When you look at the calendar at this time of the year, you start to realize that the selling year is almost over. In fact, when you take out the holidays, there are only about 45 selling days left in the year. That is not a lot of time left for your team to qualify for their annual sales incentive contest, and not a lot of time for you to secure your annual bonus!
Are your sales representatives on track? Are you?
The key at this time of the year is to ensure there are enough prospects on the go to produce the sales needed. Don't kid yourself. When the December holiday season rolls around, you team is going to need many more prospects than they think they will. That makes this time of year a great time to focus on new lead generation. An email blast, a direct mail campaign, or a team prospecting blitz day are great ideas to make sure you have enough in your sales funnel come year end.
When reviewing the results, don't just look at how much you and your team have sold so far, but also how much more needs to be sold. Break down larger targets into smaller ones that cover shorter time frames. For example, if a member on your team needs to sell $21,000 in the last 2 months of the year to qualify for President's Club, make sure he is focused on the $10,500 per month needed to qualify. Why not publish a "What's Left To Qualify" report and distribute this to every member of your team each month?
Next year, why not start this report in January? Remember, you can't change the past, so focus on the future! But before your jump in with your check book wide open when planning next year's sales contest, the fact is not all sales contests motivate and not all are profitable. To find more information on how to properly design your 2011 sales contest, download our eBook, Action Plan For Sales Management Success at www.b2bsalesconnections.com .
Aim Higher!
Susan A Enns
Susan A. Enns is managing partner of B2B Sales Connections, an online sales training website with free sales resources, a specialized job board & free resume listing services for business to business sales professionals. She has a proven track record of success, with over 22 years of direct sales, management and executive level business to business experience. Her accomplishments include being the top sales rep in Canada, managing the top sales branch, and achieving outstanding sales growth in a national channel sales organization. She has written the downloadable e-courses “Action Plan For Sales Success” and “Action Plan For Sales Management Success”, created numerous automated sales tools, and she writes and edits the company’s newsletters. Currently Susan serves on the Leadership Executive of the Sales Professionals of Ottawa as President. For more information, visit www.b2bsalesconnections.com or contact Susan directly at senns@b2bsalesconnections.com , www.twitter.com/SusanEnns , or www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns .