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September/October 2017 39 Changing the Way You Cook since 1990 800.988.8103 360.650.1111 woodstone-corp.com STONE HEARTH & SPECIALTY Commercial Cooking Equipment Discover why OVER 14,000 OVENS, rotisseries, charbroilers, tandoors, and planchas have been SOLD IN 80+ COUNTRIES worldwide. Made in the USA. "THE PERFECTLY BALANCED SALES PIPELINE" Imagine a steady fl ow of new business without peaks or valleys. Imagine the effect on your sales. Imagine the impact on your income. Whether you call it territory management, pipeline man- agement, or opportunity management, maintaining a steady fl ow of new business is challenging. For most salespeople, the sales calendar is a roller-coaster ride—up one month and down the next—of euphoria and disappointment. This makes sales forecasting an impossible task. The answer to this dilem- ma lies in the metrics by which salespeople live. Closing sales is a productivity metric based on achieve- ment. Calling is a performance metric based on activity. Structured properly, performance leads to productivity. This means that salespeople must schedule activities that lead to achievement. They perform to produce. This is more of an organizational versus a selling-technique challenge. A simple formula for guaranteeing a steady fl ow of busi- ness is 1-2-4. This means for every short-term opportunity, there must be two intermediate, and four long-term oppor- tunities in the works. For example, for every piece of busi- ness that you will close in the next 30 days, you need two that will close in the next 90 days, and four that will close beyond this. You may work on shorter or longer lead times, but the ratio is always the same. The 1-2-4 ratio is based on average closing ratios, and it has been documented as a success strategy for salespeople in all industries for decades. To get the most value from this idea, study your potential book of business and evaluate how your opportunities compare to the 1-2-4 ratio. Adjust as necessary, if your goal is to have a steady fl ow of business. 3 Questions to Drive the Sale All products are the same … except for the ways in which they are different. Questions of differentiation focus on the chasm between you and the competition. 1. What differentiates your product: packaging, usage, lon- gevity, user-friendliness, energy consumption, size, reli- ability, brand name? 2. What makes your company stand out: depth and breadth of services, inventory levels, ease of doing business, management philosophy, locations, logistics, or industry expertise? 3. What makes your people special: attitude toward cus- tomers, teamwork, commitment to their work, engage- ment in the process of delivering value, or integrity? Best Practices IN GENERATING NEW BUSINESS Featuring Tom Reilly, author of Crush Price Objections (McGraw-Hill)