According to Pipedrive Co-Founder and CEO Timo Rein, there are key activities that you always perform to get to a sale. Activity-based selling merely makes a process out of them.
Timo recently shared how to break down and measure that process in a webinar with Sales Hacker founder Max Altschuler:
“You can calculate the metrics … ‘What do you need to do to get one deal done?’ is the question. And then work backward. How many proposals do you need to write in order to get one deal done?”
Timo also shared other insights for maximizing this type of sales strategy. You can watch the whole Sales Hacker webinar on activity-based sales here, or take a look at our top ten highlights.
10 quotes from activity-based selling guru Timo Rein
1. “You need to figure out how to build a battle plan in sales around your actions – around a step-by-step process to closing your deals.”
2. “Other than this change in thinking and planning and maybe breathing, [activity-based selling is] sales as we all know it. It’s the usual building blocks: calls, emails, proposals, meetings, demos, negotiations or whatever is needed to get a deal done.”
3. “Results are out of our control. In activity-based selling, the point is that … you control your own schedule. And that’s how you also put yourself in control. You want that. You want to feel in control rather than not knowing how you’re going to get the results.”
4. “If results are in focus, then you are probably doing something defined as ‘anxiety-based selling.’ And customers and prospects can always sense your anxiety.”
5. “[Activity-based selling is] probably the best use of your time as a salesperson. It focuses you on the things you can control, but also makes you work smarter. Because you need to figure out what works for you.”
6. “Some people sell the largest deals. Some people just lose less than others. So there’s a way that everybody is strong. And if you’re systematically taking action, it kind of forces you to get better. If you add analysis to it, you can improve even more.”
7. “Everything needs to be done from a proactive mode, not a reactive mode. We need to think of how [to] plan, not around answering calls or emails, but around simple concrete steps you can take even when nothing is coming your way.”
8. “Take a look at when you’ve been good — when you closed a deal. What [is it] that you do? What did you do exactly step by step? How did you get to this?… Get to the point where you understand ‘Oh, that’s my process.’ Believe that this can be repeated even if you haven’t had a lot of chances yet to prove that … That’s how you move away from sort of winging it in sales — which can also be done. But really [move] toward a process that you can repeat and be successful with.”
9. “Map your roads to a successful deal, and write [them] down in any way you want to. But make sure that you know from A to B there are certain steps that you need to take.”
10 “The question is: What do you need to do every day and every week in order to get those deals done? … Obviously, you can just adjust when you fall off track. Maybe you start slowly during the week. You can always pick up the pace later on in the week.”
Bonus: “Look at your metrics as you drive them. It’s important to understand when you’ve done good. Celebrating and patting yourself on the back for having these metrics and hitting them is a very good thing.”
If you haven’t started building your own activity-based selling strategy, start by defining your key sales metrics. Check out our step-by-step process here.
