By Tibor Shanto

254, the number selling days in 2010; assuming you work a mere 10 hours a day, that's 2540 hours of selling. (I know sweetie, you work weekends too). How will you maximize it?

Let's for a moment pretend that each hour was equivalent to $100. Your quota for next year is a 12% increase over 2009. How will you invest your cash, your $254,000, and your time to realize or exceed the required returns?

Well if you've reading The Pipeline, both this monthly edition and the more frequently published blog edition, you know we always focus on execution; execution of a sound plan built on metrics, action, review and adjustment. To successfully achieve the returns on investment required we need to create a balance, much like you would in an investment portfolio. The balance delivered by diversification based on asset class or specific securities; all the factors that go into answering: what is the best investment strategy to ensure a 12% return?

Starting at a high level the first question is where to best place the money, equity or debt, derivatives or pulled funds, gold or commodity stocks, etc. Drilling down, looking at equities, will you be looking at growth or value stocks, high-tech or health, not to mention the selection of individual companies? Always striving to achieve growth, minimize or balance risk, and as always realize enough returns to satisfy the expectations of the clients, that is your company. Approached like that, sales can be simplified for many, complicated for others.

How does this translate to selling? Again at a high level, what are the big "asset" groups, i.e. how much of the $254,000 do I invest in Account Management, I guess that could be bonds; security, perhaps less aggressive growth, but solid organic growth if handled well. Clearly the percentage of time you would put to this or any other activity (asset) would depend on a combination of expected returns versus other activities, previous experience with that group, and the overall make up of your territory. If you are trying to aggressively grow, you may invest your time prospecting, growth stocks, what percentage of time/portfolio will that represent?

You would then repeat the process for other "assets" or activities, lead generation, admin, planning and preparation, e-mail, voice mail, fire fighting. The underlying criteria being that you are always proactive, avoid being reactive; actively managing your funds, not taking a passive approach.. As soon as you spend more time being reactive than proactive, it is a clear indication that you are not in control, and at risk of losing your capital – time.

One of the most overlooked activities in both sales as in investing is planning and research. It is said that most people spend more time researching a purchase of a flat screen TV than they do in buying stocks in their retirement plans. It is similar in sales, as a rule, sales people spend little time planning and being proactive. We always do an exercise with the sales professionals we work with, asking them to tell us all the key activities they need to do to be successful. Planning is almost never on the list, in fact if not for that one guy in Chicago, I would be able to say never. Planning is just not on their minds. Even after it is introduced, people nod acknowledging it, but then go right to rationalizing why they just don’t have the time. In essence what they are saying in the metaphoric context used in this article is that they do not see enough value in the asset, in planning.

As with investing many are also driven by emotion rather than rationale. A lot of "investors" hang on to stocks that will never recover in the hope of it making a miraculous rally. Sales people keep opportunities in their pipeline when they know the sale will never happen, spending time and resources on dead opportunities rather than proactively prospecting for new revenue opportunities. It is always hard to understand how fear of failure can be less than fear of rejection faced in prospecting.

So the question for 2010, as it always is in sales, how will you allocate your time for optimal success? Will you then manage to stick to your plan while responding to market conditions, stick to a discipline of planning, review and adjustment? At the end, it is a simple and very much like being an investor, do you have the discipline or not? There is a clear difference between a prudent and successful investor and the fluctuating results of a speculator.

What’s in Your Pipeline?

Tibor Shanto , Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., and find out how he has helped dozens of organization with execution - - from filling their pipeline with real prospects - - to driving real revenue.
You can also read the blog edition of The Pipeline at www.sellbetter.ca/blog. For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call 416 671-3555. You can also follow Renbor on Twitter http://twitter.com/renbor.