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Crossing the Finish Line

Secrets to Winning the Sales Numbers Game

Sales & Marketing

Some people say that sales is a numbers game--they’re right and they’re wrong. Sales is a numbers game only if you know the right numbers. Here are the sales numbers you need to know:

1. How many sales calls do you make per day, week, or month?

Selling is all about improving; you can always improve your productivity. How many more sales calls could you be making? Start by knowing how many calls you are currently making.

Determine your average. Then at the end of each day, week, or month determine if you are above or below your average. What are you doing differently in either case? Keep doing what you’re doing if it’s working; stop it if it’s sending your numbers south.

2. How many sales calls does it take to create a new customer?

Your sales objective is to make a sale. You are wasting your time by simply making more sales calls without creating more customers.

This sales number will tell you how long your sales cycle is and provides you with another metric to improve. Shortening your sales cycle allows you to pursue more business. It frees up your time to serve your customers more effectively.

3. How many prospects become customers?

It’s difficult to improve when you don’t know what to improve. A low number of prospects turning into customers tells you that you are not demonstrating your product’s value, you are calling on the wrong prospects, or you are lacking credibility when you sell.

All of these are serious issues that if unaddressed will cause you to fail.

4. What’s the profit on each customer?

You have a road map to fix your business when you know each customer’s profit. Unprofitable customers give you the opportunity to sell them more profitable products or services, and make them more profitable for you. You are unable to improve your business unless you know the amount of each customer’s profit contribution.

5. How many customers are you losing?

New business is great; however, it’s bad if it’s at the cost of losing existing customers because you’re not serving them correctly. It’s like having a leaky bucket. You won’t ever fill it up if it’s got a hole at the bottom. Look at your customer turnover number. How many customers do you lose per month or year? Reassess your sales process now if your number is too high.

When you play a game, you keep score. Keeping score of your sales will make you a winner at the sales game.

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.