The Synchronous Converter

Going into your workday and waiting for things to happen, and then reacting to them is not a very productive way of doing things. You may as well be going into your workday blind.

This is why it is so very important to have an action plan.

An action plan, simply put, is a plan of action, there just is no other way to say it.

Your action plan should be built piece by piece, based on what it is you want to have accomplished during your work week.

For starters, take a pen and a piece of paper, and write the days of the week across the top of the page. Below each day of the week, write down the number’s one through five, with some space in between to write.

Next to each number, under the given days, write down your goals, or what it is you want to achieve during those times of the day. When you are finished, put it in a place where you can readily see it.

When I was working in the mortgage industry, this is how I would make my action plan. I was taught a similar way, but this is what worked for me, and nobody said it had to be rocket science.

For instance, I would start my Mondays off doing my reports, after that I would make my follow up phone calls from the previous day’s customers’ sessions. I would continue on down my action plan to number five, and if time allotted, I would add a few things.

I would create a new action plan every Friday afternoon. This way I was prepared for the coming week and I knew exactly what I would be doing day to day, hour to hour.

Before I started using action plans, I would just come into the office and go with the flow. I would wait for the phone to ring, or for a customer to walk in. The time in between was all just dead time, and my day would drag.

The action plan is designed to keep you focused, and make you productive during your work day.

The action plan also works as a time table. It splits your day up into segments. Think of every next stage of your action plan as something to look forward to. This will get you through your day at a much more productive pace.

When you leave your office at night, you want the feeling of accomplishment, not the feeling as though you have wasted an entire day. The action plan will give you the feeling of accomplishment.

Sometimes we need to go back to basics. We need to start at the beginning, and do the things that made us successful to begin with.

Your work day can be stressful, and your action plan can be a positive way to keep you focused on your daily goals, and your mind off of anything stressful.

So before you start another work day, put together an action plan. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it only has to be want you want to accomplish day to day throughout the week. Best of Luck!

This article may be reproduced by anyone at any time, as long as the authors name and reference links are kept in tact and active.

Jay Conners has more than fifteen years of experience in the banking and Mortgage Industry, He is the owner of http://www.jconners.com, a mortgage resource site, he is also the owner of http://www.callprospect.com, a mortgage lead company.

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What’s your approach to sales training? Do you have a process that defines which sales performance competency to train to and what impact it will have on selected performance silos if the training objective is successfully met? Or do you rely on ‘field feedback’ not associated with actual performance numbers and related ROI to decide where to put your training dollars?
Here’s a simple blueprint to gain more revenue in less time while maintaining fiscal accountability to the ‘Top-floor’.

At JDH Group, our go-to-market strategy is to understand a sales organization’s revenue goals and define what key results are needed in performance improvement. To illustrate it, we produce diagnostic performance solution ‘Blueprints’ for sales organizations that utilize the ‘T’ method; both vertical and horizontal.
Horizontally, we look at each KPI and help companies understand how to identify, train to, improve and measure competencies in each of the critical performance indicators.

The ‘T’ method of training evaluation is a process that utilizes both a horizontal approach to key sales performance indicators (KPI) and a vertical examination to calculate the impact, or ‘Return on Training Investment’ (ROTI). Aligning the two will not only give you the path of least resistance to your overall revenue objective but will point to performance silos that will produce more revenue and/or recover unnecessary costs from sub-par sales performance.

Horizontal Examination
Here’s an example of sales organization KPI’s that sells business solutions to small and medium size companies:

• 1st Appointment to Proposal ratio (60%)
• Closing ratio (40%)
• Average Revenue per Sale ($3500)
• Sales cycle (38 Days)
• Revenue goal ($25,000)
• Average New appointments generated per rep (5)

This model represents a sales team that statistically has an opportunity to reach 67% of their revenue goal. So let’s take a closer look at which KPI performance training could achieve the required result the quickest.

One way would be to focus on front-end activity. Improving the average appointment generation to 7 new appointments would achieve the revenue goal, all other factors remaining the same.

