2013 Sales Year is over, start 2014 NOW!

 

The current average Sales lag time in ICT is 7 months.

28 weeks from pipeline entry to sales close.

(Provided you spotted the opportunity
when it was first available!)

 

 

Writing in May 2013 then this year is over,

what is in is in, what is not is not.

What then must be done to make 2014 a great year?

1. KEEP PROSPECTING or 2014 is going to be a poor year.
May/June/July Prospects will be your Quarter 1 sales results in 2014.
2. Cleanse your 2013 pipeline.
William Ocknen’s brilliant book Managing Management Time –“Who’s got the Monkey?”
will show you how to painlessly remove dead and dying deals (Monkeys) from the pipeline.
http://ht.ly/2GXLu 

Don’t waste time LOSING deals “Cleanse your pipeline!”

3. The combination of 1. & 2. above,
is that you are now likely to succeed both this year AND next year.

That is IF you PLAN now, you will in fact need quite a few plans.

Using the Urgent/Important criteria,
in this case Urgent is date of Client required installation and
Importance is the multiplying your likelihood (%) to win by the Revenue.
Plan the most important and urgent first.

Sales people may have to work over a weekend or two!

4. EXECTUTE all your Plans, account plans and opportunity plans.
Recognise that selling continues through July and August only if you Plan and Execute in May and June.
5. August is the best month to plan the 4^th quarter.
Scour your Territory for 2013 ‘bluebirds’ in their final stages:
be PRICE aggressive, disrupt the Competition!
6. September is the focus month: what really could close before Sales year-end? It is no coincidence that final quarter of the year (whenever it occurs in the financial year) is always the biggest quarter. Managers think it is their ‘push’, but in reality, it is sales people’s focus. So, let us make more time to focus.
7. October, November and December will define for many their success for this year 80%, 100% or 120%.
Executing the plan, you made in September.
You must be focussing on the best opportunities,
activating events that enable the Client to move through Decision to Purchase.
October, November and December also defines your next selling year, especially your Quarter 1 results. (Early in my selling Career, with a big territory and a good product I had hit Target in April.
Before attending the previous year’s President's Club, I had my ticket to the following year’s President's Club!).

• BMAC offers the following rules of thumb:
• October  4 days per week selling for this year, 
  and then 1 day selling for next year.
• November 3 days per week selling for this year,
  and then 2 days selling for next year.
• December 2 days per week selling for this year,
  and then 3 days selling for next year.

That gives 36 selling days for this year,
and 24 for next year, use them well.