In this week's Sales Buzz:

One Key Sales Action That Leads To Sales Success As a sales manager and trainer I’m often asked what one action will bring sales success.

Want to see my answer, I think you will be surprised, read on...

One Key Sales Action That Leads To Sales Success

When I’m asked this question I want to give a positive and concise answer rather than start with, ‘Well that depends...’

The answer I give is what I consider to be the most important action any sales professional can take to help them over achieve sales targets and hit their own personal goals. If a sales person doesn’t take this action they will only hit targets by pure luck. It’s the preparation for success.

The one action that I recommend

At the start of every month all my sales team have a pipeline of qualified prospects that could buy from them that month.

The total of the forecasted sales units for the list must be at least 3 times their sales target.

The reason the total has to come to 3 times the target is because our average closing rate is 1 in 3. If you're closing rate is different you should take that into account when putting your list together.

Simple, basic, and it works

It sounds a simple and basic idea and everyone says: Well that’s obvious, that’s no secret, that's no fantastic sales technique learned from years of experience.

My answer is: Yes it is. I then follow with, just how many sales people do you know that do this every month?

How many sales people put together a working list and take the time to only include truly qualified prospects that have no barriers that will stop them from buying if they decide they want to.

eg Not in a contract, have the available budget, all decision makers will be available, have the space to accept the order, the old item you are replacing can be moved out...

The truth is, many sellers go into the start of a new sales period without a comprehensive plan of where their target is coming from.

I coach sales people who show me their pipeline for the month.

We can quickly take more than half away because there are obstacles to closing the sale that month, or there is no reason to assume that they will buy within the month.

Qualify your pipeline

No prospect should be on your monthly pipeline until it has been properly qualified. I see lists of prospects that the seller thinks will sign because they are not aware of any immovable barriers. That’s not enough, you have to know that there is nothing stopping the buyer from buying from you now.

A really good action to get you started on super charging your pipeline for the next month is to poor yourself a coffee, grab a pen and paper or a laptop, and take 5 minutes to create a list of what you need to know about your prospects in order to truly qualify them.

Do you sell in a market where contracts are used.

In Direct Sales do both partners need to be present.

Do you need to know for definite that a prospect has the funds to buy from you.

Write a list of everything you would need to know to be certain that you are not wasting your time and creating a false pipeline. These are not potential sales objections that you can overcome during your sales meeting with the prospect. They are sales stoppers that you have no control over.

Let me leave you with this thought:

Without this pipeline list, of where your sales target will come from, you are not prepared for the month to come and target will be a matter of luck.

With a qualified pipeline, that takes into account your conversion rate of closing sales, you can achieve sales targets and personal goals.

Which position do you want to be in at the start of next month?

See more ideas tips and techniques:

On my website Sales-Training-Sales-tips.com you can gain more practical tips and techniques that are easy to use, quick to put into action, and best of all they make sense. To see more open Sales Training Solutions...

I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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