Option 1: Establish a Prospecting Methodology; a single, documented and agreed upon prospecting method across all sales regions. The training objective should be to spend less time to gain more ‘Targeted’ business appointments to initiate your current sales process.

Another choice might be to evaluate your current sales methodology to understand if there is any room for improvement in your current closing ratio of 40%. As an example, improving this KPI to 60% would secure the monthly revenue target with no other KPI changes. Or splitting the difference; improving the 1st appointment to proposal ratio by 10% and the closing ratio by 10% would achieve the same result while maintaining the necessary new appointments at (5).

Option 2: Initially, choose a ‘Top-down’ approach versus a bottom up; target and initiate your sales process with a fiscal level of authority. Develop a diagnostic sales process that points to the prospect company’s business objectives parallel to you product/service solution. Speak in terms of Return on Investment, Soft and Hard Dollar recovery and Investment Payback Period. Sell the diagnostic parts to your process in line with the prospect’s annual business objectives; don’t rely on ‘Features & benefits’. Then customize your proposal as a hypothetical case study with measurable results.

Vertical Sales Performance ‘Impact Silo’ Examination
Whether you are initiating sales performance training internally or outsourcing a niche training organization, most folks sitting on the ‘Top-floor’ now require accountability in line with budget expenditures.
Another way to say it is the CFO knows he’s wasting half the sales training budget, he just doesn’t know which half.
Approaching sales training expenditures with a Vertical ‘Silo’ inspection will help score points to the fiscal authorities within your own organization.

Let’s take a look at this same sales organization’s vertical performance silos:

• Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota (5 months) (35 hires per year)
• Sales employee Turnover due to low appointment activity (30)
• Percent of sales reps at or above Quota (70%)

First, calculate your ’sub-par’ average revenue. This number reflects the average monthly revenue a new-hire achieves before they achieve quota attainment.
As an example, if your current Average Ramp-to-Quota is 5 months, take the average total Revenue sold in the first 4 months of a new hires routine and divide it by 4. That will give you the average ‘Sub-Quota’ Revenue per Month during Ramp.
In this example, we will use $8,000 as the average ’sub-par’ revenue.

One of the overall training objectives could be to improve the New-hire Ramp-to-Quota. So you consider the training result and impact as it relates to revenue recovery by selecting a ramp-to-quota goal that’s more efficient than the ’status quo’ of 5 months. In this case a 1 month ramp-to-quota reduction would recover $595,000 in additional new sales. That equates to $17,000 per new-hire. And if you have determined that the performance training Cost-per-head is $2500, there’s your internal training ROI; 680%.
And we’re not done yet.

You have defined that 30 sales reps per year go out the door directly related to low activity, not setting enough new business appointments to justify the required revenue result.

Let’s take a closer look at it pertains to related costs and potential recovery. Here are your expense breakdowns relating to a new-hire sales rep:

• Average Salary: $28,000
• Recruiting Costs: $1,200
• Training Costs per Rep: $2500
• Monthly Sales Quota: $25,000

If the focused KPI training initiative reduces your sales rep turnover by 50% (15 reps), that recovers $1,953,500 in measurable dollars, something everyone can actually put their finger on.
That’s over $130,000 of real return for every rep that learns how to effectively set new business appointments.

Considering this cause and circumstance versus the realistic training benefit as a ROI factor, you choose Option 1 to establish a Prospecting Methodology across all sales regions. And in this case, that also justifies the training investment to the “Top-floor’.

In the 3rd Vertical Sales Performance ‘Impact Silo’ we determined that an average of 70% of the sales reps are achieving quota per month. And the average month ’sub-quota’ revenue achieved for the 30% of reps not reaching quota is found to be $16,000.
We also determined the average new appointments generated per week is (5), but
by improving the 1st appointment to proposal ratio by 10% and the closing ratio by 10% we would achieve Quota consistently.
Next, let’s determine our Return on Training Investment if we meet our training objective of improving the 70% team Quota ‘water-mark’ up to 90%.

