Do you have a solid idea of the revenue growth you want to see from your sales team this year? Are you confident this figure is achievable but still aggressive? To make sure you’re on the right track, you don’t need to invest an inordinate amount of time pulling numbers and analyzing past figures. All you need to do is think on three specific points.
Damon Jones, a senior-level sales executive with more than 30 years of experience, says there are three relatively simple ways for sales leaders to measure their team’s growth potential. We share his thoughts in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.
Study your current customers. According to Jones, a good way to begin the ongoing process of measuring growth potential is looking at your current customers. Consider whether each customer represents a significant amount of revenue—or the potential for significant revenue. Once you examine your current clients, Jones recommends sitting down with members of your sales team to develop your best collective answer to the question, “How much of this account’s wallet share is going to us?” Use the information available to you to answer this question for each of your current significant customers.
Jones notes that if your team services 50 accounts that deliver significant revenue or the potential for significant revenue, you can be fairly certain you are not currently receiving 100 percent of the available revenue you could be getting from those 50 accounts. So, what is the best estimate of the wallet share you don’t have, but could have, in your most important accounts? What is the best estimate overall?
Size the market opportunity in terms of customers you have not won yet. Another way to measure your team’s sales growth potential is to examine the account list you used to develop your wallet share estimate. When looking at these customers, Jones recommends thinking about: Who are their biggest competitors? Of these competitors, should we be targeting any? Of those we should target, what is the estimated dollar value of each potential customer?
Jones says that when you add it all up, you will be looking at the market opportunity expressed in terms of potential customers you either don’t have now or had once and lost.
Examine productivity per sales professional. You should be able to relatively quickly see numbers for each one of your sales reps. Choose a timeframe, such as 12 months, and look at the total revenue your sales team generated during this time period. Then look at the amount per sales rep. Who stands out for performing considerably well and who could use some extra training or help? Jones says this exercise can help you determine when to reassign certain sales reps or when to add people to your team.
You can determine your sales team’s growth potential in a few simple ways. For one, consider how much of your current clients’ wallet share you are earning, and how much you could potentially get. You can also look at prospects you have not won yet and dig deeper into each sales reps’ numbers for a better idea of how much revenue they will likely generate. You don’t need to invest a significant amount of time—just a willingness to review basic performance figures.
Compiled by Audrey Sellers
Source: Damon Jones has more than 30 years of experience in sales and operations leadership and has spent the last 25 years helping sales professionals and sales and service organizations improve results and raise their acumen.