Three things a Good Sales person consistently does to meet Targets

A Sales person is worth his / her Salt if they consistently perform and deliver the sales target. To ensure ones achieves the sales quota and incentive a good sales person focusses on the below three things:

1.Analyze : A great sales person consistently analyses his / her performance wrt to the set goals. They benchmark it against the best and not just the targets as they are looking to exceed not only the goals but also build a brand of highest achievers. They track the goals and various KPI’s regularly and ensure they are meeting them every week / month / quarter. They develop their strategy and keep changing it to ensure they are always on track to meet or exceed the set targets and goals.    

They keep themselves updated on the performance of the industry, competition, their organization, the business unit and how they are performing against the same and use it effectively to stay ahead of the curve.

2.Forecasting : This is an important part of any sales organization to ensure it can predict order book and revenues it would generate and plan for investments towards growth. No Sales Manager is expecting his sales team to have a magic crystal ball to predict the future but use their sales and forecasting skills to provide sales projections.

A good sales person can predict what they will do each month, quarter and in a year. They can predict to a great degree of accuracy on their key KPI whether its new order book, revenue, erosion and other KPIs.

The reason why they are able to forecast to a great degree of accuracy is because they have good visibility and understanding of the customer requirements, buying process, opportunity pipeline, sales stages, average time to closure on specific products, etc and what they will close and when. A good sales person is confident on the opportunities that will close in a particular timeline and also the internal process for recognizing the deal in the system. They also have a set of opportunities which act as a backup plan just in case of any eventualities . The sales person is confident to navigate and maneuver through the various opportunities and ensure they are extremely close to their forecast. 

3.Demand Generation : The third thing a great Sales person focus on is Demand generation. They are able to generate enough pipeline which will help them achieve the numbers. They ensure that they have a sufficient funnel throughout the year. They also mitigate the risk to ensure they a good mix of deals whether it’s the size of opportunities, product or geography where they are going to close the deal. They do not get entrapped on one single large deal which has a 50 % chance but create more opportunities to ensure they meet the Sales target.

As the new financial year set in and targets are assigned, it would be a good idea to plan the year in advance.. A great sales person plan well in advance to exceed the number and has a visibility on funnel required, Big Bets, and what new pipeline has to be generated to get the GOALS….

Do let me know what are the other aspects you look into to ensure that you meet your Sales Targets consistently…….