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The Importance of the Fourth Quarter

 

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

The Importance of the Fourth Quarter

I believe the most important sales quarter of the calendar year is the fourth quarter.

In football, the fourth quarter is the quarter you need to keep your foot on the accelerator, and not let your competitor get back in the game. In sales, the fourth quarter is the one that may determine if you attain bonus levels of your commission plan as you end the year on a high note. Additionally, successful fourth quarter activities help establish the ground work for a fast start to the new year (in the first quarter).

Q - So what's my second favorite quarter?

A - The first quarter (just by a slim margin).

Start strong, and end stronger!

Happy Selling!

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

The Importance of the Fourth Quarter

I believe the most important sales quarter of the calendar year is the fourth quarter.

In football, the fourth quarter is the quarter you need to keep your foot on the accelerator, and not let your competitor get back in the game. In sales, the fourth quarter is the one that may determine if you attain bonus levels of your commission plan as you end the year on a high note. Additionally, successful fourth quarter activities help establish the ground work for a fast start to the new year (in the first quarter).

Q - So what's my second favorite quarter?

A - The first quarter (just by a slim margin).

Start strong, and end stronger!

Happy Selling!

Are you focused on “Base Hits?”

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

Are you focused on “Base Hits?”

Baseball coaches will consistently tell you that base hits win baseball games. Home runs are nice when then happen, and they look great on the highlight films. However, statistically speaking, they are much harder to hit. If you’re trying to hit a home run, you have a greater chance of striking out or flying out. Part of this is mental, but physically the baseball swing is also altered to hit the ball over the fence.

Base hits by comparison are easier to obtain, and multiple base hits in an inning tend to result in runs being scored. Coaches refer to this as “putting the ball in play” (line drive or ground ball). Fielders will also tell you that it’s easier to catch a fly ball then it is to catch a line drive or ground ball.

Converting this topic to sales has tremendous merit as well. Many smaller sales can equal a large sale. In my experience as a sales coach and sales manager, I have seen countless sales people struggle with this concept. They put “all their eggs in one basket” hoping for the “big one” to come through. If it does, they are rock stars. If not, they have nothing to show for their efforts. Concentrate on a balanced sales pipeline with all sizes of sales opportunities, but dominated by small and mid-sized opportunities. There are a lot more “base hit” sales out there, and the sales cycle may be considerably shorter than with larger opportunities. Additionally, building loyalty with these customers may lead to additional sales over time (both large and small). Some larger sales develop as a result of several smaller sales. The “home run” sales will come (sometimes when you least expect them), but don’t count on them to “make” or “break” your sales year.

Have a great sales week!

How to make your Networking efforts more effective

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

How to make your Networking efforts more effective

Networking expert Gelie Akhenblit offers her Top 5 Networking Tips:

1. Strive for a conversation that is 25% you, 75% them

2. Instead of leading with "Hi, my name is ..." ask a question that will allow them to give you a story... i.e. "So, what's your story?"

3. Lead with your "personal foot" instead of your "business foot." Meaning, try to find some commonalities as opposed to immediately talking about your business.

4. You want to get someone to like you? Remember their name! As soon as they introduce themselves, repeat their name in your head and out loud.

5. Not sure how to start a conversation? Stand in one spot and smile. Someone will come up and start chatting with you.

Thanks to Gelie for sharing! Try using these tips at your next networking event, and I’m sure you’ll engage with more people. By the way, Gelie’s NetworkingPhoenix Signature Event is Monday, April 24^th (details here).

Have a great sales week!

Ring Tones

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

Ring Tones

So, 95+ percent of the time my phone is on silent mode. Earlier today I had my ring mode on, and forgot to turn it off (rarely happens). During a meeting this afternoon, my phone rings (and my ring tone is the ASU Fight Song). I'm in a meeting with several UofA alums - oooops! I'm proud to be an ASU alum, but to recover, I had to share with them that I had picked UofA to win in my NCAA bracket. Go Cat's & make the State of Arizona proud! This is a reminder to always check your phone before entering a meeting... P.S. I am a die hard ASU Sun Devil - but since we're watching this tourney from home this year - Go Arizona Wildcats!

