I was chatting in one of the sales chat rooms I belong to last evening and someone asked the question, “What should I tell my boss when he asks me how much I am going to sell this month?” He told us that he has low balled his boss and got yelled at because he sold so much more and his boss knew that he sandbagged. He said he has also been on the other end of the same stick by telling his boss a number that was over quota and missing the number. He was frustrated and wanted to get some input.
As with any group of reps and managers this poor guy got answers all over the board. Uncharacteristically I never chimed in. I knew what I do and I knew what I liked my reps to tell me, but I had no idea of what this reps ability is or anything else but his screen name I decided to hold comment and write about it here instead.
First I want to state a few of my basic rules and beliefs.
1) Quota are important
2) Don’t lie to your sales manager
3) If you say it, do it – or kill yourself trying
4) Lie to me once, shame on YOU, Lie to me twice, shame on ME
5) If it ain’t paid for it ain’t sold
Now let’s get back to the question from the chat room, what number should you tell your manager when asked. I think it is pretty obvious that whatever number it is it must be an honest estimate. It has to be a number that you truly feel you ARE going to hit if everything goes right. By the way, giving your manager a report on where you are with your department budget is exactly the same as giving your sales manager a sales figure.
First, where are you deriving the number from? If you are just picking numbers out of the air as if they were lottery numbers you are about to make a big mistake. Just like lottery numbers, hitting numbers that you have just made up are a million to one chance of being even close to what you actually sell. On the other hand if you know what you have working, what you are close to closing and what you may never close you can make a pretty accurate estimation.
One of the problems I have seen from rep after rep is they really never know where it is they stand with a prospect. If you ask them will you be able to close it on the next stop they say things like, how should I know, or that is up to the customer. And they are right except for one thing, if you know what questions a prospect asks and where they are asked during the sales process you can make a good “guesstimate” as to when the sale will be made. Also if you know the buying signs of your business you can make the same estimate with some high degree of confidence.
It all comes down to how good are the records you keep about your sales calls. If you keep good notes and can track the path that a customer is on you will know if this sale should or shouldn’t be added to the numbers you are going to report to your manager.
That covers rule 1&2, now #3, whatever you tell your manager you are going to do! (Or kill yourself trying to do) I believe that one reason so many sales reps miss the numbers that they claim they are going to hit is because they don’t believe the numbers to be real and don’t try and achieve them. At least if you are going to lie, make it a good lie by trying your best.
#4 rule is also very simple. Sales managers are smart people. If you lie to them they will believe you until you show them that you lied. Only desperate sales managers will allow you to lie to them a second time. Remember, most of the time when a sales manager wants to know numbers it is because their boss is asking. If you make them look bad in front of their boss you will eventually pay the price.
And #5 is a rule that is only broken by thieves. I have seen desperate reps write false orders. Making up customers, adding products or services to orders that the customer hasn’t approved, and just about every other dishonest way to get short term credit for a sale. If the sale doesn’t stick or isn’t paid for it isn’t a sale. If you get caught doing any of these dirt ball things you should (and most likely will) be fired immediately!
So there you have it. My answer would have been, give real estimates and ONLY real estimates. Make sure that what you say is what you ARE going to do. Work hard to do it. Don’t lie. Make sure the sales you do report are real.
If you help your manager make accurate estimates as to sales goals and do your best to hit your goals, I know you will be the rep that is rewarded in the long run.
Lorin
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