If your sales looks like the second wheel, it’s time to get back in balance. If you don’t, your sales career will be bumpy and frustrating, and at some point, your wheel (meaning you) will wear down and break.
Unfortunately, this is where many salespeople find themselves after a few years of working hard to build their business and client base. During the early years, many sales professionals experience what Top of the Table advisor Brian Mann calls the Survival stage, your sole focus is on revenue generating activities (RGAs), i.e. the activities that help you acquire clients and then grow the business with each new client you acquire. Why? Because you have to in order to survive.
In the second stage of your business, what Brian Mann calls the Success stage, you have successfully grown a book of business but, the burden of maintaining and servicing that book of business has also grown. It’s the natural order of sales.
This is the stage where most salespeople’s sales wheel gets warped.
As a good salesperson, you want to and feel obligated to help your clients, especially those that helped you become successful. The problem is that you naturally gravitate towards service work like answering emails and voicemails as well as looking up policy values, etc. These things are easier and often times feel more comfortable to do than making a cold call or following up with a particularly tough prospect.
The result is that more of your attention and time is spent on maintaining your business rather than acquiring new clients and growing business with current clients-your sales wheel starts to warp towards “maintain.” In such scenarios, taking help of outsourced inside sales professionals like the ones offered by The Alias Group (and similar companies) might be a good idea. Armed with the proper knowledge and expertise, it could be possible for you to maximize profits, exceed goals, and develop new avenues of revenue.
Furthermore, if you aren’t paying attention and can’t get your wheel back in balance, you will find yourself in the Sustainability stage, the stage at which you find the ablity to drive intentional, significant growth while retaining clients unachievable.
There are three key steps to getting your sales wheel back in balance.
1. Clearly understand the activities you need to execute in order to grow your business with current clients as well as acquire new ones-your RGAs.
For example:
• Kitchen table appointments (e.g. discovery interview meetings and solution presentations)
• Networking events and lunches
• Follow-up calls
• LinkedIn articles and working your LinkedIn network
• Calls or meetings with current clients to review and update their plans and uncover other areas in which you can help them achieve their goals
2. Stop “finding” time to make your RGAs happen and start making time to make them happen.
I was conducting a webinar the other day with more than 100 sales people. I posed the question: “What are your RGAs, the activities that help your grow your business?” Most of the salespeople had the answers immediately. They said, “Kitchen table appointments, networking, etc.”
Knowing what your RGAs are is the easy part.
But here’s the problem. When I posed the question: “How many of you have actual time dedicated on your calendar to execute your RGAs?” Only 25 participants answered that they dedicated time, blocked off on their calendar, to execute their RGAs. Only 25 percent!
You can’t leave executing your RGAs up to chance-that is, you can’t hope to find the time to execute your RGAs because more often than not you don’t find the time. Without dedicated time to make your RGAs happen, the default is spending more and more time on the activities (supporting activities or SAs) that merely maintain and service your current clients and business.
Get your sales wheel in balance by blocking off multiple chunks of dedicated RGA time on your calendar so that when you start each week you have a roadmap, i.e. an action plan, for success.
Then, fit in your service and maintenance work in between your RGA times.
3. Treat all dedicated RGA time blocks like you would treat a kitchen table appointment, an appointment where you are face-to-face with a prospect.
You would never answer emails, texts or phone calls or try to complete paperwork in a kitchen table appointment.
So don’t take time away from growing your current clients or acquiring new ones by doing these distracting activities during dedicated RGA time, such as making follow-up calls, calling referrals or connecting with people on your LinkedIn network.
Remember, to get and keep a balanced sales wheel, follow these three steps:
1. Clearly understand the activities you need to execute in order to grow your business with current clients as well as acquire new ones-your RGAs.
2. Stop “finding” time to make your RGAs happen and start making time to make them happen.
3. Treat all dedicated RGA time blocks like you would treat a kitchen table appointment-an appointment where you are face-to-face with a prospect.
