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Sales Is Not a Numbers Game?
Richard Grant, Bullfrey Ltd.
Selling consultancy services is quite different from selling double-glazing on the phone. It's not a question of ringing up enough people until you get a project. It just doesn't work that way. Or does it? I'm guessing that you're an intelligent person, and you're never one to shy away from challenging your preconceptions, so I ask you this - have you ever really given this any proper, considered thought?
Why do these people make thousands of annoying, completely untargetted phone calls? Well, it's cheap and easy, and for all practical purposes they have an unlimited phone book full of potential customers. A few hours of phoning and they're certain to have some people who are actually in the market for new windows to call on (along with a very long list of people that they've annoyed!).
Clearly this wouldn't work for consultancy services. Well, actually, to a very limited extent maybe it could, but depending on your service, you would probably have to make about 100,000 phone calls before you found your first prospect!
It's for this reason of course that we use the thing that separates us from your average double glazing salesman. Our brains. We build a profile of the sort of organisation that needs our services. Then we build a profile of the person in that organisation who makes the final decision about buying those services. We build profiles of who else in the organisation might be influencing that decision. Then we go looking for them. If double glazing salesmen are like bees looking for daisies in a lawn, then as consultants we're more like hummingbirds seeking rare orchids.
Anyway, back to the numbers. If a double glazing salesman on average has to visit 10 people in their homes to get a sale, and has to make 500 phone calls to get those appointments, then we can clearly see that in this case, yes, sales is a numbers game. He has a ratio of 1:10:500, of sales to appointments to calls.
As a consultant, how many prospective clients do you generally have to meet with before you get asked to submit a proposal? How many of those proposals will turn into a project? How many new people do you have to try to meet at seminars and through referrals, before you get a new client on board? Have you ever really thought about it? Do you have any idea? Have you ever made a serious effort to measure it? If you did you'd discover something. You would discover that you too can see a ratio between these activities. And in doing so you would set yourselves apart from most of your competitors.
Let's come back to our annoying double glazing salesman. If he could qualify his prospects a bit better before making those telephone calls, he'd probably be spending a lot less time on the phone, and a lot more time making money.
If you knew your ratios what could you do? If you discovered that you need to have meetings with 5 new clients before you got a project out of one them, then you would have some very valuable information. If you know that to have those 5 meetings you need to meet 20 new people, you'd really be on to something. And if you're wondering why you're having a lean month right now, you might want to think back to six months ago when you only went out and met 5 new people and had one meeting. And if you're having a good month right now and aren't worried about getting any more work in, then perhaps you should be thinking about those numbers to make sure that you're not going to be twiddling your thumbs and biting your nails in six months time from now.
So many consultancy businesses seems to constantly go through feast and famine. Here's some news for you. It doesn't have to be this way. Know your numbers, and keep an eye on them especially in the good times, and enjoy a worry free existence.
Sales is a numbers game, and if you don't know your numbers, then you'll never master a steady flow of business.
Did you find this article useful? Why not talk to Richard Grant at Bullfrey Ltd about your numbers?
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