The Question

The morning seminar is winding down. The caterer has set sandwiches at the back of the room. After lunch I fly home and the salespeople get the rest of the beautiful Friday afternoon off. Then, the sales manager asks the question:

"So how many meetings do you think these salespeople should be making, Chris? Corporate is dictating 15 per week, but most of my team aren't making that many."

A very wise man once told me that to be a good consultant, you need gray hair and hemorrhoids. "The gray hair makes you look distinguished," he said. The hemorrhoids make you look concerned."

Looking as concerned as possible, I ask, "How are sales now?

"Well, they could be better."

"How much better?"

"We could use an extra fifteen percent."

"Then it seems to me you don't really need to have 15 meetings per week per salesperson. You need to have 15% more meetings than you're having now. Of course, those meetings need to be with qualified decision makers, well planned -- all the things you and I tell the team they need to do anyway."

I continue: "Your team is getting 100% of their sales from the number of meetings they are having. Therefore, a 15% increase in the number of meetings should net you that 15% sales increase. The real issue is determining exactly how many meetings you're having now and then raise the number from there. You first have to determine what's actually happening -- not what you want to happen. So, on average, how many meetings are your salespeople actually having?"

"Well, it's closer to 7 than 15," he admits.

"So your 10 salespeople are averaging 7 meetings each every week, so that's 70 meetings per week."

"Right," says the sales manager.

"You are 80 meetings shy of the 'standard' that top management is dictating to you. But a 15% increase over the 70 meetings you're actually having is 10.5 meetings. That means each salesperson needs to have one more meeting per week than they are having now to increase your activity level 15% which -- all things being equal -- will get you that 15% increase in sales."

"But top management wants 15 meetings per week," he persists.

I put it in perspective. "That's 150 meetings per week. One hundred fifty is the number that someone chose. Seventy is the number that is actually occurring. Now, is this team paid by the meeting or by the sale?" I ask.

"Well, they're on commission. They get paid for what they sell," he says.

"At the end of the quarter," I tell him, "Wall Street cares about the dollars, not about the number of meetings. You're telling me that top management says that you need 15 meetings per person to make the number. You're also telling me they aren't having 15 meetings, and the salespeople are still working here. So I'm inferring from that that you're not enforcing the 15 meetings standard."

Standards vs. goals

"Here's the hardest thing to understand about standards that managers set -- or try to set -- for salespeople," I continue. "The goal is not to have standards. You have standards in order to reach the goal. The goal is always expressed as a dollar figure. Whether you call it the quota, the plan or the goal, it's a dollar figure.

"A standard, on the other hand, is a measurable indicator of performance -- some people call it a metric -- often involving a consequence.

"Now, you're close to goal." I point out. "Salespeople are working hard. So asking salespeople to go from 7 meetings to 15 meetings per week is a 115% increase in the number of meetings that they're having. Now, almost everyone here could see himself or herself having one more meeting. But if you ask everyone to have 8 more meetings, and then don't enforce that standard, you're going to be perpetuating the fiction -- and everybody will know that they can 'get by' with their current level of activity."

I go on. "The interesting thing is that by increasing the activity level one meeting per week, you will have an additional 500 meetings each year. So if you want to improve sales, look at what is actually happening and improve upon that instead of looking at what is supposed to be happening but isn't, and complaining about it."

I hope you were able to put yourself into that story somehow -- as a salesperson or a manager. There is nothing wrong with having standards of performance. You can measure plenty of things in sales -- but the most important aspect of setting a standard is to start with the REALITY -- in capital letters. REALITY. The reality is what's happening now -- not what you think should be happening, not what happened ten years ago, but right now.

Take action

Look at your activity level for the last two weeks. How many meetings did you really have? Count face-to-face meetings and scheduled telephone meetings that actually occurred. How many first meetings were there? How many actively engaged prospects are you working with this week and next week? How close are you to goal or plan? All things being equal, what kinds of increases in activity do you need to make? If you need 15% more sales, you need 15% more of the activities that lead to sales -- seeds, letters, dials, first meetings, needs analysis meetings, presentations.

It's that simple.