You know I’m not a fan of waiting for someone else to take action for your personal inside sales success.
That is why although his new book is Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team, I have a suggestion for you!
Ok it is really two suggestions.
1st conduct a monthly self-review of your progress.
The beauty of being inside sales is that everything is measured. The issue with measuring everything is it is difficult to pull what is important out of the myriad of data.
Using what Mike tells sales leaders to go over, let’s do a monthly self-review progression: beginning with results – moving to a forward look at our pipeline – then check in on our own activity.
1. Results: what are my sales results for the past month/quarter/year to date PLUS relative ranking against goal and our peers?
2. Pipeline: how many opportunities do I have, what are they work, how confident I am that I’ll win, plus where are they in the prospects own buying process (well Mike talks about the sales process but I care more about their buying process so I’ve modified it).
3. Activity: based on my results and pipeline, what activities are most important over the next month? What did I choose as my focus last month AND what did I actually do?
No excuses… no explanations… nothing except the facts.
Take a clear look at what you said you’d do AND what you actually did.
2nd schedule time on your manager’s calendar for a 1:1 results focused conversation.
Now it is accountability time. Share what you’ve learned about yourself with your sales manager.
Ask them to hold you accountable for the activity you know is critical to your future success.
Ask for training on skills that are missing. Coaching on areas you are concerned will derail you and help overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of the results you want for yourself.
I didn’t say it would be easy.
Not only am I saying you need to look in the mirror but you also need to ask your manager to stand next to you and confirm you are seeing clearly.
photo courtesy of © sherrie smith | Dreamstime
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