How Are Your Math Skills?

If I’d known math was going to be so important, I would have paid more attention!

Sales isn’t technically a science, but interview a top salesperson in almost any industry, and you’ll be surprised at how much math they throw out at you. Top sales people know down to the day, how many calls they must make, how many appointments they must conduct, and how many closed sales are necessary in any given month in order to achieve their income goals.

How are your math skills?

We know that top sales people can make it look easy.  Some top sales people we’ve talked to have a difficult time articulating what it is they do to be successful.  But dig a little, and there really aren’t many secrets.  Top sales people are a little like rock stars.  Unless you’re a roadie, you won’t ever see the blood, sweat and tears that goes into executing a Prince concert (okay, are we dating ourselves, how about Taylor Swift?)  All the audience sees is the finished product. Much is the same with sales rock stars, they produce month after month, year after year, and barely break a sweat.

How do they do that?

Here are some ways to channel your inner sales rock star:

1. Figure out what you do that results in closed sales. Create a record of all your sales activities. Literally write out all of the things you think you do that results in a closed sale. If it helps, look back over the past 12-18 months at your new accounts or closed sales, and do your best to determine which sales activity initially teed you up for eventually getting that sale.
2. Then create some goals around those activities.
3. For the next month, do those things and keep track of how much you do them, and what your results are.
4. At the end of the month, do a little math and see which ones gave you the highest return on your time.

It might look something like this:

Once you do this, you will know what your activity conversion ratios are. It’s a formula for success… and formulas mean MATH.  Activity conversion ratios are the secret sauce of top salespeople everywhere! I won’t get into any analysis about whether or not getting 11 appointments is a “good” result from making 100 calls, I think there are too many factors to consider to generalize about that here. The powerful thing is that now you know that if you need 6 contracts a month, you either need to make 200 phone calls, or you need to sharpen your skills to improve your conversion ratios.  But that’s a subject for another BLOG!

Do you know how many calls it takes YOU to get 1 appointment? Or how many appointments it takes YOU to get 1 sale?  If not, take a page from top producers everywhere… figure out your formula for success and become the sales rock star that you are meant to be!