Visit the Sage

Measuring Your Sales Funnel (Part 4 of 4)

In Part 1 of this four-part visit, I outlined the goal of this series on measuring your sales funnel, explained some key rules to apply to determine whether a prospect is in your sales funnel and gave you some guidelines for segmenting your sales funnel into different levels you can track.

In Part 2, I explained how to measure your actual sales funnel and how to look at your target vs. actual funnels, so you could easily determine what you should change.

In Part 3, we discussed getting inside your prospects' heads, so you can better tell where they are in their buying cycles and make smarter decisions when dealing with prospects.

In today's visit, we'll talk about relationships between sales managers and salespeople, and then tie everything together so you can make a quantum leap forward in sales success.

The Brutal Reality Of Bad Relationships

The first step to fixing anything is to understand what's broken. So I'll start this relationship subject with the bad and the ugly -- the thoughts usually left unspoken.

You know how every human has an internal voice that never shuts up? That always says what it thinks? That doesn't care about political correctness or the other person's feelings? To help you understand one another better, I'm going to share with you some internal-voice comments that have been shared with me by sales managers and salespeople.

For many people, this is not going to be enjoyable, and it is definitely not going to be warm and fuzzy.

But it will be honest.

Sales Manager's Internal Voice Venting

I'll bet that just about every sales manager managing more than five people is dealing with at least one salesperson who drives him or her nuts. If you're that one, then here is some of what your sales manager's internal voice is probably saying to or about you:

• If there is anything that will always amaze me, it's your limitless ability to blame others for your failures.
• I don't give a hoot what you think might happen with the prospects you've been trying to close for 18 months, and it is not possible for me to be more bored with your complaints about their not acting the way you think they should act.
• If you tell me once more how you can't close at this price, I swear I'm going to drop our prices for a month and then fire you when you can't close at those prices either.
• If you held a gun to my head, I would rather have you pull the trigger than listen to you complain about how the marketing material we supply is not good enough, the website we built is not supporting your selling efforts, the cell phone service we provide is cutting out, the laptops are not fast or light enough, or the customer relationship management system is too difficult to use.
• I've told you a dozen times that the prime time for contacting our prospects is 1:30 to 3 a.m. Yet, in the six months you've been here, I have yet to see you place a single call during that time frame. What, exactly, don't you get?
• If you mention once more how our top salesperson has an unfair advantage, I'm going to show you "unfair" by giving your accounts to [him or her].
• Why can't you just dial the phone and talk to people? It's not rocket science. You don't need hours of analysis to create the perfect offer, because there is no such thing as the perfect offer. Just dial the phone, say what I've taught you to say, learn from the experience and change things as you go.
• Congratulations! You've delivered 37 contracts this year! Whoop-de-frickin'-do! Do you realize that only two of them got signed? And do you have any idea how much it costs this company in man-hours to draw up one contract?
• I'm a sales manager -- not a psychic, not a statistician, not a sounding board and not your mother! In order for me to earn my paycheck, I must do one thing and one thing only -- I must make sure everyone on this team hits or exceeds certain numbers every year. And your subjective guesswork about what might happen, unfounded optimism when evaluating your sales funnel, and complete pessimism when discussing this company and its products and services are flat-out driving me nuts.

