Even the best sales professionals go through rough patches, or in the case of LevelEleven, red patches. It’s part of the job, and there’s no shame in hitting a bump in the road. Sometimes, you just need to reevaluate and refocus. If you’ve recently fallen into the red on your LevelEleven Scorecard, here are a series of tips that will help you go from red to green in no time:
Focus on Meaningful Metrics
LevelEleven is built on the idea that sales success can be achieved by focusing on the metrics that matter. Based on your industry and specific job duties, your manager may have set up a custom scoring system that bases your performance on metrics you might be overlooking in your daily routine. Be sure you’re clear on what the most important metrics are, how they’re being tracked and refocus your efforts on them accordingly. With a refined approach towards those KPIs (key performance indicators), you can start to build a concrete plan that will help you get back into the green.
Identify Sales Pitfalls
After you’ve clarified what metrics you need to improve upon, you’ll want to look into specific sales pitfalls you may be experiencing, and how to address them. Whatever the metric is – from calls made to opportunities won – there’s a reason you’re not hitting your benchmarks, and you need to identify that before you can move forward. Do your research and don’t be afraid to ask your boss – or even your fellow coworker – for assistance identifying them. The answer to your problems may only be a few desks away, and open communication is always a good thing, no matter how competitive the bullpen gets.
Search for Educated Solutions
Once you’ve identified your key sales pitfalls, you need to look into ways that you can address them. For instance, if your MQLs (marketing qualified leads) aren’t converting to SQLs (sales qualified leads) often enough, you may want to ask your marketing team to share some of the best practices for communicating with customers at that point in the sales funnel. The solution could be something quick-and-easy, like using value-driven verbiage in the headlines of your emails, or something a little more general that will take some digging, like placing yourself in the prospect’s shoes. Whatever it is you may need to try a few before you hit the mark, so be patient and persistent.
Add Action Items to Your Routine
At this point you have a game plan, now you just need to draw up the plays. Use the educated solutions you concluded upon to create a list of action items that lead directly to results – no fluff. Then, using that list, create visual reminders (e.g., recurring calendar invites or Post-it notes on your monitor) to ensure that you’re performing these action items day-in-and-day-out. Eventually, they will become second-nature, and the results will show up on your LevelEleven Scorecard.
Continue to Refine Your Process
As you continue to use the LevelEleven platform to increase your focus and efficiency, you’ll likely come across new process optimizations that can help further refine your process. Make a concerted effort to identify them and work them into your routine regularly. Not only will you be ready for any Sales Contest your Sales Manager throws at your team, but you’ll also be advancing yourself professionally, which will help keep you in the green and out of the red.
Would you like help identifying the right sales metrics and KPIs to focus on? Follow the link below for a full library of helpful resources!