• 1st Appointment to Proposal ratio (Improve to 70%)
• Closing ratio (Improve to 50%)
• Average Revenue per Sale ($3500)
• Sales cycle (38 Days)
• Average New appointments generated (5)
• 100 sales reps

Implementing a focused performance improvement system to advance our middle KPI’s in supporting an additional 20 sales reps per month to achieve Quota would increase our monthly revenue results by $180,000.
That’s an annual return of $2,160,000 or a training ROI of 864% based on a $2500 cost-per-head training investment. And with a 38-day sales cycle, the training investment ‘break-even’ point would be approximately 80 days.

Because of this cause and circumstance versus the realistic training benefit as a ROI factor, you choose Option 2 to establish a ‘Business acumen’ sales methodology, develop supporting diagnostic tools to establish financial business metrics parallel to your prospect’s initiatives and your product/service solution.

Adopting this ‘T’ method to sales performance training will allow you to determine the shortest path to your revenue goals, determine and implement ‘Best Practice’ sales performance training and justify the training investment to the “Top-floor’.

Because at the end of the day… it’s all about Return on Investment.

Jeff Hardesty is president of JDH Group Inc., a sales performance training company based in Powell, Ohio.
He can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.

Calculate your sales team’s ‘Sales Performance Competencies’ here convertmoresales.com/marketing_blitz.php.

Submit your numbers for a complimentary 30-minute performance consultation with Jeff Hardesty convertmoresales.com/roi_survey.php.

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Where many marketing conversations get off-track are the ones you have with yourself, before you even pick up the phone or initiate the handshake. As independent professionals, usually at the helm of solo businesses, we sometimes find ourselves facing daunting internal obstacles as we try to begin our day’s marketing activity. With no one in our office-of-one to help with a confidence booster, an important resource to have in our self-management toolbox is a means of submitting the negative self-talk for an internal Second Opinion.

Let’s imagine you’re about to pick up the phone to follow up on a promising contact you met a few days ago. You recognize that the clammy hands gripping the phone are a sure sign that Fear of Rejection is in charge. You’ve convinced yourself that the voice about to answer your call is just waiting for an excuse, any excuse, to hang up. What to do? Time for a Second Opinion!

The Department of Second Opinions draws on that part of yourself that knows enough to question the self-defeating voices by asking, “How real is this?” Buttressing its wisdom is the recognition that a conversation underlies every marketing activity as sub-text, a conversation that’s usually unspoken. While we may tend to think of marketing as telling people what we do, in fact all our marketing activities implicitly ask a question: “Do my services have potential value to you?” When Fear of Rejection is in charge, the door slams shut on any potential conversation. “Do my services have value?” “No!” End of conversation. But what if you stay in the (unspoken) conversation and wonder, “What are they actually saying no to, and why?” They could be saying no to having the conversation now, or to a perceived misfit between their needs and your services, or even to the person they couldn’t say no to 10 minutes earlier!

Viewed in this light, the imagined door slamming shut in your face shifts to a swinging door. Even if it shuts, you’re likely to come away with useful information about the needs of this prospect, or about how to better position your services for your target client. Even if it shuts on him or her as a prospect, you’ve gotten the word out to one more person about your services.

Another conversation stopper, particularly seductive for service professionals: “I Can’t Sell Myself”. This one actually negates any conversation from the outset, presuming instead that rather than talking, you have to convince or even manipulate the prospect. A Second Opinion might point to a more promising line of inquiry such as: How do I quickly and accurately inform myself about my prospect’s needs and present my services as an effective solution?

Shifting the internal voices - abandoning the conversation-stoppers or door-slammers and instead framing a question - gives you a good chance of getting off on positive footing for the actual conversation. It’s very helpful to remember that even if the prospect says no, this doesn’t have to be your last opportunity. When you relax into the conversation, into listening and asking as well as telling, you may hear an interest or need that has no direct connection to your services but provides a basis for staying in touch. This will indeed have been a successful marketing conversation! Good luck.

About The Author

Nina Ham, certified coach and licensed psychotherapist, is principal of Success from the Inside Out, providing individual coaching and teleseminars to build the skills, attitudes and habits for sustainable success in your career or business. Mail to: Nina@womenssuccesscoach.com, subscribe in subject line, for free monthly e-zine, or visit http://www.SuccessfromtheInsideOut.com.

