Why Your March Sales Suck
Journal entry: December 3, 2009
“My calendar is full and my sales are on track. Looks like I’ll end the year yet to be of butt. This means my boss will finally stop bugging me to get my sales on track. After several years of developing my client base, I’m making headway. That means I can finally relax and start taking it a bit simpler. I can’t coast but the momentum should carry me well into next year and by then I’ll have even more customers to which will make it simpler to reach my quotas.”
Journal entry: March 21st, 2010
“Sales are below butt and it doesn’t look like I’ll reach my quota this month. I was on track earlier this year but now it seems like I’ve lost my momentum. I thought the recession was over and that business was supposed to increase. Companies are still loath to go forward and the people I have sold too aren’t reordering. Guess I’ll have to step it up a notch to get back on track. It seems like this is a never-ending roller coaster ride.”
Sound familiar?
It’s a very common problem that far too many sales people encounter. They forget that the action they take—or fail to take—today, will affect their results several months down the road. They get caught up in the “moment” and fall into the trap of reducing their prospecting efforts when they are busy or when sales are on an upswing. They mistakenly believe that their sales will continue to increase even though they cut back on prospecting. Unfortunately, this makes the “peaks and valleys” syndrome whereby the sales person has a fantastic month followed by one or two month of mediocre performance. As sales decline, the rep increases his/her efforts and a few months later their sales commence to increase again. As their sales start to climb, they scale back on hunting for new business. And they continue the pattern.
Unfortunately, every company and every person has to work at generating new business. Age, experience, seniority or expertise does not exempt you from this. I recall a conversation with a colleague who said, “I’ve been at this for 20 years; I feel a sense of entitlement and I don’t feel that I should have to work this hard to get new business.” We have all seen and heard about companies who went out of business after several decades of success. The business landscape constantly changes. New competitors enter the market and erode our customer base. Products, services and solutions that were once state-of-the-art are now obsolete. And customers who were once loyal to you and your company abandon ship and no longer buy your product, service or solution.
This all means that you need to take consistent action to breed new business leads, regardless of how long you have been selling and how well established your business is. When my wife first started her business nearly 15 years ago, her accountant suggested that she invest a specific amount of time each week marketing her business. It was wise advice then, and with the increase in competition that most businesses now experience, his words are even more valuable today.
This is even more vital if you work with only a few customers and each company represents a large part of your revenue. Many sales people and companies have found themselves scrambling to find new sources of revenue because a major client stopped by their services. It’s a tough wake-up call that can be prevented by avoiding the smugness trap and assertively prospecting for new business on a regular basis.
So, what do you need to do to ensure that your sales don’t suck in March?
It is essential that you block time in your schedule for prospecting. Otherwise one of two things will happen. First, the busyness of your day will take over and you won’t invest time on prospecting activities. Or, you will spend too much time in just one area and will neglect other opportunities to prospect. It’s simple to get caught up servicing your unfilled customers, dealing with emails, and other tasks. Whether you make cold calls, send direct mail campaigns, attend networking functions, question for referrals, give presentations, or participate in social media; you need to determine just so what type of prospecting endeavor you will do each day/week. Control and manage your time by blocking each endeavor in your calendar as an appointment. If you are diligent at keeping these prospecting appointments, your March sales won’t suck.