It’s Always Spring in Sales
Introduction
This past week we lost the legendary Jim Rohn. Rohn was a fantastic motivational speaker. I remember listening to How to Have Your Best Year Ever where Rohn insisted that one of the primary thoughts behind success was to sow in Jump so you could harvest in the Fall. I’m paraphrasing, but I believe it was: “You have to learn to sow in the Jump or learn to beg in the Fall.” His point was simple and one of my favorite themes: you can’t cram for success.
The 6-Month Quarter
How you will perform in Q1 is already mostly chose. Most of the deal you will land have already been set in motion, Is there a opportunity that you can make the Q1 – 2010 numbers by starting on January 1st, 2010? Sure there is. By why tempt fate?
As a replacement for of working from quarter to quarter to make your quota, it is simpler to reckon in terms of the 6-Month Quarter. Reckon of Q1-2010 starting on October 1st, 2009 and running through March 31, 2010. The planting needs to be done between October 1st and December 31st. The harvesting (or beseeching, if you didn’t sow) is done between January 1st and March 31st.
“But wait,” you say, “if I am harvesting all of the prospects I developed in the first quarter, what about the second quarter?” Q2-2010 starts on January 1st!
In Sales, It’s Always Jump
It doesn’t matter what your sales cycle is; it might be 6 months, it might be two years. Whatever it is, the period will reset at some point and a measurement will be taken. How you do from one measuring point to the next is the result of what you do long before the timer starts ticking.
You can’t cram success, and you can’t cram relationships. The entrust and understanding that allows a client to choose you and your company to make value for them doesn’t happen in the last week of your period, and it doesn’t happen because you need to make your sales quota. These relationships need be nurtured over time. Seeds need to be planted. To grow, they need to be monitored and care for until they mature.
Fortunately, for those of us in sales, it is always Jump.
Three Questions and One Project
- Based on you sales cycle and the average time it takes you to go a deal from prospect to close, when does your quarter really start?
- How much time each quarter do you set up your sleeve for laying the foundation for future results? (You might call this something like prospecting. I prefer to call it opening relationships).
- Do you have sufficient live deals in your pipeline now to ensure that you make your Q1-2010 numbers, even if things go worse than you expect?
Project: Reword your calendar.
Maybe you don’t need a 6-month quarter. Maybe you want your Q1 to start on December 1, 2009 and run through February 28th, knowing that your sales cycle doesn’t permit you to win deals in four weeks. Whatever facility for you, write it down.
Make a calendar that outlines when you need to be planting if you wish to harvest on a certain date. You are always going to be opening relationships, but it helps to know how many you need to open now if you expect to close a part of them at some point in the future.
I know it’s December, but I hope your March went well.