Nina@womenssuccesscoach.com

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We could learn a thing or two from pro sports.

Baseball players use stats to tell the story of their season and their career. Scorekeepers keep track of every at bat, every hit, every strike out, every run scored and every base stolen.

Those stats are cited by commentators during the game, sports reporters after the game and they are featured on the backs of baseball cards to they tell the story of the player’s career.

Those of us in business could learn a thing or two from baseball players about using stats to size-up our careers and experience.

Give your prospects a reason to listen to what you have to say.

I was attending a conference last month and the topic of using business stats to “earn the right” among prospects was brought up. “Earning the right” was explained as giving your audience a reason to listen to what you have to say.

Before you can sell anything you must establish credibility.

Before you can sell anyone anything, you must first convince them you or your product or service are worthy. And one way to do that is with stats.

At the conference, we were tasked with compiling a list of our own stats (what we’ve achieved in our business or career, or what qualifies us to be doing what we’re doing) and I was amazed at how few of my own I could recall on a moment’s notice.

Can you easily list all your “stats” I couldn’t!

It was easy to come up with the obvious - I’ve been helping clients successfully market for 20 years.

And I could also recall two recent marketing successes: gaining free exposure for my business to 100,000+ of my ideal customers and tripling my web site traffic in a three-month period.

But beyond that I was stumped. My 20 years of marketing experience and seven years of entrepreneurial experience were boiled down to three stats that did not do a very good job of representing my career or my expertise.

I came home from the conference determined to compile my list of stats and to start using them. And, to inspire you, my readers and clients, to do the same.

Use my 10 questions to create your own list of “stats”

To make it easy, I’ve compiled a list of 10 questions you can ask yourself to come up with your own list of stats. This list is just a jumping off point.

Feel free to brainstorm further to come up with your own list of compelling stats that you believe will help you “earn the right” to be seen as an expert in your field by your prospects.

I call this list your “10 Steps to Greatness”
Why? Because when you are able to list stats in 10 different areas, you will be able to convince your prospects you are great at what you do AND that your product or service can help them.

I’ve included my own stats as examples, NOT to brag about them, but for several reasons: First, to show you I DID come home from that conference and compile my own stats; Second, to give you examples to follow; and Third, to inspire you (if I can do it, you can, too!).

Not all of my stats are earth-shattering. But by having a full list to choose from, you can be sure to have a handful of compelling stats available at any time.

10 Steps to Greatness

(1) How many years have you been in your current line of business (or a related field)?

For example, I’ve been in the marketing field for over 20 years.

(2) How many clients or students or customers have your served (in your current business or your total years in this industry)?

For example, I’ve taught over 600 small business owners how to create and implement their own marketing plans using the 10stepmarketing System.

(3) What results have you generated with your business, products or services?

For example, I increased my subscriber base by 590% in four months and I tripled my web site traffic in three months.

(4) What results have your clients or customers gotten with the help of your products or services?

For example, when I worked with the American Council on Exercise, I helped them generate over 340.8 million media impressions in three years, through public relations and public service ads. I have also secured nearly $1 million in free media exposure for my clients.

(5) How many awards or recognitions have you or your business, products or services received?

For example, I’ve earned three national and two local marketing awards, plus a small business top achievement award.

(6) Have you spoken, taught or done presentations?

For example, I have spoken on marketing at conferences across the United States and in Canada, and I’ve taught hundreds of small business owners via teleseminar.

(7) Have your articles been published or have you been quoted or interviewed or written up in the media?

For example, my marketing advice is featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Start-Up Series publication “How To Start A Personal Training Business.” Additionally I am an Expert Author on EzineArticles.com and my marketing how-to articles are featured on numerous web sites.

(8) How can you quantify your business (e.g. how many business deals or transactions have you made, or how many articles have you written)?

For example, I’ve written and published 40 articles in the past six months.

(9) How many products have you sold?

