Herman School of Business
Time for a sales lesson.
Sales, is a numbers game. So many opportunities equal so many successes. Every business has a formula that tells you the numbers. Look up how many people have to walk through the door of a retail outlet that leads to a sale. Or how many phone calls it takes to make an appointment, and then how many appointments you keep to make how many pitches. And ultimately how many presentations does it take to close a sale.
In the short run you can hit a streak and beat the numbers. But over time the math will win out and the numbers you do will closely match the numbers everyone else does. Like a baseball pitcher, some guys have a great season, some even have hall of fame careers, but most do closer to the average numbers.
Ask a commission salesman a percentage question and most can do the math quickly in their head. I could tell you the splits for whatever dollar amount the sale landed on. It’s how I made my living, so why wouldn’t I understand the math. Whether you sell real estate, cars, work in a retail environment, or sell a service there is a mathematics formula you should know about your business. It will dictate your life whether you understand it or not. Knowing it will make you a better salesman than others who ignore the math.
This blog post is short and sweet and offers you a challenge…what are the numbers for what you do? What are your sales numbers and the average numbers for what everyone else does in your field.
- Posted: 13 October 2007
- Comments: 2
- Category: Business success
Comments
I have always asserted that people take risks in business and are entrepreneurs first and foremost to make money—-a lot of money. The product or service being sold doesn’t really matter or is highly secondary. This post and the previous post about the nature of an entrepreneur, I think, prove that point.
Platitudes aside, the reward has to be substantial. 99.9% of all business owners don’t sell pies, computers, or tax return preparation to change the world, although that may be a byproduct. The goal is to make a lot of money.
Understanding this motivation as the brilliance of capitalism and free markets, seems to me, frees the entrepreneur from the burden of the notion that they have to first and foremost like what they are doing and want to benefit society. Those concerns are a distant second. Still essential factors, but way behind the size of the ultimate prize.
So, I think we all need to understand and admit, at least to ourselves, if not to others, as well, that we can put the platitudes aside. We want to make a lot of money and will leave the burning forest where, at the end, there is only $1 to $1 million dollars and, instead, start through the forest where, at the end, there is $20 to $3 million—-and that’s okay, that’s the way it should work.
Written by BillOGoods on 17 October 2007
It is so important to know your numbers…If you don’t know where you are, you can’t get where you want to go!
Joel Libava
The Franchise King Blog
Written by Joel Libava on 16 October 2007