Sales Manager Helping

• Tell me you've decided to blow off a prospect who is driving you crazy, and I'll respect you for the decision to cut your losses, help you figure out how to spot the no-win prospects faster and even call that prospect's boss to see if we can circumvent the showstopper and put this one back into your win column.
• Tell me why the last 200 phone calls failed, what you learned from that failure and what you're going to change so that the next 200 phone calls don't fail. Do that, and I'll work with you on anything you need to improve.
• Buy a book on cold-letter writing, and I'll reimburse you for it. Read it and tell me what you've learned, and I'll help you craft your first letter, pay for a professional ad writer to make it rock, hire a copyeditor to perfect it technically and even help you stuff the envelopes.
• Tell me you want to record a four-hour dialing session, and I'll not only buy the recorder, I'll listen to all four hours of the session and work with you to improve your results.
• Give me the recorder and ask me to dial the phone for the same four hours so you can hear real-world examples of how I want you to talk to prospects, and I'll gladly do exactly that.
• Tell me the exact words the prospect used when he said our prices are too high, and I'll help you figure out how to change your behavior so you can close at any price we choose.
• Tell me how you changed your sales process so you can close deals without using our marketing material at all. I'd like nothing better than to have our entire team selling without marketing superfluff, because I'm not that thrilled with the material either.
• Share with me the workaround you created that lets you enter data into our computer system in half the time, and the first time you can't figure out a workaround, I'll go to bat for you to have the system changed to accommodate your needs.

Bottom Line -- Sales Manager To Salesperson: If you want to find the greatest asset you have for being successful, look in the mirror. Then after you've done that, if you want to find the second greatest asset you have, knock on my door. Together, that person in the mirror and I will help you set sales records you never imagined you could achieve.

Salesperson's Internal Voice Venting

Just as good sales managers get frustrated with bottom-tier salespeople, good salespeople get frustrated with bottom-tier sales managers. And their frustrations are usually stronger, I'm afraid, because of the power their inept managers wield.

Not that it will do much to change things, because inept sales managers tend to believe they're great, but here's what good salespeople in this unfortunate situation think about the idiots who manage them:

• How can you pretend to know more than I do about sales when you've never sold a damned thing?
• If you change compensation models again, I'm going to quit, because this company's problems have nothing whatsoever to do with our compensation model. By the way, after I quit, I'm going to violate my non-compete agreement by going to work for our biggest competitor. And when you sue me for it, I'm going to launch a nationwide public relations campaign to beat you over the head with your own stupidity!
• I know you believe there is no "I" in "team," and I know it's your job to make the sales team successful. But I don't get paid based on the team's results. So instead of wasting my time with your team-building garbage, how about letting me use that time to go sell something? Or better yet, let's use that time to get some pros in here for regular training sessions, so we can all grow as professional salespeople?
• Speaking of training, what management training have you taken? And when was the last time you bought a book on how to manage salespeople? How about practicing what you preach just once and learning something yourself?
• Stop living in a world of hype and false information. Find out what really works from successful sales people, not sales psychologists, and pass that along to me. I want to know what they do and how they do it, backed up by real statistics.
• Listen to me once in a while, because I'm out there and sometimes when I tell you the prospect absolutely will not bite at that price, it's because I know what the hell I'm talking about.
• I know the prospect is in Joe's territory, but you and I both know Joe couldn't sell water in the desert. So either turn me loose, or do something to help Joe close this deal. And, by the way, how about a referral-level commission since I produced the lead?
• Have you heard the saying "It's a flat world"? There is no such thing as geographical territory anymore. So how about dropping the false boundaries that are stopping me from selling?
• I'll make a deal with you. You let me know when you want a report on my sales funnel, and I'll let you know when I want your advice on how to sell. How's that sound?
• I'm a salesperson -- not a team catalyst, not a mentor to the people you can't manage and not your "personal project." My goal is to find prospects, build relationships and close deals, and I get paid only when I accomplish all three.