Have a great sales week!

 

What Sales People Can Learn from Kicking a Field Goal

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

What Sales People can learn from Kicking a Field Goal

A lot of moving parts are involved with kicking a field goal in football. As fans, many times we take short field goals for granted, calling them “chip shots” – and think & say “just take the easy 3 points.” It’s simple for us to say this as fans.

In addition to the offensive line providing exceptional blocking, 3 additional important steps must be executed perfectly to ensure success:

1. The Snap
2. The Hold
3. The Kick

The same overall mechanics are involved with kicking a 20-yard field goal as compared with a 50-yard field goal. The only modification is how the kicker connects with the ball (adjusting the connection point with the ball for kick distance and height).

If any of these steps are not executed perfectly, you may miss the kick. In some cases, this missed kick can cost your team the game.

In sales, we need to make sure we don’t take any short cuts or miss any steps with our sales process. Please don’t take anything for granted, and execute all steps of your sales plan perfectly to close the sale – the outcome of the “game” may depend on it!

Happy Selling!

What Sales People Can Learn From Freeway Construction

Sales Tip of the week from Mike Leeds- Pro Sales Coaching

What Sales People Can Learn From Freeway Construction

I respect that a lot of education, training and thought goes into designing and engineering freeways. However, this topic is coming from the frustrated commuter inside of me.

My issue... Why is a freeway built with 8 lanes, when everyone knows it's not enough to handle the traffic? The land is available, the zoning is approved - so what's the deal? I know it's probably budgets - but remember, I'm speaking as a commuter.

Then, a few years after the freeway opens - they put up barricades, reduce the traffic lanes and reduce the speed limit while they build more lanes. Even better, they need to widen overpasses/bridges (which is a real mess, and appears to be a major construction project). Okay, so lane expansion is one thing, but how about at least originally building an overpass for 12 lanes (thinking you may need it in the future). The freeway can still start at 8 traffic lanes, but it's easier to complete the expansion construction later. Adding lanes is a project, but the whole overpass/bridge thing is much more involved.

In sales, organizations should always be keeping an eye on what's ahead, as well as what's in front of them. Does the company have the capacity to handle future business? You don't want to overbuild your business, but you want to make sure the business is scalable and you have expansion plans in place to accommodate customer need.

One of my favorite sayings is that no matter how successful you are today, it does not guarantee how successful you will be tomorrow. I also like the quote from one of my favorite movies Field of Dreams - "if you build it, they will come."

Plan ahead, and make sure the infrastructure is in place for the short term, as well as long term future.

Happy Selling!

Creating Awesome Customer Loyalty

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

Creating Awesome Customer Loyalty

If you want to stay on top of your game, you need to know what your customers think of your company as well as the products and services that you provide.

Getting feedback from customers can help you understand future purchase potential, consider product or service enhancements, and help determine commission or bonus plans. Overall, when reviewing customer service levels, we find three major categories of customers:

• Highly satisfied customers tend to tell many people about their experiences, make recommendations to others about the company, and usually return for future purchases.

• Satisfied customers tend to tell a few others, but generally don't go out of their way to recommend the company, and may return for future purchases. However, other competitive offers may impact the amount of future business.

• Dissatisfied customers tend to tell the largest number of people about their unsatisfactory experiences, will make recommendations to others that they buy from different companies, and most likely won't return for future purchases.

Strive for highly satisfied customers who perceive your service levels as excellent. This ultimately translates to customer loyalty. In a competitive marketplace, satisfactory is not good enough. You need to stand out, and be considered excellent in your field. This will help build a loyal customer base that will continue to purchase from you, and be extremely valuable in regards to referring you to others.

