for the next 100 units or whatever your conscious allows. It works like this – 100 units sell for 30.00 each and 15% is 4.50 dollars – x 100 equals 450.00 – and the next group equals less commission till you get to 1000 or more units.
Now you are not married to this web designer forever, and the cow doesn't die. All good things must come to an end, and include an exit clause.
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 6:49 am
The numbers you are looking for are random depending on the area and customer base. If your in Arizona you will sell more cold drinks than in Colorado and if your next to a University you will sell more quick snacks than if you are in a mall. I hope this helps.
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Thank you for the shoutout!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am
never heard of that coupon site! thats crazy thanks so much you are too kind!
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 10:50 am
All the governments give some kind of endorsement to all the product sold in the economy. All food and medicines have permissions given by government that not only assures those products does not make you a damage, else it has enough quality to be bought with out risk…Most of respectable and coveted certifications in Europe are given by government…to have some of this certifications give to companies safe sales to many companies…
In some countries, government grant all the financial products for the case of break of the bank…this create confidence in public and it have not problem in demand the financial products those want…
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
If you are referring to sales tax: just carry a calculator with you. Find out the sales tax in your area, then multiply the item cost by the applicable sales tax.
Follow the link below to find your state sales tax rate. Then you can call your local city hall to see if there are any local sales taxes, and add them (if any) to the state rate. That will give your the sales tax percentage that you would use to calculate sales tax on your purchases.
Posted on December 29th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Hello…no, sorry I cannot help you but heyyyy, why not look at working for yourself? With your experience as a Sales Manager, I would love to discuss with you what I do if your options are open to working for yourself. My email is rpelley5@yahoo.com. Thank you.
Posted on December 30th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
quick answer….net sales is typically $$$
net volume is the number of units of widgets that you ship
Posted on December 30th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
If you already have a good career, why would you take a chance during such a dangerous economic time? A new CRM could be great but you don't know what kind of "bugs" new systems have and if they have the support to back up those issues. In addition, what are the benefits to this CRM over Sales Force? If it's 'just another' CRM why would anyone want to change? You need to be asking your "prospective" employer about their target market and ask more about their sales plan. They would need to sell me before I would ever consider leaving a secure job during a recession.
Posted on December 31st, 2009 at 2:23 am
thank you for letting us know
Posted on December 31st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Thank You!
Posted on December 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
wow i did not see the cafe latte
Posted on December 31st, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Hey prescriptives is having a 30% off sale. They are going out of business. I purchased a bronzer brush for $22.00
Posted on December 31st, 2009 at 11:32 pm
They are similar in that with sales you are trying to solve a problem for your customer, and through product development you are also trying to find and solve your customer's problems.
Posted on January 1st, 2010 at 2:58 am
A sales manager usually does some selling but they manage a sales force. Part of the job requires recruitment and training. Sales managers usually spend a few years in a sales position before moving into sales management.
Posted on January 1st, 2010 at 3:28 pm
yea girl, they get you with that shipping.
i got 14 items and my shipping was 14 bucks. but yeah, still a good deal!