Salesperson Helping

• Start selling with us, so you get some in-the-trenches experience to back up your opinions, and not only will you learn our real-world issues, but I'll have respect for what you say.
• Bring me any idea or technique you've learned from someone on our team and I'll not only pay attention, I'll actually try it to see if it works for me too. And I'll even report my results back to you, so you can help the people who created the idea improve.
• As for your team goals, I certainly understand your job is to make everyone successful. And as a good company employee, I'm glad to offer some help. But don't expect me to sacrifice my own results to help you do your job. Look in your own mirror to find the asset you need to build this team. After that, knock on my door and let's get going.
• I firmly believe that which doesn't grow will die. So I will fully support any effort with the goal of training every person at this company to be better at his or her job. But I will not support selective training efforts designed to mask the incompetence of one person or group.
• If we must have territories, fine. But if you want this company to sell like mad, incorporate a foot-in-the-door payment structure that rewards salespeople like me who are great at finding opportunities in all territories. I'll give one-third of my sales commission to any salesperson who uncovers an opportunity in my territory and hands it to me. How about finding out whether the rest of the team will do the same thing?
• As for our computer software, it was written for managing customers, not producing them, and it slows me down beyond belief. So either come up with a new way for me to report my sales funnel, or suffer the consequences of reduced sales due to abnormal admin time.

Bottom Line -- Salesperson To Sales Manager: If you want me to hit the numbers you've set, realize that from my perspective there is no "team" in "I." And please be more efficient in the time you spend keeping me informed, and the time you make me burn keeping you informed.

Insights

In most cases, salespeople and sales managers never share their negative, internal-voice comments. But the frustration that generates those comments is real, and, unfortunately, present on most sales teams. That's why it's important to get inside the head of your counterpart -- only by walking in the other person's shoes can you glean the insights you need to improve.

So let's glean a few of those insights by looking for common ground between sales managers and salespeople:

• Both want respect.
• Both want efficiency, clarity and objectivity.
• Both want to succeed; although, they do have different goals.
• Both want help succeeding, but both seem to want to be left alone unless they ask for help.
• Both understand the need to fulfill the other's requests, even if it burns some personal time.

Bottom Line: Both want the company, the team and each other to be successful, and are willing to contribute to those successes, but not at the cost of their individuality or their focus on their personal goals.

Tying This All Together

There are a host of reasons I prefer to track and measure sales funnels the way I do (as described in this four-part series). Some of the major ones are:

• Efficiency Of Salespeople's Time: Even using a paper system to implement this sales funnel measurement process, one salesperson can track and report his or her entire sales funnel in less than three minutes per day, because the only things being tracked and reported are those the sales manager needs to know to positively effect change. Add to that the wasted time -- worry time, guesswork time, contract prep time -- that is recovered by understanding what his or her prospects really think, and you have a huge net time gain for this (and every) salesperson.
• Increased Sales: Taking off the rose-colored glasses and looking at brutal reality from your prospects' points of view will always produce more sales, because it keeps you from letting optimism cloud your judgment. And once you eliminate the tire-kickers from the mix, you'll know exactly where to spend your time on any given day.
• Better, More Prolific Management: Using this measurement process also forces sales managers to take off their own rose-colored glasses, which helps them build more solid, trust-based relationships with their team members. And they can more easily tell what's working and what isn't, so they will know what to change and how to change it. Plus, being able to tell which salespeople need help at a glance (comparing target vs. actual funnels as described in Parts One and Two) eliminates the problem of driving the good salespeople crazy with advice.

 

Bottom Line -- Me To You: Measuring sales funnels this way makes sales managers and the salespeople responsible for not only their own actions, but for the success of their counterparts.

If you and your team want to make a quantum leap forward in sales results, go back over this article series, do every bit of homework suggested, and implement the measurement process on paper (call me at 314-416-1440, and I'll send you a form and additional instructions that will help).

And after you've done it for a month or two, call me with any problems you're having doing it. I'll spend 30 minutes on the phone with anyone, any time, provided it's a serious discussion about making improvements to sales results.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Transitional Pain

The more stuff I sell or help my clients sell, and the more stuff I buy, the more I'm convinced that transitional pain is the biggest reason prospects decide not to buy.

What is transitional pain? It's the pain you will always experience any time you change anything.

A week ago I promised to have Part 4 of my four-part series on measuring sales funnels finished by this week Wednesday (two days ago). Why do you not have Part 4? Transitional pain.

