I often get emails from subscribers to this newsletter asking me very relevant questions. That’s often where I get ideas for these articles. (Keep your questions coming!) Here is a question from a subscriber who asks:
Wendy, do you have any prospecting metrics? We would like to know how many calls, emails etc. a sales representative should make per day.
This is a great question, and a relevant question. The answer will vary depending on the experience level of the sales representative, the product or service being sold and of course, the market. This is not a one-size-fits-all answer. (In addition, I’m really hoping that you already have a benchmarked process that your team follows. If not, more on that in later articles.)
This is where I usually start: with the 80/20 Rule. A new sales representative who is just starting out and who does not have a book of business should spend about 80% of their time looking for new business. If they do that for 4 to 6 months, at the end of that time they should have developed a pipeline of qualified opportunities. At that point, the equation flips and they should only need to spend 20% of their time looking for new business. The challenge is of course, that many new sales representatives do not put in the time to build their pipeline and so they never reach this point.
The metrics that you want to track when prospecting are: Dials (how many times did your sales rep dial the telephone), Conversations (with a decision-maker only) and Appointments/Opportunities. You also want to track voicemails left, calls returned, emails sent and email responses. If your process includes texting and/or social media, you’ll need to track that too. BTW: You need to be using some type of software to track these numbers.
As I know that many of you may email asking what I recommend to track your prospecting efforts, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to download the complimentary guide, 81 Tools to Grow Your Sales & Your Business, Faster, More Easily & More Profitably. This guide will give you not only my recommended resources to track your calls but resources for just about everything else. The value? Priceless. Yours, free. Click here.
