Building A Predictable Selling Machine

One of the biggest challenges for a Sales Development Professional is to identify and build a predictable selling machine. The idea of hitting a quota on a month-to-month basis can be overwhelming and worrisome. However, with a predictable measurement for success, the anxiety can be easily avoided.

Breaking down the selling process into manageable steps will assist any Sales Representative in achieving their sales quota. A thorough understanding of the amount of activity required on the individual's part to achieve that quota is essential to consistently achieving sales goals. Personal monthly sales statistics will help any person understand and create their predictable selling machine. For example, understanding the amount of sales conversations, cold calls and cold emails that need to be generated on a monthly basis that will turn into qualified demonstrations, allowing a Sales Representative to achieve their quota.

Simply conducting sales conversations is not enough, however. An individual must know and understand the sheer quantity of conversations that must take place each day, week and month to generate qualified sales demonstrations on a constant basis. Qualified conversations will lead into qualified sales opportunities. Conducting a qualified conversation will include speaking with a prospective company's decision maker. First, a Sales Representative must concentrate on finding prospective companies that may be a good fit with their company's products and finding a prospective customer that is either beginning their sales process or is in the process of shopping for the products that they sell.

In sales, consistency is key. A Sales Representative can have as many qualified conversations as they want, but if they are not consistent, then it will be glaringly obvious in their lack of success. The key to the formula for success is figuring out how many qualified conversations need to take place over a period of time to lead to success. Regularity and routine will assist in creating a predictable measurement to help generate enough qualified opportunities to hit a sales quota. This measurement should be repeated on a regular basis and set as a daily goal for the number of cold calls made. First understand the quantity of cold calls required daily to generate enough qualified sales conversations, then work on weekly and monthly goals.

While cold emails are not a reliable metric for predictability in sales, they are a complimentary tool to the aforementioned cold calls and qualified conversations. While a Sales Representative may be unable to connect with a prospective customer via phone call, the cold email will act as a gateway to a conversation that otherwise would have never happened. Cold calls are still a dominant form of contact, but when they fail, the cold emails are essential. Making sure that a Sales Representative attempts at every route for success is essential in creating consistency. When emails do get through to prospective customers, then phone conversations may happen more fluidly. Thus, turning cold emails into qualified conversations and contributing to the overall success of the individual Sales Representative. Similar to cold calls, the metrics of cold emailing should be studied and noted to form a consistent plan.

Depending on the time of the year it is likely that a Sales Representative would need to adjust their numbers to make more cold calls and send more cold emails to help consistently hit their sales quota.