You see, last week I switched from mail-merge delivery of "Visit the Sage" to FeedBlitz delivery. And that switch, while I'm convinced was a good choice, is a painful process to say the least. (Basically, I've got a bunch of subscribers experiencing difficulty with some of the spam-avoidance tools FeedBlitz is using to keep their users safe. For example, one subscriber's e-mail address "looks too much like it might be faked," so FeedBlitz won't let him subscribe using that address.

It's this transitional pain, or the fear of it, that very often keeps people from buying what you're selling. Which is why I strongly recommend you discuss transitional pain with your prospects while you are in the sales process. Basically, tell them everything they'll go through after they buy, while they are making the switch to your product or service, because their fear of transitional pain will always be greater than reality, so telling them everything actually increases the chances they'll buy.

As for Part 4, please bare with me as I work out the kinks in the FeedBlitz armor.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Unattended Children

I was out for a bike ride this past weekend when I spotted a bench outside a boutique furniture store in a small strip mall. I've been nursing a sore lower back, which stretching helps, and one particular stretch works much better if I'm seated on a bench. So I seized the opportunity and pulled off to loosen up my back.

As I was pulling up to their front door, I noticed that to the left of the furniture store was a coffee house, and to it's right, a pet store.

And in the window of the furniture store was a sign that read:

 

Unattended children will be given a cup of coffee and a free puppy.

After I finished laughing out loud, I thought, "What a creative way of handling a complex problem."

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Measuring Your Sales Funnel (Part 3 of 4)

In Part 1 of this four-part visit, I outlined the goal of this series on measuring your sales funnel, explained some key rules to apply to determine whether a prospect is in your sales funnel and gave you some guidelines for segmenting your sales funnel into different levels you can track.

In Part 2, I explained how to measure your actual sales funnel and how to look at your target vs. actual funnels, so you could easily determine what you should change.

Today's post is on getting inside your prospects' heads, so you can better tell where they are in their buying cycles and better predict when they'll close, or when you should stop trying and save yourself an enormous amount of time.

Imagine, If You Will ...

We're going to do some pretending for a few minutes. In this scene, you're shopping for a new car -- you're the prospect, not the salesperson.

Got your buyer's hat on?

Good.

Now imagine the conversation that happened between the sales manager (Bob) and his salespeople long before you walked into their showroom -- the one about the process he wants them to walk you through to close the sale in your first visit to their dealership. How they're supposed to ask you a series of questions designed to get you excited about the car. How they should start outside if it's sunny, or inside if it's a dreary, ugly day. How, when the timing is right, they're supposed to get you back to their desks to crunch numbers, discuss options and toss out scarcity conditions, such as the deal they're running that ends today. And, when they get you to finally make an offer on the car, they're supposed to leave you sitting, while they go "run it by" their sales manager to see what he says.

Now imagine you walk into their showroom and the salesperson (Greg) greets you then immediately starts playing his game -- begins to lead you through his sales process like a dog under command.

How long, exactly, will it take you to to see through this? One minute? Five? (I doubt longer than five, because when you walked in you knew you were entering hostile territory, so your manipulation radar was undoubtedly tuned to its maximum setting.)

Of course you're smart enough to see through this garbage -- the vast majority of intelligent adults are. And you're also smart enough to let Greg continue anyway, because you know that doing so is your best way to gather information and better arm yourself for the salesperson at the next dealership you visit.

You listen. You nod. You ask intelligent questions. You even test various objections to see which ones will get you the best deal later.

You throw out a ridiculously low offer just to test the waters. Of course Greg acts surprised at how low it is, and carefully sits back in his chair, so as not to appear threatening, while he says "I don't think Bob will go for that" then leans forward, one elbow resting on his desk, as he whispers to his new best friend "but I'll do my best."

Of course, at whatever point you finally tire of the game, you thank Greg for his time, promise to get back to him later, and turn south as you exit the lot, because the next dealer is in that direction.