For example, I made 20 sales my first two weeks in business.

(10) What experts in your industry have you studied or learned from?

For example, I have taken courses from such marketing and business experts as T. Harv Eker, Jay Abraham, Brian Tracy, Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen.

I challenge you to spend some time this week, compiling your own list of stats. Start with these 10 questions and see what you can come up with. Draw on your personal or professional experience.

What makes you great at what you do? What experience and knowledge to you have to offer? What are you passionate about and how can you translate that passion into credibility? Why should others pay attention when you talk? Be creative. Brainstorm.

Then select a few of the strongest, most compelling stats and start using them in your marketing.

Remember, you are not using these stats to brag about your accomplishments. You’re using them to get your prospects to pay attention to you and to establish credibility.

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

20-year marketing veteran Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to help small business owners and solo-preneurs successfully market their business, themselves without spending a fortune on marketing. To learn more about this simple, step-by-step program and to sign up for her FREE audio class and FREE weekly ezine featuring how-to articles, tips and advice, visit www.10stepmarketing.com

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If You Are Involved In Sales Or Marketing
In Any Way …

Here Are Some
“Mental Performance” Statements
AKA: Positive Thinking Affirmations …

You Can Use And Practice
To Put Yourself In A Comfortable Frame Of Mind,

Before Talking To Your Prospects …
To Help You Get Started And To Stay Motivated.

I’m A Master Of Marketing
Talking To Prospects Is Easy For Me
I’m Talking To A Friend
I Really Care About This Person
I’m Great At Asking Questions
I’m A Wonderful Listener
I’m Much Better Than An Ordinary Salesperson
My Skills Go Far Beyond What A Salesperson Does
I’m Caring, Real And Human
I Want To Know Your Concerns
If I Know Your Concerns, I Know What To Say To You
I Want To Know What You Think
I’m Great At Asking “What If?”
I’m Unattached To Getting My Result
I Imagine My Success
I Feel My Success
I Trust Myself
I Trust Myself To Know What To Say
I’m Ready To Share My Talents And Gifts With The World
I Always Ask For The Business
After Asking, I Shut Up & Wait
I’m Grateful
I’m Grateful That You’re Taking The Time To Talk With Me
I’m Grateful That You’re Sharing Your Thoughts & Concerns
I’m Grateful That You’ve Allowed Us To Have This Time Together
The More No’s I Get, The More Yes’s I Know I Will Get
I’m Really Good At What I Do
I Love Talking To People
Hearing The Word No, Energizes Me
I Get Energized By “No” Because It Brings Me Closer To Hearing My Next “Yes”
I Learn Something From Every Conversation
I’m Getting Better & Better Each Time I Use Sunny’s Method
I’m Generous & Gracious
It’s Easy For Me To Tell People What I Want For Them
It’s Easy For Me To Tell Them What I Want For Myself
It’s Easy For Me To Ask For What I Want
I’m Unattached From Hearing “Yes” Or “No”, I Just Ask & Wait
I’m Succeeding More & More With Every Call, Regardless Of The Outcome
I Like This
I’m Good At This
I’m Going To Keep Going
I’m Persistent
I Believe In Myself
I Believe In My Abilities
I Believe In My Skills
Everybody Likes Me
Everybody Likes Me Whether They Know It Or Not
The Entire Universe Loves Me
I Love Myself
I’m Proud Of Myself
I’m Successful
I’m Enthusiastic
I’m Naturally Enthusiastic
I’m Positive & Happy
I’m On My Way
I’m Enjoying The Journey
I Can Do This

Recite These Statements Out Loud
OR Silently To Yourself
Right Before Making A Prospecting Call

THESE AFFIRMATIONS ARE THE TRUTH FOR YOU NOW!

