It has now been seven working days and the Kauppalehti has not arrived in my mailbox in the morning. I hear there are challenges in Espoo's morning delivery. This has created a challenge for the morning routine of a business coach, because where do I get the day's chalk (commercial ideas) from? - Janne.
Three days on the road, Helsinki calls again for a layman. Three days in the car, with clients and interesting encounters. But at what point do I have time to call prospects and make new appointments to keep growth going? - Kalle.
Sales is a numbers game, with an emphasis on quality and systematic salesmanship.
In sales, you need not only the right kind of contacts, but also mass, or volume. These include activities, offers, leads, deals, losses, fairs, posts, chats, texts, and ultimately, euros won - plus many, many more.
So how do you know if the numbers support annual sales success? There are at least two ways:
1. By looking at the calendar. That tells you a lot.
2. By calculation. It tells you even more.
Let's now focus on the calculation through a few questions. First, let's establish a base:
1) What is your sales target?
2) How much is your average trade?
3) How many stores do you need to get home in a year to reach your target with your current average store?
The answers to these questions can be used to calculate the amount of mass needed to make a sales funnel (aka pipeline or sales funnel) at different stages.
The next step is to determine the hit rate, or accuracy, of a few different steps. If we continue from the bottom up, the order is as follows:
4) How many bids do you have to make on average at the moment to cash out one trade?
5) On average, how many meetings do you have to attend at the moment to present one offer?
6) On average, how many customer conversations do you need to have with different tools at the moment to schedule and carry out one meeting?
Was it difficult? Yep, I'm not surprised - this maths is something that many people don't do, simply because it requires raw data, an interest in figuring things out and a deeper understanding of the key figures to unlock the different steps. And that's not all - then comes the hardest thing to assess in my opinion:
7) How many chalks do you need per year to make enough appointments?
There is no longer a simple formula for this, but estimates can be made on the basis of actual performance. Fortunately, you can call the same person several times a year, for example, and there may well be several suitable decision-makers in the same company. A good working figure is between five and ten leads per agreed and completed meeting, depending on the industry, but the right number can be practically anything between two and thirty - the right ratio can only be found by trial and error.
Does sales maths seem difficult to internalise?
We understand - that's why we've created a simplified Excel calculator, which you can easily order below by leaving your contact details. And if you feel you need even more support using the calculator, you can also book an appointment with us - we'll go through it together.
Good luck and energy for the week everyone!
