Watch any pregame show leading up to Sunday kickoff, and you can bet one of the buzzwords you will hear all the analysts and coaches talk about is “tendencies”. They will most likely be standing in front of a green screen, dissecting plays from throughout the year, and saying things along the lines of “see how on 3rd down, they prefer to work their play action to trick the defense”, or, “you’ll notice that they love to put 8 in the box on first down.” As a fan, this can start to get old, and unless it is something pertaining to the team you follow, or more often than not, something that will help you set your fantasy lineup, you probably aren’t paying much attention to it. But for coaches, studying these tendencies and designing a game plan around them is imperative for success. If we are going to succeed in terms of improving our overall sales effectiveness, it is time for sales professionals to take a note out of this playbook.
Any sales manager, mentor, or sales guru will preach the importance of knowing your numbers. This could come from utilizing your CRM, having your own excel or outlook system, or having a desk surrounded by yellow post it’s with notes and reminders for the day. You can probably gauge one’s success by their tracking system. I have never met an elite sales rep who just comes in and “wings it” every day. They know how they operate and where their time and efforts are best spent. The same thing goes with successful football coaches and teams.
We all tune in every Sunday to watch the games, but what a lot of casual fans tend to forget is that the product and results you see on Sunday, all comes from the grueling hours and hours of preparation, film study, and number crunching that coaches and players alike need to focus on Monday-Saturday. Teams go into every week with a completely new game plan, because if you are not adapting or changing, you are losing.
Just like a defensive coordinator knows how likely a team is to run or pass on 2nd and long, sales professionals should know how likely a prospect is to answer a cold call between the hours of 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm. I see it every day. People calling the same prospects, at the same time, every day. This is often followed by complaints along the lines of, “man, this guy never answers”, or, “wow, been calling for a week and no answer. What a crappy lead!” Hey, I’ve fallen into this trap myself, then I remind myself what the definition of insanity is; doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you aren’t taking the time to track your numbers, find trends and tendencies that are true to your industry, and then utilizing that data to increase your sales numbers, then you are already behind those who are. Here are a few tips to help get started.
1. Monitor Your Daily Outreach
First off, you need to at least track your daily dials, and time of day. If you are trying to reach a lead and you’ve been calling the past few days in the morning with no luck, well the next time try in the afternoon. For example, if you are selling a digital marketing product to small business owners, you are most likely working with folks from various industries. By looking at your data and trends after a while, you may notice that blue collar guys (contractors, plumbers, etc..) tend to be more available in the morning hours, and white-collar business owners like a lawyer or dentist office are more likely to take your calls in the lunchtime hours, well you just figured out how to block your prospecting time going forward. It would be impossible to do this without recording your data and then simply reviewing the results. Trust me, Bill Belichick doesn’t just go for it on 4th down when he feels like it. He knows when it is more likely to be successful, and when it is most likely to be unsuccessful.
2. Execute On Your Findings
Another important factor is trusting the data. The final play of the 2015 Super Bowl is a perfect example. It doesn’t take a professional analyst to know that when you are at the 2-yard line, with 3 plays left, that there is a high probability Marshawn Lynch can run the ball in for a game-winning touchdown. In fact, he had been doing that all year going into that scenario, and pretty much his whole career. As a Pats fan, I could barely even watch. But then, for some reason, the Seahawks decided to NOT utilize the data from that heavy trend. And again, as a Patriots fan, that was one time I was okay with going against the data. On the flip side, due to heavy preparation and studying tendencies and trends from various formations, the Patriots secondary was ready for that play and executed on it perfectly. They trusted what they saw. If you find that you are successfully setting appointments using a script that you made up, then keep using it. If you find it takes you 30 dials on average to set an appointment, then you need to fight through all the rejection and disappointment during those first 25 dials.
3. Improve Sales Effectiveness Through Coaching
Last but not least, you need to be able to take criticism and accept coaching from your leaders. It is frustrating to look at your numbers at the end of a long day and see 50 outbound calls, 30 conversations, and ZERO appointments set. But hey, we all have our days when luck isn’t on your side. However, if this is a statistic you are looking at on a weekly basis, and haven’t really changed your approach, then I would suggest quickly scrolling up the page to where I mentioned the definition of insanity. Realize that your approach may not be working and be willing to accept the fact that you need some help. If you truly care about your numbers, especially the number on your paycheck, then make sure you find an approach that works when your current approach isn’t trending in the right direction. You don’t see an NFL team continuously underperform and keep the same coaching staff and coaching philosophy for decades at a time, do you?
Pro Challenge:
Track EVERYTHING. Dials, answers, conversations, appointment sets, closes, how many times you get up to go to the bathroom, all of it! At the end of the week, see what kind of trends you find. Some may be what you expect, some may surprise you. Either way, use that as your game plan going forward, and hopefully, the new trend you find is that your commission checks happen to be higher and higher 😊
