| August 30, 2017 | Comments Closed |
Activity Equals Results
The #1 cause of poor performance and results is poor activity. Top performers spend 70% of their available time on sales-related activities – which means soliciting for new business and servicing their category A and B clients.
Average performers, on the other hand, do just the reverse. They spend 80% of their time on low level administrative and service-related tasks, many of which could, and should, be handled by someone else. They spend 20% or less of their available time on important sales-related activities.
If you want to improve the quality of your activity, and boost the performance of your business, here are five things you can do:
- Establish the right type of goal.
There are three sales metrics that you should use to guide your sales activity:
- Revenue
- Number of clients
- Retention
Get these right and everything else will take care of itself. Use your actual results for the previous year to establish realistic activity goals for the current year. Lay the foundation for the type and the amount of activity required to achieve your objectives.
- Refine your sales process.
This includes the formal steps, methods and tactics you employ to acquire, develop and retain clients. When everyone across the business knows, understands, and follows the same process, it will save you time and improve your efficiency. It will also give you a distinct, unique and competitive advantage over your competitors.
- Focus your time.
Be ruthless with your time. You should allocate 60-70% of each day and week to sales-related activities. This equates to 5 hours per day or 25 hours per week. If you are to achieve this level, you can no longer do everything yourself. Top performers delegate low level service-related task to others; this gives them the freedom to concentrate on category A and B clients.
- Engage in the right activities.
If you are a seasoned professional with a large portfolio, 80% of your sales activities should focus on servicing, adding value to your category A and B clients, cross-selling, and obtaining referrals. You should devote 20% of your sales activities to soliciting new business, from your referrals and introductions.
If your business is new, or you have a small portfolio, 80% of your sales activities should be focused on generating referrals from centres of influences, and using outbound marketing techniques to make appointments to fill your sales pipeline.
- Hold everyone accountable.
Monitor your performance and results every week. Hold regular sales meeting to review activity, and track actual results towards agreed goals. Provide your team with the necessary help, as required, in the form of training and coaching. This will lift performance and keep everyone on track. If you are a solo professional, use a colleague, coach or mentor to help you with your accountability.
Top performers understand that the economy and market conditions are outside their control, and that the only thing they can control is their activity. This is why they are able to produce consistent superior results.
Implement these guidelines, and you will quickly improve your activity and turn average performance into superior performance. If you are already producing superior results, then you will continue to thrive.
Activity equals results!
