It’s 2023. It’s really cold outside where I reside in Kansas City – home of (Patrick Mahomes and) our Chiefs. As I await and anticipate (hopefully) a successful playoff run, I got to thinking of what successful sales organizations do to eliminate these gaps.

As you may know, I continue to help/support sales teams and individual contributors achieve their sales goals by filling up their sales pipelines with qualified leads.

The reason we have had sustained success is because we are filling these Top Five Sales Gaps. 

Here are the Top Five Gaps in Sales for 2022:

1. Only 2% of sales happen during the first point of contact.

{Source: IRC Sals Solutions}

Many people will use LinkedIn to find and confirm a contact. Then they will try to connect or send a cold email with no follow ups.

2. 44% of sales reps give up after an initial conversation.

{Source: IRC Sals Solutions}

They say it takes 8-10 tries to convert a potential customer into a buyer. You got to make the time to follow up.

3. 60% of customers reject offers 4x before making a purchasing decision. Persistence pays off.

{Source: Invespcro}

Some people can’t handle a No. Some hate prospecting. Some hate follow ups.

4. 66.7% of sales reps say they have only reached out to 250 or less sales leads in the span of a year.

{Source: Spotio}

With platforms like LinkedIn, you should be connected with every decision maker in your space and be in the ball game.

5. Only 8% of sales professionals follow up 6 or more times.

{Source: IRC Sales Solutions}

LinkedIn, Emails, telephone, automation tools, knock on the door. Oh my goodness there are so many ways to follow up in 2023.

Summary

It all comes down to FOLLOW UP….and if you break that down, it comes down to TIME and CONSISTENCY. 

Everyone is capable…but if you don’t make the time,  you’ll never be consistent.

Here is my 2023 challenge to you.

Make the time…..but look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. If you are not going to do it, outsource it.

Help your support team become more strategic. Let’s say you have a marketing team that is supposed to support the reps. Help the sales team and marketing team get aligned and become more strategic.

Discover your gap. Fill it.

Benjamin Franklin once quoted, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This statement holds true for some sales people.

Sales reps move 100 miles per hour. Sure, maybe they use a CRM program or have sticky notes around the computer or simply have it all in their heads. Everyone has a process.

However, a simple method to assist both a sales rep and their sales manager would be a list of 5-7 sales action related activities that is 100 words or less. Write it down. Store it in a central location for others to view. Be held accountable to it. Review at the end of the week. Do it again.

Due each Monday by 8 am and to be executed throughout the week.

• Action item 1: Target 20 specific people and make contact with them on LinkedIn to grab coffee. Set 2 appointments. Spend minimum of 1 hour on this.
• Action item 2: Follow up calls on all existing prospects that have my proposal. Move to the next steps and set up follow up appointments. Spend minimum of 1 hour on this.
• Action item 3: Create, refine, and produce the best quality proposal. Go the extra mile to be the best. It will reflect. Spend a minimum of 3 hours on this.
• Action item 4: Update the CRM and/or Sales Cycle pipeline. Let’s stay ahead. Spend a minimum of 1 hour on this.
• Action item 5: Find a minimum of 2 networking opportunities. A Breakfast, a luncheon, a seminar, but go somewhere to mingle and get my name out. Spend a minimum of 3 hours on this.

Does it sound like a lot? Do you already do much of this but don’t necessarily write it down. The point here is to write the specific sales action related activities. At the end of the week, check off the items you completed. If you checked them all off, do it two weeks in a row. You are making progress in consistency. If you don’t check all of them off, figure out what your road blocks are. Good chance, you may only need a mirror to see the road block…that is another topic.

Recently as I have interviewed small business owners, the one’s highly efficient in what they do tend to work at the business. The one’s who struggle with efficiency tend to work in the business.

The “work at” business owner has taken the approach to take a step back and figure out ways to improve business processes, hire the right employees to execute, and guide their business to the next level.

The “work in” business owner is also the sale rep or accountant working late hours to catch up. They wear multiple hats and are so deep into working in the business they don’t realize they may be the clog that prevents growth. Not only do they hold themselves and the business back but they are holding back their employees and customers. Often times their unbeknownst and most popular saying is “I don’t have time.”

What are the steps to have some more time? Perhaps, the first thing to do is figure out what roles you are performing. Then determine how many hours you are spending in that role. To do that job role 100% efficient, how many hours do you have to dedicate? Do this for each one of the hats you wear. Now figure out the value of the role. If you find that you are spending 20 hours a week on an administrative role that you can pay $12 per hour while spending fewer hours on revenue generating opportunities that can bring in $100 per hour, you should consider hiring an administrative person to give you 20 hours back.