Now imagine the utterly pointless conversation between Bob and Greg as they talk about how Greg successfully navigated you to step seven of their eight-step sales process -- and how they can probably salvage the sale by "following up on the phone in two days," or by "inviting you to their barbecue next week."

And think about the sales funnel report Bob will give the president of the dealership -- the one that says you're on step seven of the eight-step process, so there's a 92 percent chance they'll sell you the car within two weeks.

Do you want to be the executive who uses this information to predict your budget for next month?

Back To Reality

You're a salesperson (or sales manager) again. Do conversations like the ones described above -- about your sales process and your prospects' positions in that process -- sound familiar? How about the plotting and planning that happens when a prospect interrupts your process, or forces you to change directions?

And how many times have you found yourself feeling like a prospect was just about to close, only to learn through phone calls not returned and appointments not kept that you once again have no chance whatsoever to make that one sale?

Yes, you should organize your sales process to ensure that you do not miss anything. Yes, you should have a step-by-step approach for selling, so that you're prepared to work with a prospect who actually is willing to buy the way you sell. Yes, you should measure your results against that process, so you can tweak your methods and gradually improve them over time.

But gauging any individual sales opportunity based on where you are in your sales process is totally useless, and a huge mistake when it comes to budgeting, because it's not where you are in your process that counts, it's where your prospect is in his or her buying process that truly tells the tale.

It's The Buyer's Way Or The Highway

To effectively measure a sales opportunity, and thereby predict the likelihood that it will close, you must measure it from the point of view of the prospect to whom you are selling. You must get inside the head of your prospect and measure exactly where she is in her buying process. You must understand the decisions she will make before signing on the dotted line, and you must ask questions that will tell you her answers to those decisions.

To demonstrate how you accomplish that, let me be your sales manager for two of your current sales opportunities.

First, go through your list of opportunities and select one that is In Progress and one that is Contract Out. For each of those two opportunities, I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Because I really don't care what you think might be in the prospect's head, you are allowed only two answers: Yes or No. If you answer with anything but Yes or No, then the answer automatically becomes No.

If you burp, grunt, sneeze or fart instead of answering, then the answer is No.

Got it?

Here goes.

Pick one of your two prospects. On a blank sheet of paper, write the company name and the name of the person to whom you are selling at that company. Write down what you think you are selling (best guess as to what the prospect will buy) and your best guess as to what the account is worth to your company. Write the date you had your first appointment, and the date of your next appointment.

Note: I'm numbering these questions so you can write the numbers 1 to 16 on your piece of paper and place the Yes or No answers next to them. However, these questions do not have to be answered in a linear manner. Treat every one like a milestone that must be met. It doesn't matter in what order these questions get answered -- it's merely important to get them all answered "Yes" before you submit your contract for signature.

Now answer all the questions honestly (remember, I'm your sales manager, so for this exercise we work for the same company):

1. Have you and the prospect agreed on the objective he or she is attempting to achieve?
2. Have you and the prospect defined status quo (the starting point), and how to measure it?
3. Have you and the prospect agreed on the end result, and how to measure success?
4. Does the prospect have the ability to effect change at his or her company?
5. Does the prospect want to effect change?
6. Have you identified the person or people with the authority to effect change, and are they on board at this point?
7. Have the people who can stop this deal been identified and managed?
8. Can we actually help the prospect achieve the objective?
9. Does the prospect agree that we can help his or her company achieve the objective?
10. Have you and the prospect agreed on the date [the project will start?] [the items will be delivered?] (Insert your own wording to describe the starting point for the deliverable.)
11. Have you and the prospect agreed on an end date?
12. Is the start date within our normal sales cycle time frame? (If your normal sales cycle is six months, and the prospect wants to get started in two years, then something is wrong.)
13. Have you communicated the costs for our solution to the prospect?
14. Has the prospect agreed that these costs are reasonable?
15. Has the prospect allocated the budget for our solution?
16. Have you and the prospect done the math to determine the prospect's return on investment if he or she chooses our solution?

