Prospecting: Determine the Right Amount of Activity for You

I often show salespeople and their managers how to determine the “right” amount of daily prospecting activity. For most, it’s a real eye-opener! The average sales rep does as much prospecting as they have time for or as much as their manager told them they should do. Both of those are good ideas IF they get you to your goal. For most of us, they don’t. That’s what the average rep does and that’s one of the many things that make them average. Want to be above average and earn an above-average income? (Or, at least, know what it will take to do that?) Then it makes sense to figure out the amount of activity you personally need to do each day, based on your own metrics, so that you can actually achieve and exceed your goal, rather than hope that you make it. Hope, as has been so aptly said in the past, is not a great strategy.

In order to determine the correct amount of activity the first thing you’ll need to do is to track your numbers over time. I recommend a minimum of 30 days, and it will probably be 60 days before you can get metrics you can rely on but it’s well worth the minimal investment in time and effort it will take to track your activity.

You’ll need to know the:

1) Number of distinct Dials you make (Calling the same person 15 times does not count as 15 dials)

2) Number of DMCs you make (Decision Maker Contacts – each time you speak with a decision-maker. Leaving a message and speaking with an assistant do not count as a DMC)

3) Number of Appointments you set

4) Number of Sales Visits you go on (This can be different from the # of appointments you set – sometimes people aren’t there for the appt. or can’t see you when you get there)

5) Number of Sales you close

6) Average Dollar volume per sale (Total $ volume of all sales divided by total # of sales)