Your sales day, week and month are full of scenarios.

Each one is unique as to how, when and why they occur. But what's not unique is how often they occur in similar situations, similar prospect titles of contact and similar companies by industry.

For example...

Why do sales cycles get so drawn out, causing closing ratios to plummet?  Many times it’s because salespeople fail to identify all significant decision-makers in line with their selling proposition.

Now, wouldn't you say that's a significant scenario?

Simply because they have not identified the significant decision-makers, the right people will not be around the table to fairly evaluate the proposition to give a "yes" or a "no."

So, let's attach a name to this scenario for a common language approach. Let's call it "All the Kings Men."

Next, develop some Powerful Routines (which are basically results-oriented tactics) to combat this undesired scenario.

Think of Powerful Routines as your magic bag.

You reach in and pull out the appropriate tool to improve your success ratios. These tools work in any scenario, whether within a selling process or to train to and improve an essential competency.

Ask yourself this.  Would you prefer to cold-call 100% of the time?  Or would you rather call on referral contacts?

A no-brainer, right?

So, if you like referral leads, do you have a system of Powerful Routines to maximize your percentage of referrals?

It can be as simple as developing a post-sale 3-minute interview, where you set the stage with your new customer. You can say, in plain words, how important referral business is to you personally. Then, you and the customer can agree as to what objectives you must meet to be awarded these critically important referrals.

Most sales organizations have some sort of referral program. However, few provide training of Powerful Routines to get the most out of them.

Do you track referral ratios and routinely discuss them?

Why do some of the sweetest referral programs have ratios at or below 20%?  20% is absurdly low.  But, add Powerful Routines to specific referral scenarios and track the results.  The difference is astounding.

Develop your own Core Competency Assessment Tool.  Show your personal performance status around each essential performance competency.  (Really, there are just 3 that matter.)  Where are you weak?  Where are you strong?  Does your strength outperform your weakness?

Do you still get routine results in spite of your weakness?  Or do you need to improve that weakness to be consistent. (And make twice the money on your W-2.)

If at a glance, what if you could see where you are struggling?  It would be like seeing the game stats before the game is over.  What an opportunity!  You could train to your weak points before bad results appear. It's as simple as identifying the troublesome scenarios, then attaching the Powerful Routines to fix them.

Develop a complete system with a series of Powerful Routines.  These Powerful Routines should deal with specific scenarios that occur in your selling cycle from pre-contact to receipt of revenue.  And because of a training focus on those components, your system will provide a proactive communication flow toward confident revenue attainment.

So build your own library of Powerful Routines. The Competency Assessment tool is a huge start toward that end.  But, however you build your library, it is critical that you build it.

Documenting Powerful Routines can help you turn around undesired scenarios.  Identify, train to and measure them so you can routinely achieve your desired results!

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