Double your business in 12 months

f'\ven rHE LASr 20 years. 1007o of \-fthe groups I have worked with have grown their year-over-year sales.

What does it take to double business in 12 months? The sales groups and individuals who grow the fastest:

Commit to Change.

Change can be difficult, especially iT.

This goes for organizations as well as individual sellers. Many organizations have leadership logjams based on seniority, for example. Changing long-term leadership or lack of leadership can hurt. Magic words don't grow sales; we must have systemic change. If we plan on selling the same way and just tweaking a couple things, we will not double our business.

Commit to Prospecting.

If we are waiting for our current account base to get busier, we are looking at 5Vo max growth! It just won't happen. If we want to double our business in 12 months we are going to have to get "new business."

Let's define prospecting: Prospecting is looking for brand new, never-sold-by-your-company-before business. Many salespeople and organizations are just moving accounts around or bringing old business back from the dead. This is not prospecting and will not bring the kind of change needed to double business.

How much? If you are an experienced salesperson, two hours a week is a minimum. This is two hours of calling a pre-printed list or hitting a pre-organized list of businesses if you are in the field. This is not two hours with an hour and a half of looking things up on the Internet or driving around "checking for leads." This is a focused two hours a week. If you are a journeyman or rookie, much more prospecting time will be needed.

Propose Big. Start Selling Volume.

To sell volume, we must talk to all of our customers in terms of quarterly, six-month, and year-long programs. This is essential with existing and new customers alike. Especially when we are the preferred supplier in a competitive situation (we are getting over 50Vo of the business), we absolutely need to propose programs to our customers for all the business.

Once we have sold one program, it is time to copy and paste. Program selling becomes easier and easier the more we do it.

Manage Accounts.

Comfort is the enemy of growth. Hanging onto C+ accounts while trying to construct an A+ sales career is lunacy, but many do it.

We start by doing an 8Ol2O analysis of our accounts. Typically, 807o of our business is coming from 2OVo of the accounts we are working. When we understand where our business is coming from (and not coming from), we can begin to put our energy where we get the biggest return.

Once the bottom 20Vo is split out, do another 80/20 analysis on that group. Anyone in the bottom 807o (who we have been working for over six months) after this split should be taken out of our rotation.

We should do this individually. Sales managers should do this for their group if they are not doing for themselves (they are not). Although account management can be a contentious challenge for sales management, it is the best thing management can do for a sales organization. (Note to sales managers: Get the group to do this on their own and it will be a lot less painful.)

Push Our Best Accounts.

The best place to get business is where we are already getting business. Our best accounts are doing business because we are doing something, or many things, right. We must push them for more. Many sellers are afraid of upsetting their best accounts. Our accounts are expecting us to come to them with new and better solutions. When we bring them these solutions, we need to ask for more commitment from them.

Dream.

Think about it. Dream about it. Eat it and sleep it. Execute the steps and believe it, and you will double your business in l2 months.

James Olsen Reality Sales Training (so3) s44-35'72

james @ realitysalestraining.com