By Peter Radizeski Managing time for sales success CHANNEL MANAGEMENT How many sales reps will hit quota? At best, only 60 percent to 75 percent of reps will hit quota, experts estimate. Salesforce, for its part, estimates “that 57 percent of reps are expected to miss their quota this year. Only 28 percent of sales professionals expect to meet or exceed quota in the upcoming year,” according to the Salesforce 2023 State of Sales Report. With all the cloud CRM systems, sales AI platforms and other automation to help sales reps do their job, why are most not meeting quota? Having managed several sales teams in the last five years, the number one reason is time management. Sales reps just do not manage their time well. They do not focus, or their focus is diverted by executives. They spend too much time in research and not enough time in front of prospective buyers. There is much sales reluctance. It takes daily activity to keep the funnel healthy to meet quota. Most SMB sales teams are responsible for many roles: account rep, SDR (sales development rep), inside sales and outside sales. That requires a lot of skills for one human to have. They need to balance the work load. They also need to understand where they are most effective. If they can meet quota by cross-selling into current accounts, don’t chase that 70 percent of the time. If door knocking is bringing the results, focus 70 percent of your time on that. Most sales reps do not know what activities bring about the best results. They need to score their activities. There are better days to call prospects and better hours of those days. (There is data.) Sports and sales are a lot alike. Both are all about fundamentals and time management. There are 12 steps in the sales process, and managing your time is the only way to win at sales. It is about being more effective. If you get just a little better at prospecting, your sales increase. If you get a little better at discovery, your sales increase. If you get a little better at managing time, your sales increase. It is all about improving just a little bit each quarter. (I would say “each day,” but that seems like a lot of improvement for most people to muster.) There are thousands of sales books, articles, videos, podcasts and more that reps could leverage for their betterment. There are sales trainers and sales coaches who can elevate your game. Companies need to invest in their sales teams, if they want to improve sales. Businesses can invest in lead generation; they can do marketing, but most companies leave all that up to the sales team: “Here are your business cards, go forth and bring back signed contracts.” Sales is the hardest job in the organization. Trying to convince strangers to spend $500 with your company day in and day out is a grind. Some businesses treat their sales team as a separate org. The sales reps don’t get a lot of technical help or marketing help or much of anything, except for a CRM, a phone and business cards. This begets the results you would expect. When you must juggle SDR, accounts, inbound and outbound, time gets lost. Then you are chasing the clock on quota. Time management is the one skill that sales reps need to master. o Peter Radizeski is president of RAD-INFO INC., a telecom strategy and marketing consulting agency. RAD-INFO Inc offers sales training, coaching and consulting. He is available to speak at your events on channel, marketing, strategy or sales. While not nearly as sexy as AI or automation, the phone remains sales most effective time management tool. THE QUOTA DILEMMA 42 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=