5 Steps to Grow Sales by 33% in 12 Months

May 11, 2022
Posted by: Dave Kurlan
Category: Understanding the Sales Force

I’m a baseball guy and a die hard Boston Red Sox fan but I can’t bear to watch them right now. They are playing the worst baseball since I was 10 years old so that’s going back 55 years! It’s not hard to understand why they are so bad because the data tells the story. Their stats show that as of May 9, 2022 their bullpen has 9 blown saves. Bullpens rarely blow 9 saves over a full season never mind over five weeks but if you look deeper, they wouldn’t be in so many close games if their offense was producing. Only three guys (JD Martinez, Xander Boegarts and Rafael Devers), are hitting! Coaches will review game video and hitters will take extra batting practice to work on their mechanics and timing.

Sales teams go through periods like this too but sales leaders rarely seek out the data that would immediately point to the real problem. They tend to hope things will improve and go from there. However, there are several levels of data to be reviewed so let’s take a look.

As the article title suggests, there are five steps you must take to grow sales by 33% in 12 months. You can’t pick and choose as all five are required.

1. IDENTIFY BOTTLENECKS – A quality CRM application, like Membrain, will show your win rates, age in stage, conversion ratios, pipeline velocity, pipeline volume and pipeline quantity and more. Dig into that data to determine year over year changes and identify where your bottlenecks have been and where they are today. Be mindful that this is lagging data and are merely symptoms of the real problems! (My personal favorite is the Baseline Selling edition of Membrain)

2. IDENTIFY THE REAL REASONS – An OMG Sales Team evaluation will explain why you have those bottlenecks and why your team gets the results it gets. Note which of the 21 Sales Core Competencies are to blame – by team and individual – and more importantly, how much revenue is being left on the table and who is capable of upping their game. For example, are deals getting stuck because salespeople aren’t capable of reaching decision makers? We know that salespeople who can begin with the decision maker are 341% more likely to close the business! A training curriculum can be designed from these conclusions. Learn More. Request Samples (Request Sample Sales Force Eval)

3. PROFESSIONAL OUTSIDE SALES TRAINING – Provide your sales team with appropriate training to close the competency gaps, improve skills, and achieve better execution. This should not be a one or two-day event. Change requires on-going, long-term training to change beliefs, approaches, strategies, tactics and develop skills!

4. DAILY COACHING – Sales managers must provide daily, one-on-one coaching to their salespeople to help them with their individual gaps and improve their Sales DNA. Only 7% of all sales managers come equipped with effective coaching skills so they will need to be trained and coached in order for them to provide effective coaching.

5. ACCOUNTABILITY – Sales Leaders must hold sales managers accountable for coaching as sales managers hold their salespeople accountable for change.

Once you have the data and take action, there is absolutely no good reason why you can’t bump sales by at least 25%! That’s right, AT LEAST 25%. If everyone improves by just 10% you will grow sales by 33%!

10% more opportunities
10% higher average sale
10% greater win rate

That comes out to 33%! Don’t believe me?

Start with monthly goals of 20 opportunities, a 20% closing rate, and a $20,000 average sale. That translates to 4 sales for $80,000 or $960,000 annually. 10% more equates to: