How good does it have to be?

Missed Opportunity Cost Calculations

Based on 234 working days in a year and dividing the sales effort equally among them, the missed opportunity cost of a day's sales training is 0.43% of the sales persons target.

Six ways to calculate concrete sales training R. O. I.

1. Morale – does it affect sales? All the research says ‘yes’. How is morale? How much does it affect sales?

Use your experience to rank yours or your team’s morale on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the last six quarters then compare your estimate with sales results. If you identify higher sales performance when morale has been high, halve the difference and halve it twice more. Don’t trust your result. Have others do the same exercise and compare results. Training lifts moral because people value the opportunity to grow and learn new ways to succeed.

2. Doing things right is a waste of time if one doesn’t first choose the right things to do.

In a normal market, marketing generates more leads. In a downturn, marketing is less effective and starved of funds. Sales people have a greater need to find their own leads. Choosing the right prospects makes all the difference. Having the right strategies, tactics, and tools empowers sales teams to make up the difference. How many leads and enquiries were you getting each month, this time last year? Are you seeing fewer this year? What is the value of the difference? Halve it and halve it again.

3. Typical new-business sales success rates for complex solutions are approximately 4:10.

Conversion rates vary enormously. At a company level, they are easy to measure. Compare the number of quotes, proposals, demonstrations, visits, or forecasted opportunities with the number of sales that result from the same. Once something is measured, it can be improved. ‘Selling in a Downturn’ contains a proven qualification system that has increased conversions ratios by as much as 25%. Halve this number and halve it twice more.

4. It is nine times easier to sell existing customers than new prospects. Are your customers making full use of your products or services to succeed in their business? 

Assess your top three customers use of your products and services. Rate their use on a scale of 1:10. If they squeeze as much profit as possible from using what you sell, rate them high - a 9 or 10. If they could make more or better use of what you sell, rate them lower. Next, rate some of your less profitable customers. If there is a notable difference then you have identified a concrete opportunity to increase sales. Appropriate sales training can equip you or your team to realise this opportunity. What is the value of the difference? Halve it and halve it again to be safe.

5. What would be the value of two more high level appointments out of every ten prospects you approach?

Ho much more would you expect to sell? Halve it and halve it again. SalesSense training increases a sales persons options, develops C-level confidence, and improves access success rates.

6. What is the value of a sales person being considered a trusted adviser and their company being perceived as a strategic partner?

Select three of your customers where this is the case and compare the sales you make to them with sales to three similarly sized customers where it is not the case. What is the value of the difference? Halve it and halve it again. SalesSense training equips sales people with the methods, skills, and tools to increase personal standing and supplier status.