“PICK A LEVEL ANY LEVEL” was the title of my post on Monday. I received several e mails from reps that liked the concept and were going to use the plan. Today I received a phone call from a rep that had been in a training class in which I taught the “LEVEL” system, it was a great conversation and I want to pass along what he told me.
We started by talking about how he had rearranged his pipeline so he would have a better mix of prospects. He had followed the plan almost to the letter. He then told me how he had his lists of accounts broken into levels. (His company uses the designations gold, silver, bronze and tin). As he either closes a prospect or loses the opportunity he replaces it with the next prospect on his list. He was very happy with the way the system works for him in this area.
He then added that it seemed to him that because of the system he was working harder than ever and only selling about the same as he was with a minimal increase if any. He told me that he is making more cold calls and setting more appointments then he has ever had to set to write orders and that he was working almost as hard selling the “Bronze” accounts as he used to selling his “Gold” accounts.
It was rather funny to listen to his words because after every sentence he made about working harder and selling smaller orders and taking the time with Bronze accounts he would follow it up with the statement, “I’m not complaining, I am still making money”.
I was relieved to hear him say he was making money, had he told me all this and followed it with, I am NOT making any commissions” I would have been in trouble. So I asked him how his commission rate was being affected, he told me it has gone UP about 3% overall. This made me smile. I then needed to clarify what he had told me so far. I said you are selling as much and maybe a little more than before right? He said yes. I said, you are making more calls and working harder than ever before right? Again, he said yes. I then asked, and you said you are making about 3% higher commissions overall right? He now started to measure his words, there was a short hesitation and he said yes. I then finished with, so what you are telling me is you are working harder and making more right? This time I didn’t get an answer, his silence spoke volumes.
I continued telling him that there are a lot of ways to make a million dollars, you can sell one account a lot and make a million dollars in commissions, or you can sell a million accounts a little and make one dollar in commissions. I told him he was someplace in between. What was happening is his average order was going down but he was writing more orders at higher commissions.
I then asked him how the rest of the sales force was doing, he told me about half of the reps were down for YTD (year to date) and another 30% were about equal YOY (year over year). I asked about the other reps EARNINGS and he told me that almost every rep was complaining that they were not making the same as they have in the past few years even with the economy being bad.
Before I could start my sermon he said, OK I know what you are going to say and you are right. He said I just needed to vent to someone.
He knows he can always call me to vent like any other rep I have ever trained, but he also knew I wasn’t going to allow a pity party to someone working harder and being rewarded for it.
I am not saying that everyone who uses the “LEVELS” will sell more or make more commissions. I am saying that everyone who uses it will keep their heads above water and be better prepared when the economy turns and things get back to “NORMAL”, whatever normal will look like.
Having a plan and using it is still the best defense against failure. Hard work is no reason to scrap a plan as long as the rewards are there to justify the work.
Lorin
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