Welcome to the new blog of Breakthrough SalesPerformance. We're a sales consulting company in its thirteenth year of operation. I'm CEO and Founder Mark Sellers.
Recently, I published my first book called The Funnel Principle: What Every Salesperson Must Know About Selling. We're thrilled with the reception and recognition the book is getting. Gerhard Gschwandtner, Selling Power magazine's Publisher called it "a terrific new book". Hank Babiarz, former EVP Sales of GA Braun said "The Funnel Principle gives you the edge to consistently compete and win."
Since this is the first posting of our blog It's Time to Rethink the FunnelTM and you're a busy person, I'll get right to the point: What is it that every salesperson must know about selling?
It's simple: the sales funnel is perhaps the tool with the greatest potential for helping a salesperson achieve the one thing that he or she will be most remembered for at the end of the year - you know this - it's achieving quota.
Why is this true? Quota is the mission of the salesperson. Quota is all about net new sales. And the funnel is all about net new sales. It's the one tool in the bag that is exclusively and entirely focused on achieving quota.
Therefore, you'd better get good at it fast. Look only to today's tough business climate for justification that your funnel had better be full enough of real sales opportunities. Otherwise, it'll be a long off season.
One of the reasons a sales funnel is so valuable is that it provides leading indicator information. A quick example of a leading indicator is a heart rate monitor for marathon runners and other athletes. They use it during training to know how much stress they're putting on their heart, and to know to back off or push themselves even harder.
In sales, your funnel data is leading indicator information because the sales are in progress and represent future potential revenue. (A closed sale is a lagging indicator). The total dollar value of those funnel opportunities tells you something important about your chances of ultimately hitting your quota at year's end. Like the heart rate monitor lets you back off or push harder, the funnel value tells you to fill that funnel more, or to shift more attention to already qualified leads. If the dollar value is low and keeps you awake at night, there's still time to change that. Unless of course you've waited too long to know what that dollar value is.
When you put a process to knowing your funnel value it becomes one of the most valuable assets you have. And it will pay off for you year after year.
For more information about maximizing your use of the sales funnel visit our websites http://www.funnelprinciple.com/ and http://www.breakthrough-sales.com/ and download resources like Tips to Breakthrough series and Breakthrough Case Studies.
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