When I interview salespeople, whether they are an existing employee, or a candidate for a sales position, one of my most resourceful questions is, What’s a perfect week look like for you in your current role?
Often they will tell me “it depends.” This tells me how much of their time they are being proactive or reactive – letting other people determine how they spend their time.
Please tell me what’s going to happen – verses what happened. There is a big difference between being a customer service representative and reporting what happened, or a professional sales representative and promising what’s going to happen.
A prefect week should include a specific goal of meeting new prospects, follow-up calls to existing prospects in the pipeline, a number of discovery appointments and presentations, a sales revenue and order amounts, AND referrals actively requested and passively received, just to list a few.
All of these benchmarks and measurable activities will have a direct determination on the results. Once this process has been defined and implemented, it can be managed and improved.
No process? That’s when they share what happened.
Scott Plum
(612) 789-5700
