Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 51. Increasing Sales Quickly

Charles Newby

Mercuri International Group

Are you doing these four things?

1. Focus on activity rather than results.

   There is a great temptation to spend all your waking management time thinking about a shortfall in results. This is natural. We all do it! However, it doesn't actually bring in any more business.

   So is there a better area to think about? Well, yes: Sales activity is what drives the result!

   For salespeople and sales managers, the pursuit of the optimum quantity, direction, and quality of activity can improve results generation quickly. How? Well, first, if you have accurate conversion ratios and average order values, then you can calculate with some accuracy how many extra sales prospects you need in order to improve results. Now you are getting some control of the situation.

   The next port of call is to assess how much activity (warm-up letters, mail shots, appointment-making phone calls, and sales visits) you are likely to need in order to convert each prospect into a likely order. This will show you how much extra activity you need, but of course the constraints will be the amount of time that you have and the numbers of salespeople involved.

   With a reasonably well-motivated team, a short, high-profile, and well-planned campaign of extra activity can close many a gap between sales achieved and the target figure.

2. Select the "right" opportunities and ensure the "right" salespeopleapproach them.

   If the above sounds like a recipe for loads of ...