A healthy sales cycle, maintaining the pipeline

Nov. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- I was recently asked by Zara, VP of Sales from Manhattan, a question that has plagued thousands of sales leaders for generations: "My team regularly achieve all top-line KPI's, we train often, score high on knowledge-tests, and have a fantastic product. Why then, do we continue to deliver a below-average sales performance?"

The answer, quite fortunately, is relatively simple.

To maintain a successful flow of sales, one must be able to differentiate between new and old, and to focus greatly on driving new leads into the sales cycle.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of a healthy pipeline, we put this philosophy to test over a six-month period with three separate teams:

Team A had no change to their daily 'contacts made' KPI's.

Team B were tasked with ensuring 33% of their 'contacts made' were new.
Team C were tasked with ensuring 51% of their 'contacts made' were new.

The results were conclusive. Team A averaged 84% of their monthly sales target, Team B 101% and Team C 114%.

Going further into the performance of Team C, we found that conversions had significant improvements, and both the appointment to show and close conversions had increased by over 18% each!

Interestingly, Team C also began to record less activity, work less hours and reduce their staff turnover during the same period.

DRIVING INPUT

A sales team that focuses over 50% of their time on driving new leads into their cycle will ultimately be more successful than those who do not.

Other focuses, although well-intentioned, waste hours of productive time working on databases that continue to decline until their is no other option remaining but to focus on new business. This occurrence then creates a timeframe where there is little to convert as the sales person attempts to bridge the gap between old and new (called the yo-yo effect).

A consistent (daily) focus on driving input into the sales cycle permits the sales manager to be content with a consistent performance.

MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES:

1. Split each day into two: Hunting (new business) and Farming (existing leads).
2. Focus on quality over quantity - everytime.
3. Referrals are an excellent source of input. (But they are only one source!)
4. Audit your CRM often, and look for solutions on how to improve productivity.
5. Maintain a consistent input-driven message.

I do hope that you find this article useful, and are able to start creating high-performing (input-focused) teams in the coming months. Remember to keep me informed of your progress! www.trevor-brennan.com