Advice in Activity Management: End of Year Sales Push

For many producers, the final year-end push is as seasonal as the holidays themselves. Each November brings a frantic drive to reach your goal and satisfy the management’s demands to hit a specific number. That extra burst of adrenaline may seem to work great and help increase those year-end numbers. However, making use of your activity management system will allow you to have a less stressful and more successful year-end without the need to scramble.
Plan effectively.

For most sales professionals, selling is fun and planning is not. And when you have some catching up to do, sitting down for a planning session may seem counter-intuitive to getting right to work on selling. However, putting a plan in place while setting aside some time away from the phones will enable you to focus and determine clear goals. Also, putting these targets in writing adds a level of accountability.

Evaluate.

Don’t wait for the ball to drop on New Year’s Eve to review your goals. You need to know where you are now relative to your selling results and sales skills so that you can plan for the rest of this year, as well as next year. To identify opportunities and determine changes you’ll need to make going forward, you must determine where you are headed based on your current performance.

The Projections Report in the eScoreBoard will help you to clearly evaluate your current successes and opportunities. Remember, if you can’t handle the challenges and opportunities this year, how will you be able to respond to the one’s you are given next year?

Maintain your focus.

For most people, our hectic lifestyles make being focused on anything for very long a challenge, even when you are close to hitting your numbers. But it can be nearly impossible if there is a large spread between where you are and where you want to be.

Either way, your goal should be the same. By focusing on your daily to-do list and tracking your progress week by week in eScoreBoard, you can see real data on the activities that are affording you the most value and focus your time on those actions.

Selecting Dollar Value per Activity (DVA) in your reports options will calculate the real dollar value of an activity you are performing. The value is calculated by dividing your sum dollar amounts by the total activity for a given category.

Type the phrase “Sales Push” into your favorite search engine and you will receive a laundry list of businesses that are preparing for an energizing year-end sales push. Everyone from GM to your local grocery chain are focusing on this end of year timeframe with added fervor in hopes of boosting revenues and closing gaps on sales figures. By focusing on your activities and processes first, you are setting habits that will serve you well for the rest of 2008, while strengthening the groundwork for a successful 2009.