Activities to consider when creating customer loyalty:

• Always exceed any commitment you make to a customer, be specific when discussing times/dates and be aware of your customer’s work hours/time zone.

• Ask for feedback early in the process so you can resolve any issues before it becomes too late.

• Create short surveys or feedback requests (5 questions maximum), and add space for specific comments. Scores are good, but customer comments will be more valuable to you.

• Let customers know why you are looking for their feedback; consider sharing some of the results of your findings, and any changes you plan on making. Be appreciative of their time and feedback, and most importantly, make this an opportunity to once again thank them for their business. 

Activities to avoid when creating customer loyalty:

• Don't over-survey your customers, but consider having a feedback link in your website to supplement input from your customers.

• Don't bribe all of your customers with a gift for completing a survey. This could slant the results, and could look desperate. If there is a drawing for a single prize, make it public so people know it's legitimate.

• Don't ask customers to submit their survey directly back to you. Consider an unbiased third party to collect the data for you. This helps your customers know your feedback request is both genuine and legitimate.

Asking for feedback is great; however, if you're not going to listen to what your customers have to say - don't ask. It's a waste of their time and yours. Be willing and prepared to implement changes in your business, and understand that inflexibility may lead to unsatisfied customers - and lost business potential. 

The goal of this topic is to help you keep your highly satisfied customers at that level, and move the other customers (satisfied and dissatisfied) up one level.

Have a great sales week!

How "Defense" wins in sports, and in "Sales"

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

How "Defense" wins in sports, and in "Sales"

Sports highlight shows usually feature long touchdowns in football, home runs in baseball, and game winning last second shots in basketball. They are exciting to watch; however, if you put a great defense up against a great offense – statistics show the defense will win more often. This topic was covered in an ESPN Blog dated January 25, 2016. The author, Sharon Katz shared the following facts:

• 2015 – Chicago Blackhawks win the NHL's Stanley Cup. They had the best defense of the year in their conference, and faced one of the best offenses in the finals.
• 2015 – Golden State Warriors win the NBA Championship. While they had a high flying offense, their defense also led the league.
• 2015 – The U.S. Women's Soccer team wins the World Cup. They came within 1 minute of setting a World Cup record of keeping their opponents scoreless.
• 2015 – Kansas City Royals win Baseball's World Series. Over the course of the season, they had one of the highest ranked defenses in their league.
• 2016 – Alabama wins College Football's National Championship. Over the course of the season they put up some of the best defense statistics seen in the last 10 years.

The winner of the NFL's Super Bowl 50 was the Denver Broncos. They had one of the best defenses in the league throughout the season. The game was billed as a match-up of 2 great Quarterbacks, but it was Denver's defense that won the game.

So how does this translate into Sales?

There was an old statistic that stated that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to keep an existing customer. That statistic has risen significantly in the last several years. Churning customers is expensive and not effective, yet it happens way too often.

To address the issue of "new" versus "existing," some companies have their sales resources split into two specific areas of focus – Acquisition and Retention. Acquisition is commonly referred to as Business Development, while Retention is commonly referred to as Account Management. The compensation plans of each of these titles should directly tie to the desired outcome. Acquisition sales people should be paid for new business (i.e. offense) and Retention sales people should be paid for keeping and growing existing business (i.e. defense). If you have multiple sales people on your team, and in the same area/territory – I highly recommend this model.

Other companies use the same sales person to do both acquisition and retention. If you are using this model, I recommend your sales person spends 80% of their time with retention activities, and 20% of their time with acquisition activities. This split will help you achieve the best performance.

With retention, a sales person works on keeping the customer happy, up-selling to increase revenue, cross-selling into other revenue streams, and extending agreements to protect future revenue.

When looking at your existing customer base, consider the ideas below to increase your retention revenue:

• What other departments or locations do your customers have that you can extend into, and leverage your relationship from your primary customer?
• What other products or services do you have that you can introduce your customer to, and offer them more of a total solution?
• What contracts are in place, and when do they expire? Always stay way ahead of the expiration date, and focus on delivering excellent customer service (not just basic customer satisfaction).