Bottom line: These are the 16 things that prospects will always answer for themselves before they buy. So you can either assume you know what the prospect is thinking, or you can ask the prospect questions designed to learn exactly what is in his or her head on each of these issues. And if you submit a contract before getting Yes answers to these 16 questions, you are, quite simply, screwing up.

To drastically increase your success at closing deals, for every sales opportunity in your current pipeline, answer these 16 questions Yes or No. Then, for every No response, go back to the prospect and have whatever conversation you must have to turn that answer into a Yes. Then, once all 16 questions are Yes, submit your contract for signature.

And to make it easier on you, here is a form you can use to track every opportunity in your sales funnel. Just check off any question where the answer is Yes, and work with your prospects to get the remaining questions answered in the affirmative. (Note: Because this is not a linear measurement process, sometimes answers that were Yes change back to No during the sales cycle. When that happens, uncheck that question, and work with the prospect to change the No back to a Yes.)

In our next visit, we'll talk about the relationship between sales managers and salespeople that use this method of measuring sales cycles, and then tie everything together so you can make a quantum leap forward in sales success.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

What's The Word?

What is the only noun in the English language where all of the following are true?

• The singular version of the word is spelled exactly the same as the plural version. (Example: deer [one] and deer [many].)
• By adding an "s" to the end of the word, the resulting word indicates more than the singular version of the word but fewer than the plural version of the word.
• You add the "s" only when you want to be humorously insulting.

A prize goes to the first person who gets this right. (It's my riddle, so I get to decide what "right" is.)

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Measuring Your Sales Funnel (Part 2 of 4)

In Part 1 of this four-part visit, I outlined the goal of this series on measuring your sales funnel, explained some key rules to apply to determine whether a prospect is in your sales funnel and gave you some guidelines for segmenting your sales funnel into different levels you can track.

Today's post is on measuring your actual sales funnel and determining what to change.

Measuring Your Actual Sales Funnel

Your first task is to get your list of current prospects and recent closed deals organized into the four levels we discussed last time. Start by using your favorite spreadsheet software to generate a list of every prospect to whom you are currently selling and every prospect to whom you sold within the past 30 days. Include at least the following seven columns:

• Opportunity ID (Combine the name of the company and individual to identify your sales opportunity, e.g., Three Tiers Creative -- Joe Jones.)
• Contact Phone (Enter the phone number of the person listed in the Opportunity ID column.)
• First Appointment (Enter the date of your first sales appointment with the prospect, regardless of whether it was in the past or is in the future.)
• Next Appointment (Enter the date of your next appointment or next step with this prospect. If it's an appointment, enter the exact date and time. If it's "Call next Thursday," type that.)
• Contract Out (Enter Yes if you have already closed the deal or have sent the contract and are waiting for a signature.)
• Closed Date (Enter the date the contract was signed.)
• Sales Funnel Level (We'll cover this below.)

Create your entire list before you continue.

I assume that you understand the four levels of the sales funnel as described in Part 1 and have already done the math to establish your target sales funnel. (If not, go back and do it before you continue.) You must now determine the correct funnel level of every sales opportunity and sale and enter that into the Sales Funnel Level column. Do that by following these steps in order:

