Too often sales people guess what it takes to succeed.  In most companies, someone has tried to take the guess work out of success by assigning sales activity goals.  The theory behind sales activity goals is that the powers that set these goals are saying that “if you do these activities, then you will be successful“.  I am suggesting that salespeople take this a step further and learn to predict their own success. 

This summer, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a recruiting project for a sales leader I’ve known and respected for many years.  In the beginning, we were using educated guessing to understand what it would take to be successful.  After one or two hiring experiences, we were able to extract some data and begin to predict our own success.  By backing into our success ratio, I know to the exact numexactly how much recruiting activity I need to execute to get the outcome we desire.

Taking the guesswork out of your success is a powerful tool in long-term success.  You can plan for vacations, slower periods – or that new car.  So, before the next selling season begins, do the math and predict your success.  If you don’t like what you see, you’ll have the information to change your future, also.

Join Meeting to Win before Friday and get a sales team meeting agenda on using your lagging indicators (sales activity) to impact your leading indicators (revenue) or, in the spirit of this article, predict your own success.  With Meeting to Win, sales managers get a new sales meeting agenda delivered to their inbox every Friday morning.  Stop dreading Monday mornings and join Meeting to Win.