I recently conducted a small poll of some of my clients. Mostly those in leadership positions. The goal was to find out what their biggest concerns are with their sales teams. The overwhelming
answer was sales productivity. In other words, how much revenue per period can each team member produce, and how can we make that better.
You can measure this daily, weekly monthly quarterly or annually. Given that we have just finished a calendar year. Why not look at the 2008 annual productivity of your team…or yourself.
As a general rule, average sales reps produce 6-9 times what they are paid. The best companies achieve a ratio of 10-12 times. That is if the total take home pay for a rep (commissions and salary combined) is $100,000, then the best reps produce at least 1.0-1.5 million. Of course these numbers are moving targets with accelerators, bonuses new hires and tenured reps etc but it is a fairly accurate measure to use when assessing sales productivity.
Have you ever stopped to figure out how productive your team is? Or how productive you are?
What was your total take home pay (Salaries plus commissions in 2008) and what was your total revenue tally for 2008. Simple division will tell you if your productivity levels were mediocre, or high
I suggest managers do this for each team member as well as the team as a whole
There are more complicated formulas. Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to one a client of mine built that works well at a more micro level.
Sales management principle number 1 is a general one – Benchmark. Sure, we all want improved productivity but if you don’t know how productive your team is now, how do you know what or who to improve and what or who to leave as it is? Start with a benchmark and take it from there.
Dedicated to increasing your sales
Colleen