Reverse engineering of your sales goals

When a prospect told me they wanted to sell more but did not have a plan other than imploring their sales team to make more calls, I took a sheet of paper and showed them how I have been able to help my customers meet their sales goals.

Most plans, directions, and instructions are developed and read from the left to right -or- from the top to bottom, I have always started at the bottom and worked up.  Why you ask?  Because most sales people just focus on the next opportunity and don’t take the time to really think about how they won the last sale.  

It is very simple.  Write down your current sales goal and your past ten selling successes with the activities and actions that led to those successes on a sheet of paper.  Additionally, write down what you might have done better and sooner in the relationship that could improve your sales cycle next time.  Ask yourself: What made the customer decide to buy?  What activities did you do to get in front of that customer? What information did you give to that customer and when did you speak or meet with them.  Who introduced you to that company and how did you meet them?  What was the trigger that made that prospect interested? 

On a second sheet of paper, write down your sales goal at the bottom of the page and draw a target around it.  Now in reverse chronological order, list the activities and actions that must be done in order to achieve the goal.

Congratulations!  You now have a road map of what activities and what actions you need to replicate over and over in order to meet your goal.