Overall, customers are not as loyal to their current vendors as they once were. Many customers are looking for what they perceive as a better deal, or the new bright and shiny object. However, part of the blame for this resides with how we sell, and the care that we give our existing customers. We need to reward our current customers for staying with us, and make sure that we are addressing as many of their needs/issues as possible.

So retention is very much like the defenses of the sports world – they protect the existing revenue, and they get to "score" additional revenue.

Are you focused on “Base Hits?”

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

 

Are you focused on "Base Hits?"

Baseball Spring Training is winding down, and the season starts next week! This topic is inspired by baseball, and there are some great comparisons to the sales world.

Baseball coaches will consistently tell you that base hits win baseball games. Home runs are nice when then happen, and they look great on sports highlight shows. However, statistically speaking, they are much harder to hit. If you're trying to hit a home run, you have a greater chance of striking out or hitting a fly ball to an outfielder. Part of this is mental, but physically the baseball swing also may be altered to hit the ball over the fence.

Base hits by comparison are much easier to obtain, and multiple base hits in an inning tend to result in runs being scored. Coaches refer to this as "putting the ball in play" (hitting line drive or ground ball). Fielders will also tell you that it's harder to catch a line drive or ground ball then it is to catch a fly ball.

Converting this topic to sales has tremendous merit as well. Many smaller sales can equal a large sale. In my experience as a sales coach and sales manager, I have seen countless sales people struggle with this concept. They put "all their eggs in one basket" hoping for the "big one" to come through. If it does, they are rock stars. If not, they have nothing to show for their efforts. Concentrate on a balanced sales pipeline with all sizes of sales opportunities, but dominated by small and mid-sized opportunities. There are a lot more "base hit" sales opportunities out there, and the sales cycle may be considerably shorter than larger opportunities. Additionally, building loyalty with these customers may lead to additional sales over time (both large and small). Some larger sales develop as a result of several smaller sales. The "home run" sales will come (sometimes when you least expect them), but don't count on them to "make or break" your sales year.

Have a great sales week!

7 ways to get a Jump on Leap Year!

Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching

7 ways to get a Jump on Leap Year!

We all wish we had more time in the day; however, this year your wish becomes your reality – you get a bonus sales day. Leap year only comes around every four years – so let's "jump" on it! It doesn't cost you anything – it's pure profit. You can use the extra Monday to plan and/or execute any of the 7 suggestions below:

1. Schedule to meet a former networking/referral partner for coffee or lunch. This is a great opportunity to reconnect, and see how you can assist each other this year.

2. Make a list of old (or dormant) customers that you've been meaning to contact – and commit to this call time on your schedule within the next 30 days. This is another great opportunity to reconnect, see what changes have occurred in their businesses, and assist with their success.

3. Make a list of former target prospects that have told you "no" in the past. If you feel these are still solid targets for you, schedule time to contact them within the next 30 days to see what (and who) has changed. A "no" yesterday can turn into a "yes" today (or tomorrow).

4. Go through those rubber-banded stacks of business cards you've collected, and see which ones may be relevant to contact now – and commit to this call time on your schedule within the next 30 days.

5. Go through that "possible or future projects" file you keep (or maybe you call it – things to do when I have time). See what's relevant – and commit to this call time on your schedule within the next 30 days.

6. Do that prospect researching that you've been putting off. Make a list of prospects to contact, and commit to this call time on your schedule within the next 30 days.

7. Review your list of old contact names from your previous jobs to see which may be relevant again today. Make a list to contact, and commit to this call time on your schedule within the next 30 days.

You may come up with other ideas to add to this list. The important take-away from this blog is to do something with this day that you haven't had time to do.  Take advantage of this extra day – and let it contribute to your 2016 success.  

Have a great sales week!