Sunny Hills is “The Affirmations Genius” (TM).
Get His Free Weekly Positive Thoughts At: http://www.sunnythoughts.com

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Occasionally EGOPOWER readers send me questions or topic suggestions that I feel would be of interest to you. In this issue I give some tips to improve your sales closing ratio in response to a question Rob Smith wrote me from the UK:

“I sell IT equipment to schools in the UK over the phone. I seem to always hold a massive prospect list that’s constantly changing but I’m struggling to get my deals closed. The following is how 85% of my potential deals go:

First Contact:

• I find a prospective customer
  
• Find out what they have at the moment and what they want (where they want to be with I.T. in the future)
  
• I find out when they are looking to buy
  
• And ask who is involved in the decision making

Next Action:

• I put together a proposal and post/email/fax it to my contact

Second Contact:

• I call him/her to discuss the proposal with them, make sure it’s what they wanted and make a few extra suggestions.
  
• I’ll try and have a laugh with them to get some rapport going.
  
• I’ll try & confirm a decision date again.
  
• Say something like - “is this something that we can go ahead with now?” it never is….
  
• “I’ll call you in ? days to see if you have come to a decision”

Third Contact:

(before date I promised to follow-up on)

• “Just calling to make sure everything is OK and to see if you have gathered all the other quotes yet?”
  
• “how do we compare” - normal response is pretty good
  
• “is there anything I can do before you have your meeting tomorrow that would help you in making a decision?” - usual response is “No”

Fourth Contact:

(day of decision)

• Won’t put me through

Fifth Contact:

(day after decision):

• Secretary says he’s not there

Sixth Contact:

• Secretary speaks to him and then tells me he’s selected a competitor.

“It’s quite depressing really and I do put the effort in, I’m sure it’s just down to my sales skills. What do you suggest?”

Use Precious Sales Time Wisely

Thanks for writing in Rob. Selling this way IS depressing. I suspect that you are losing your deals very early on. By this I mean that you are expending too much energy on deals that you’ll never win.

The decision to send out a proposal should be an important one. Only well qualified prospects that you KNOW you have a high likelihood of winning, merit the effort of creating a proposal.

This is contrary to what many of us learn in sales, which is that is a “numbers game”. Send out more proposals, and you’ll get more sales the thinking goes.

The problem is unless you know with certainty that you are selling to your prospect’s most important buying criteria, your proposals have a low chance of success. You can bet that the competitor who wins the deal, knows just what to put into his proposal before he sends it out.

Qualify Better And Close More Sales

You need to get very clear on what is most important to your prospect. You do this by asking the following questions when you first interview the prospect:

- Why are you planning to purchase this new computer network now? - What is most important to you in a new computer network? - Why is this important now?

You also need to know who the likely competition is that is currently being favored (there is almost always someone with the inside track). One way to ascertain this is by inquiring about similar or related purchases made in the past. Find out which vendors they bought from and why they were awarded the contract.

Ask if any of their past vendors are bidding for this deal. Ask why wouldn’t they buy from those vendor(s) bidding on this deal if they bought from them in the past.

Ask the following question about each past vendor bidding on the deal separately to determine who is being favored. Don’t just ask “why don’t you buy from one of those companies?” Instead ask “Why don’t you buy from ABC company? They gave you good installation support last time which you said was very important to you”.

By asking about preferences for their current/past vendors, you will find out if there is a real opportunity for you or if they just are gathering bids to document that they have performed a competitive evaluation.

>>> Unless you can find a compelling reason why they would switch to a “new” vendor, your odds of closing are going to be very low.

How well do their current vendors meet the “what’s most important” to the prospect criteria?

After you’ve thoroughly discussed the vendors that they have current business relationships, you can easily ask about any other new vendors that they are considering. They’ll likely open up to you on this now because you greased the conversation by getting them to talk about their current vendors first.

If they are reluctant to answer questions about other vendors, then tell them you are selective about who you give bids to. If you know whom else they are evaluating, then you will better know if you can help them and should bid on it.

>>> The lesson here is don’t do a proposal unless you can PROVE that you offer an advantage in meeting their key criteria. Being me-too is not enough because it is likely that there are already vendors they do business with that they prefer and know better than you.

By rigorously qualifying your prospects, your closing ratio and total sales will increase significantly. You’ll be happier also because not only will your bank acount be fatter, but you’ll be working with people who want to work with you.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown’s sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

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