BUSINESS TALK
Tip No.1 – Work out your numbers First of all, in order to prepare to have a great 2013, you need to know the numbers you need to hit. This will either be a sales target figure (particularly if youʼve been given a sales target by your boss), or a revenue/profitability figure if youʼre a business owner, for example. You also need to work out your average order value (or average profit if youʼre targeted on profitability figures), and then work out how many orders you need to hit that target. Donʼt be one of those people that says “I donʼt have an average order, my orders are all different!” Simply take your revenue/profit total from last year and divide by the number of orders.
Tip No.2 – Anticipate existing customer spend
The next stage is to look at what your existing customers have spent with you in 2012, and then work out what you think each account will spend in 2013. For most people, this will involve a certain amount of educated guesswork, however itʼs still an exercise worth doing as it will help you to understand how much business you think you can get from your exiting base. Donʼt fall into the trap of being overly optimistic or overly pessimistic – and if you really have no idea what they will spend, use their 2012 spend figure if youʼre in a business that gets repeat business from their customers, rather than one-off purchases.
Once you have your existing customer figure, take that from your total revenue/ profit needed and move onto the next step.
Tip No.3 – Separate your new business The figure youʼre now left with – total revenue/profit, minus existing customer spend – is the figure youʼll need to achieve in 2013 from new business. Youʼve already worked out your average order value, so now itʼs time to work out your average new client value. In order to get this figure, find out how much each new customer in 2012 spent in total in the year.
The figure should average out – in other words youʼll have some clients that spent a lot, and some that spent little – perhaps because they only came on board towards the end of the year, for example. This will now tell you how many new clients you need in 2013 to hit your targets. Again, Iʼm not expecting these figures to be perfect – you can always adjust them to be more correct as you go along, but at least it gives you a base to work from.
Tip No.4 – Look at your activity Now youʼve got all your overall numbers, itʼs time to break down those figures in
Seven great tips for the New Year from sales expert, ANDY PRESTON
With the New Year now upon us, I’m finding a lot of people asking me: “Andy, how can I use the time productively, so that I can get ahead of my competition and set myself up for a great 2013?” Here are some ideas...
terms of activity. Youʼll know the critical numbers in your company of course, but the usual ones to look are phone calls to meetings, meetings to quotes, quotes to orders etc.
These figures will then enable you to work out how much activity youʼll need to do in order to hit the targets that youʼve set. And once youʼve got these figures, youʼll notice you start to feel a little more confident about hitting your targets for 2013. Now itʼs time for the next step.
Tip No.5 – Work out your stretch The figures youʼve worked out above are based on purely hitting the targets youʼve set. The next step is to stretch you a little. Once youʼve got all your figures together for the above tips, work out those figures again – but this time for 120% of your target, 150% and 200% for example.
This will give you the figures and the activity required to hit those 120%, 150% and 200% figures – sales managers/ directors normally love this part! Then Iʼd pick one of the stretch targets to aim for (rather than just the 100% of target). Donʼt worry if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable – thatʼs part of the process.
Tip No.6 – Break them down Now youʼve worked out how youʼre going to hit 100% or more of the targets youʼve set, or youʼve been set, itʼs time to break those figures down. You now want to break those yearly
figures into quarterly ones, monthly ones, weekly ones and even daily ones! This will enable you to see the revenue/ profitability figures you need to be aiming for – and more importantly, for the salesperson – the activity you need to be doing on a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly basis, in order to hit and exceed the targets youʼve set. If youʼve done the above steps properly,
youʼll now start to feel more confident about hitting the targets youʼve set, as breaking them down usually makes people feel like theyʼre more achievable. However, depending on your activity levels in 2012, you might have given yourself a bit of a shock, in terms of how much activity youʼll need to do in 2013 to hit your new targets. But itʼs better to know that now than find out half way through the year when youʼve got less chance to do anything about it.
Tip No.7 – Work on yourself This is probably THE biggest tip I can give you to set yourself up for a great 2013... If youʼre one of the few that not only has read this, but is actually taking the time and effort to work out these numbers in order to give you the edge you need, I congratulate you. Now itʼs about keeping that motivation up consistently in 2013, and now youʼve given yourself a head start over your competitors, making sure you stay there. Good luck with your sales in 2013, and if I can help you in any way, get in touch!
n For more information visit Andy’s website at
www.andypreston.com or call him on 0161 401 0142
Keeping ahead of the competition in
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