1. Set the Sales Funnel Level to 4 (Closed Deals) for every client/customer with whom the deal has closed within the past 30 days of today's date. (If you accidentally listed deals that closed further in the past, delete those rows completely; we're tracking based on monthly targets only.)
2. Set the Sales Funnel Level to 3 (Contract Out) for every opportunity where you've delivered the contract and are waiting for a signature, and you have a follow-up appointment set at a specific, future date and time. For all opportunities where the contract is out but no specific appointment is set, enter Stalled. (In Phil's case, he would set the Sales Funnel Level to 3 for any prospect where he had verbally closed the deal but has yet to deliver the contract for signature.)
3. Set the Sales Funnel Level to 2 ( In Progress) for all opportunities where you've already had the first sales appointment, and you have a next appointment set at a specific, future date and time that is within 45 days of today's date. For opportunities where you've had the first appointment, but the next appointment is not specific, is in the past or is beyond 45 days, enter Stalled.
4. Set the Sales Funnel Level to 1 (First Appointment) for every prospect with whom your first appointment is a specific, future date and time within 21 days of today's date. For opportunities where the first appointment is not specific, is in the past (you called yesterday but the prospect didn't answer), or is beyond 21 days, enter Stalled.

At this point the Sales Funnel level should be set to 1, 2, 3, 4 or Stalled for every opportunity. If any opportunities are still blank, you'll need to figure out why and fix them before you continue.

Now pick up the phone and call every prospect marked Stalled, to see whether he or she is willing to set a specific appointment. A call, for example, might go something like "Hi, Joe, This is Gill Wagner. I have it in my calendar to call you sometime next Thursday to discuss sales training for your team. I was wondering if you'd be willing to set a specific time for that call, so we don't end up in a game of phone tag." (Use your imagination -- you'll be amazed at how many people say "Yes" to this simple request.)

Determining What To Change

To determine what behaviors need changing, you need to literally draw a picture of your current sales funnel by counting the number of opportunities in each level (ignoring the stalled ones) and depicting them in a graphical manner. Then, by comparing the graphical representation of your actual sales funnel to the graphical representation of your target sales funnel, you can quickly see what you need to change.

Here are two very typical patterns I find when working with new clients.

Salesperson: Joe Jones
Level	Target Funnel	Actual Funnel
1 - 1st Appt.	* * * * * * * *	* *
2 - In Progress	* * * * * *	* * * * * * * * * * * *
3 - Contract Out	* * * *	* *
4 - Closed Deals	* *	*

Take a close look at Joe's sales funnel representations above and compare two things:

• Target numbers to actual numbers of each level
• The ratios between levels within target to the ratios of levels within actual.

Here's what I see:

• Joe has closed only one sale in the past 30 days compared to the two he should have closed. But is Joe's problem that he can't close, that he doesn't have enough opportunities to close, that prospects won't sign the contracts he gives them, or something else?
• Joe's ratio of Contract Out and Closed Deals is 2 to 1 in both target and actual columns. So getting prospects to return signed contracts isn't the issue.
• Joe has far more prospects In Progress than he should have. And his ratio of In Progress to Contract Out is way off. This suggests that he could probably use help at identifying tire-kickers (and getting them out of his funnel altogether) and at moving people more quickly through his sales process so he can get them to the Contract Out stage.
• Joe obviously has far fewer First Appointments than he needs.

Literally at a glance, Joe's sales manager (even if it's Joe himself) can look at his's target vs. actual sales funnel patterns and see that Joe is avoiding prospecting in favor of "keeping himself busy" with prospects who are probably never going to buy. And by knowing exactly what to fix, the sales manager can make incredibly smart choices when it comes to training, coaching and so forth.

Now it's your turn. Take a close look at Sally's sales funnels:

Salesperson: Sally Smith
Level	Target Funnel	Actual Funnel
1 - 1st Appt.	* * * * * * * *	* * * * * * *
2 - In Progress	* * * * * *	* * *
3 - Contract Out	* * * *	* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
4 - Closed Deals	* *	* *

Exercise One: Compare Sally's target vs. actual numbers, then her ratios between levels, and tell me what she needs to change. (Respond by entering a comment below.) (Note: You should do this exercise yourself before you read the comments submitted by others.)

Exercise Two: Set your Actual Sales Funnel numbers and draw your picture. Then if you need assistance analyzing what to change, just ask.

Next week we'll discuss how to get inside the heads of your prospects, so you can determine whether they're really going to buy, or whether you're spinning your wheels.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association