The sales board is a tracking tool that should be mounted on a wall in your office. Electronic and paper reports are good, but there is something special about seeing your results on the wall.
Make daily prospecting work a part of your sales routine. You should closely monitor the customer sales cycle which is divided into four parts and is described from the customer’s perspective. Each part describes what a typical customer goes through when deciding to buy something.
What is PRED Sales Cycle?
Perception: This can be either a product’s perception or a need that the product might satisfy.
Research: The customer will look into competing products, testimonials, etc.
Evaluation: The customer considers their options.
Decision: The customer decides whether or not to purchase.
Pay attention to the second and third stages of the sales cycle will dramatically increase your sales efficiency and income potential. A sales board is a data-driven tool that allows you to track all your opportunities, rank them according to your sense of how likely it is that the sale will close, and remove inactive prospects from your high priority list. It forces you to be realistic about your prospects.
Active prospects are those who have scheduled appointments to see you or who are engaged to one degree or another with you in the second stage of the sales cycle.
Opportunity prospects are those who, for one reason or another, are unlikely to close the prospect. The board will keep you from spinning your wheels or chasing after business that isn’t going to come into existence and keep you from losing interest in the whole process.
So how does sales board work?
It can be a whiteboard or an ordinary bulletin board, or it can be a portfolio with plenty of slots for cards with five sections such as
- O
- FA
- 25 percent
- 50 percent
- 90 percent.
O
These are the names and contact information of people and organizations you have not yet called. These are the people you are about to call. The information includes the specifics that have been entered into your database. This is not an active column but represents people you should call.
F.A.
This is the place where you leave cards and reflect a first appointment you have set but have not yet gone out on. No matter how promising the lead, how enthusiastic the call is, or how much you have in common with the person on the other end of the phone, you can only put a card here. When you have set up a face-to-face appointment.
25%
It shows you the current prospects you have met at least once and with whom you feel you have a one in four chance of closing the deal within the next two months.
These are the people who are willing to meet with you. Always a key indicator of interest. However, the 25 percent is still a guess. I guess you get better as time goes on. If you’ve had a meeting with anyone you honestly feel has a less than 25 percent chance of closing the sale, move them back to the 0 lists.
50%
This section identifies those with whom you have a 50 percent chance of closing the sale within the next month or so. Typically, the person in this column is interested in what you say but gets approval from above. Let’s meet with a committee or must decide. Based on a competitive bid.
90%
It shows those prospects with a 90 percent chance of closing within the next two weeks. Don’t put prospects here too quickly unless they say with determination, some variation of we are going ahead with this at any given moment.
This column has the fewest number of cards in its please notes. When a prospect becomes a customer, their name goes off the board. Each card should list the customer’s first name, last name, email address, phone number, last activity, and subsequent action.
Your best weekly schedule will arise naturally from the work you do on your prospect board. Each Friday afternoon. It would be best if you used your prospect board to set your schedule for the following week.
Break down your activities into the following categories.
- Prospecting first appointments,
- Appointments with 25% prospects,
- Meetings with 50% prospects
- Appointments with 90% prospects
- Closing and service calls and tasks
- Special projects and tasks.
- Other or personal.
Everything starts with prospecting and cold calling. Prospecting is the first phase that controls the rest of the cycle, the one that drives your day, week, month, year, and career.
