On my second afternoon as a volunteer Holiday gift wrapper last week, I took notice of a product display near me. It contained an assortment of small items that could easily become a Holiday gift. A number of us had volunteered for this fundraiser as members of the Triangle AMA – I had recently joined this Group on LinkedIn. Our efforts, in concert with Stein Mart stores, would raise monies for the charity Dignity U Wear.
The one item that caught my eye was a coin sorter. It’s a clever little invention that helps you sort your spare change and create a mini bank account. I had one of these many years ago and continue to use it as an analogy when I do sales trainings. So, what can you learn about Selling from a coin sorter?
Think in terms of account segmentation. Just as the coin sorter will sort or segment your spare change into a larger amount, so can your efforts in the segmentation of your business. Where the coin sorter stacks the coins into neat columns, you can use your contact manager or CRM to sort and stack accounts of like kind, or size.
When I do sales trainings and use the coin sorter analogy, I explain to attendees that you should sort accounts by their contribution to your overall sales results. It follows the notion of spending time on the more valuable business contributions, but not overlook the smaller contributors who can add-up over time.
The question usually comes forward as to what to do with those who are new accounts and their total sales are below where they may be in the future. Here’s where ranking versus sorting comes into play. If we used just sales as a measure, our coin sorter would be putting accounts into stacks that don’t reflect potential business. It’s better to create a rank or rating that points to the future and offers you direction as to where to put your efforts.
To create a ranking, use a simple matrix process of what constitutes a good account. Establish a grouping of criteria that you can measure numerically. You can use between five and ten criteria and assign a plus/minus scale of 1-5, or 1-10 (in this case, a perfect score would be 100). Then, adopt a simple letter code from the result to indicate the account value, e.g., 75-100 equals “A”, 50-75 equals “B”, and 25-50 equals “C”. I usually recommend five such ratings with “D” as “No additional effort”, and “E” as “Unqualified”.
The goal in your sales efforts is to raise accounts to their peak rating; think in terms of developing business to its fullest potential by trying to move an account to the next higher level, e.g., move a C account to a B account using a focus on new product introductions or adding other departments or divisions to the overall sales results.
The next step is to pull the two together; combine the alpha rating with the numerical contribution of sales. You should establish what the average account class (i.e., A, B, or C) should bring in the way of sales results on an annual basis. Then, measure your own results against this comparison.
By sorting your business into groups, you can see the fruits of your labor as each account reaches its maximum potential. Unlike the traditional measure of where business has been (historical tally of current sales), this will help you concentrate on where you want to see your business go. Like the coin sorter, over time the stacks (of business) will begin to grow.
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