The Pipeline of Success

Like all good salespeople I'm always looking for ideas to improve myself.
One of the ways I do that is to read articles. Ones that have a big impact on me I keep a hard copy of so I can read it again later. At least once a year I go through them all and make sure they are still relevant to my life as a salesperson.
Some articles are saved and some are tossed. Below is an article by Jeffrey Gittomer that has survived my test of time:

The pipeline of success.
An excerpt from Jeffrey’s
Sales Bible: New Edition

I am about to present you with a formula and a challenge.

If you’re looking for a magic formula, go read a book on the life and times of Houdini.

If you’re looking for magic, that’s different. You have all the magic needed to double your present income. All you have to do is learn to execute the tricks.

Here is the theory behind the formula. These questions will provide the answers to your sales earning capacity:
• How many sales do you want to make per day, per month?
• What is the dollar value of your average sale?
• To make your goal, how many dollars in sales do you have to make per day, per month?
• How many prospects do you need to see to make a sale?
• What is the set of numbers you need to get to these answers?

Want to do it in 30 days? Easy – up your urgency. Get committed. I can supply the jet plane. It’s up to you to provide the jet fuel. When I started out in sales, I used to pick up the paper and read the obituaries until I found someone who was close to my age. It lit a candle under me for weeks.

Here are the 12.5 elements in the formula…
1. Your attitude. The key to your success. Get CDs now. Listen two hours a day for six months. Stop doing or listening to negative things.
2. Your goals. Set them today. Read the 6.5 steps in the Post-it Note section again (page 47). Use the Post-it Notes beginning right now.
3. Your networking. Find out where your best customers and prospects meet (trade association, chamber, club). Begin attending every meeting you can. It is imperative that you attend regularly.
4. Your power questions. Write ’em. Learn ’em. Use ’em.
5. Your power statements. Write ’em. Learn ’em. Use ’em.
6. Your sales tools. Figure out what tools you need and get ’em.
7. Your sales knowledge. Get sales skills CDs and listen to them. Alternate with the attitude CDs. Use the idea as soon as you hear it. Read every chapter in this book twice. One chapter per day.
8. Your preparedness. Are you truly ready to sell? If you are, you will. If you’re not, you won’t. The opposite of preparedness is failure.
9. Your follow-up. Tenacious, creative persistence that leads to a sale.
10. Your sales numbers. Making yourself see the numbers you need to build your pipeline and keep it full. Find your formula and use it.
11. Your prospect pipeline. Seeing the proper number of people a day who are qualified to buy builds your pipeline. The key to double income is having the right number of prospects ready to buy.
12. Your commitment. Write it to yourself. Tell others who will help you. Your commitment is your personal promise to yourself. Keep it at all costs.
12.5 Your self-discipline. Your determination and ability to achieve your goals and live up to your commitments.

There is a sales adage that says, “Your chances for success increase in proportion to the number of sales calls you make.” It’s amazing how the truth can be so simple. If it’s so simple, why don’t you do it?

Good fundamental sales skills and solid product knowledge are meaningless unless you see and follow up the proper number of prospects.

Seeing the numbers creates a pipeline…the number of prospects at or near the buying point.

A quick check of your numbers will reveal why your sales are booming or slumping…

If you appoint and present to 10 prospects, two will buy no matter what you do and two won’t buy no matter what you do. The other six are on the fence and will buy or not buy as a result of what you say or don’t say. A sale will be made either way. Either you sell them on yes, or they sell you on no.
The above is still true 10 years after I received this article through a subscription to Gittomer's newsletter. Thanks Jeffrey!

Ev
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"