The Shocking Truth about Weekly Sales Reports!

Tracking Sales Shows a Lack of Faith in the System

Many entrepreneurs track their sales at the end of the week, and I'm going to give you the shocking truth about this activity. This is not a new truth. In fact, it is a principle. Principles do not change with time. So, I'll go back a century to some notes from my mother's father, TR Colby. This was Wednesday, the day he opened the office.

Mr. Benedict came in at 3:00, and Rebecca realized she had forgotten to tell me he was coming. I gave her a questioning glance as we went into Rebecca’s office.

“Rebecca, how did it go today?”

“Sir, our six sales teams sold 24 typewriters today. There were a couple larger orders, and we arranged for delivery tomorrow. Everyone sold at least one typewriter, and I am proud of Sales Team One’s performance.”

Mr. Benedict said he would like to speak to the team before they left. Rebecca said the sales reps would be tired, and they needed to go home and rest for tomorrow. She suggested he speak to them briefly at the end of the first Master Mind Alliance meeting on Friday.

After Mr. Benedict left, Rebecca apologized to me for not warning him. I said, “Rebecca, we exceeded the daily sales expectations for sales reps with six months of experience!” Rebecca replied that it was not time to celebrate as we needed to focus on the days left in this week’s game. I agreed, and we decided not to tell the sales teams about their outstanding performance.

The routine continued until Friday. A couple of the sales managers had to make deliveries, and Rebecca taught them how to do this.

Throughout the week, we could feel the energy that comes from success build, and “Sales Team One” was starting to feel like one.

Rebecca started with the sales report for the week.

“Sales Team One, these are the numbers for this week. Six of you made a combined 300 calls a day for a total of 900 calls this week. Normally, we would expect 36 sales from 900 calls based on one sale for every 25 calls. However, you greatly exceeded this, and made combined 98 sales. We believe this shows the effectiveness of the team method. In other Houses, there would be 12 sales reps who would make 25 calls a day and take care of their own administrative duties. You have exceeded the performance of a House with six months experience. This is the last time we will compare you to another House as we are ‘Sales Team One,’ and we will focus on our sales activities throughout the year.”

(end of excerpt)

Later, Tom and Rebecca refused to track sales for the office. If there was a problem, they expected headquarters to tell them. They didn't track the sales for the next 9 months. They tracked sales activities.

Track the root activity

It normally takes 25 contacts to make a sale. The number of views this blog gets is dependent on one thing: The number of high value posts. Period. Nothing else now that the format is the way I want it.

I read "Prospecting your Way to Sales Success" in 1994. Even then, I covered my books with notes.

Bill Good recommended a simple call sheet.

For blogging, I recommend a simple time sheet.  I cross off a number after every 20 minute typing period. I need six a day for my two blogs as it takes an hour to write a post.

When I'm in the midst of writing a book, I need another six periods for the book.

Come on now, that's only four hours of important work a day!

Bill Good recommended a six-week calling campaign, and I recommend a six-week blogging campaign. It takes six weeks to pressurize the system and cause the sales energy to flow with success. 

What this means is any sales tracking before six weeks is useless. There is a six week lead time in the simplest sales. Blogging is different as the posts stay out there prospecting for you, so the success explosion may happen at any time!

What can I check?

Each day, I can look at the posts generating interest. This gives me an indication of what the readers wants. It also helps me write better titles. I have to do this to keep the Table of Contents updated.

Make a weekly action report

Completing and tracking sales activities generates success. 

But I still want to track sales!

Once a month is enough. Don't only track sales. Make a graph with competed activities on the X-axis and sales on the Y-axis. Not good with Excel? Hand drawn is good enough.

Now that you know the truth

Take time to handwrite a tracking sheet for your core activity. Then use it!

Please leave a comment telling us about the activity tracking system you use or plan to use.

Thanks!

Gary