Sales success, the 80/20 way: Winning edge theory

Sales success, the 80/20 way: Winning edge theory: "Pareto rule: The 80/20 or Pareto rule states that only a few of the activities that you engage in (20 percent) are vital a..."

Winning edge theory

Pareto rule:  The 80/20 or  Pareto rule states that only a few of the activities that you engage in  (20 percent) are vital and the many (80 percent) are trivial.  To understand the premise of the 80/20 rule visualize 10 people who are stacking boxes over a given time period.  Pareto says that two people stack 8 boxes, while the other eight only stack 2 between them over the same time period! 

How can you apply Pareto as a sales person?  It may be educating yourself in a new product, your market or even your customers.  Perhaps you need to change your focus and look at ways to really maximize your time communicating with your customers? Perhaps it is taking 20 minutes at the end of the day to think what could I have done better today?    If you decide to think about how to apply the Pareto rule, you will find what it is for you.  Decide what the critical activities are for you and make sure that whatever else happens these activities get the attention they warrent.

WINNING EDGE THEORY

Winning edge theory says that we only have to be a little bit better than our competitor to make the world of difference to our results.  Think of the horses who consistently win their races and win 10 times the prize money of their rivals, they are not 10 times better, they are in fact only marginally better (Often just by a nose over a significant distance) but the results of being only a little bit better are anything but marginal!

How can we be marginally better than our competitors or even our rivals for that coveted sales person of the month award?  Well, below are some interesting sales statistics for you to think about

48% of sales activities do not involve any follow up with the prospect

25% of sales activities involve a second contact and then stop

12% of sales sales activities stop after three customer contacts

10% of sales activities involve more than three contacts

2% of successful sales decisions are made on the first contact

3% on the second contact

10% of sales decisions are made on the fourth contact

80% are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Based on the above I believe you should have a sales process that engages your customer at least 5 times.

Application:  Why not create a new process that achieves this to a targeted customer list and track the results?