The approaching end of the year afforded me an opportunity to look back on my columns that have been published in 2024 and pick out a few of my favorite messages.
Avoid the “Doughnut Drop” Approach
Ever seen a “Doughnut Drop” salesperson? Have you maybe even taken that approach yourself a few times? You know the kind of behavior I mean: Show up at a customer’s office with a box of doughnuts and make your way around asking people how their weekend went, if they need any samples or literature, if there’s anything you need to quote, how was their kid’s ballgame, etc.
It's easy and fairly common to find salespeople falling into that milk run rut as they work their sales territories. I would like to suggest another strategy. Every time you call on a customer, whether they’ve been a customer for a week, a year, or 10 years…bring them something new. For example, a new product, a new service capability, new information on your location, or an article you might have seen that would be relevant to their business. New products may be the easiest one and I’ll tell you why. How many of you have more SKUs in your branch or yard than you know what to do with? Pick one you don’t know much about or haven’t presented much and learn it. Make it your product of the month and present it during sales call that month. After that, pick another one.
How Healthy Is Your Sales Territory?
How healthy is your territory? It’s not referring to whether you have a cough, are running a fever, or feel nauseous. It simply means do you know where your sales are coming from and are you top heavy or do you have a solid foundation. Do you know this for your territory?
Consider a deeper dive annual analysis of your performance. What percentage of your total sales is generated by your top 10 customers? What percentage do your top 20 customers represent? How does your performance compare to the Pareto Principle? The Pareto Principle is based on studies done by Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, which most of us know as the 80/20 Rule. Are you comfortable with your results? If not, then bringing on new accounts or working with existing accounts to increase their sales is the way to go. Consistently look for opportunities to add product categories to existing accounts. Although it’s not always fun, continuous prospecting for new accounts is key to a healthy territory.
Also keep an eye on how many sales calls you make to you top 20 accounts a month. Do you notice any patterns of spending too much time on certain accounts. If so, work to find solutions to pare that down to a level that works for both of you. Remember any time saved here provides time to prospect and identify new business opportunities.
Plan Weekly, Not Weakly
Most salespeople will start a week with an idea of what they want to do. There may be a few appointments already set for the week when Monday rolls around and the remaining part of the week just fills in naturally based on issues that arise or customers calling with fires to be put out. You feel busy, because you’re running around taking care of things, but if you looked back at the end of week at what you got done, you may not be that excited.
A tool that may be helpful is a Customer Contact Log. This is a log where you list every customer you are responsible for and any prospect you have contacted and want to continue to work. This log has twelve columns representing months of the year, with a goal of seeing or contacting all customers once a month. That timeframe can be modified based on your own situation. On Friday afternoons, close out your week by placing an “X” in the appropriate column for each customer and prospect you had contact with that week. Then planning the next week is simply an exercise of documenting appointments you already have set for the week and filling in the rest of the week by looking over the Customer Contact Log for accounts without an “X” that makes sense for you contact that week.
Another benefit of a written weekly plan is it allows you to control how you spend your time. Running around your territory putting out fires and reacting to the whims of every customer phone call is a very inefficient use of your time. Without a written plan in place every phone call, problem, or issue becomes magnified in its importance, and everything can seem like an emergency. Having a plan in place lets you decide what constitutes an emergency and gives you the chance to politely push back on customer requests by explaining “I will be in that area the today after tomorrow, can it wait until then?” Sometimes it can wait and other times it can’t, but having a plan will certainly minimize the time you presently spend pinballing around your territory.
I wish everybody a Happy Holiday Season – Happy Selling!!
