{"id":1405,"date":"2008-02-05T15:30:57","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T21:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/defining-the-sale\/"},"modified":"2008-02-05T15:24:59","modified_gmt":"2008-02-05T21:24:59","slug":"defining-the-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/defining-the-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining The Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Salesopedia.com offers an excellent article titled <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.salesopedia.com\/content\/view\/811\/10479\/\">Top Salespeople Win at the Numbers Game<\/a>.\u00a0 The article is a bit of a promo for a specific selling system, but the author provides a list of questions that all sales managers should retain.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the last 6 months:<\/p>\n<p>1. What is the average number of prospects that you attempted to call (dials per week?)<\/p>\n<p>2. What percentage of those dials resulted in contact with a decision maker (not voice mail or a gatekeeper)?<\/p>\n<p>3. Out of all the dialing you did in #1, what percentage resulted in talking to the person who could sign a contract, issue a purchase order, or cut a check? This number is crucial: This is the number of genuine prospects you contacted.<\/p>\n<p>4. What percentage of those decision-maker contacts resulted in an appointment? This number is important for two reasons: 1) You need to know how many contacts it takes to secure an appointment, and 2) You need to gauge, measure, and refine your High Probability Prospecting offers.<\/p>\n<p>5. What percentage of your appointments resulted in a sale?<\/p>\n<p>6. What is the average number of sales appointments, per prospect, does it take for you to close a sale? Over the past 6 months, exactly how many appointments did you make, and keep?<\/p>\n<p>7. What is your closing average per prospect? What is your closing average per appointment?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Much of successful selling is truly a numbers game.\u00a0 Skill increases productivity, but motivation drives success.\u00a0 Some days simply come down to connecting with prospects whether the salesperson feels like it or not.\u00a0 As a manager, that is the point where you may have to provide some &#8220;external motivation&#8221; to ensure that your team is putting forth the effort to maintain the metrics defined in the aforementioned questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Salesopedia.com offers an excellent article titled Top Salespeople Win at the Numbers Game.\u00a0 The article is a bit of a promo for a specific selling system, but the author provides a list of questions that all sales managers should retain. In the last 6 months: 1. What is the average number of prospects that you attempted to call (dials per week?) 2. What percentage of those dials resulted in contact with a decision maker (not voice mail or a gatekeeper)? 3. Out of all the dialing you did in #1, what percentage resulted in talking to the person who could sign a contract, issue a purchase order, or cut a&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/defining-the-sale\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[281,282,232,284,283],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-management","category-sales-techniques","tag-define-the-sale","tag-profile-the-sale","tag-prospecting","tag-prospecting-metrics","tag-sales-metrics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-mF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":381,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/10\/top-10-tips-for-prospecting-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":0},"title":"Top 10 Tips for Prospecting Success","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"October 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"As you know, we are intrigued by lists and statistics and I came across this article in Sales Vault's current newsletter. It is a quick read and I recommend that you read all 10 tips. To give you a taste of what you will learn: 5. Schedule your prospecting sessions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14214,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2018\/01\/the-non-verbal-advantage\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":1},"title":"The Non-Verbal Advantage","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes successfully closing a sale comes down to slight advantage. One of the overlooked aspects of selling is communication, specifically nonverbal communication.\u00a0 I get the chance to discuss this topic with salespeople often...and often it is overlooked.\u00a0 This Inc.com article provides a good reinforcement to nonverbal communication's importance. Consider this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Gesture.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Gesture.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Gesture.png?fit=560%2C315&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/09\/prospecting-via-email\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":2},"title":"Prospecting Via Email","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"September 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Salespeopel\u00a0are always looking for better ways to\u00a0find new prospects.\u00a0 You don't have to look far to find articles giving advice about this subject.\u00a0 Some common examples:\u00a0\u00a0trying to make phone calls and undoubtedly leaving voice mails are futile,\u00a0call at different times of the day or develop an email marketing campaign to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1397,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/01\/prospecting-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":3},"title":"Prospecting Perspective","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't seen this quote before, but it comes from the JustSell.com daily newsletter: \"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.\" Babe Ruth (1895-1948) American baseball player So much of sales success comes down to perspective and attitude.\u00a0 The Babe's approach would be a good starting point\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Techniques&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Techniques","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-techniques\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1553,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/the-9-second-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":4},"title":"The 9 Second Window","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That is how long you have to hook a person on a cold voicemail message according to this article on Salesopedia (my bold): 6 Interesting Sales Prospecting Statistics 1.\u00a0 In a recent survey 95% of salespeople said they can sell - they just need to get in front of more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1341,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/12\/busting-a-sales-slump\/","url_meta":{"origin":1405,"position":5},"title":"Busting A Sales Slump","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"December 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In all honesty, I am a streaky salesperson (at best).\u00a0 I have always been prone to peaks and valleys in my sales which speaks more to my abilities.\u00a0 Nonetheless, this ManageSmarter.com article addresses this problem with tips for breaking out of a slump. First, a great point: Besides, prospects can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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