PENDINGS VERSUS INVENTORY...here's an interesting ratio for you to consider for your Sales Business. Look at your current situation from two points of view:
#1. How many pending sales do you have?… How many firm deals in the pipeline that will close and pay you a commission in the near future?
#2. How many hot leads do you have? How many situations that offer a better than average chance of becoming a pending sale?
Important Question…Which one is greater? Do you have more pending sales or do you have more hot leads? The key is to have a worthwhile supply of both. Think of the ratio for these two for your business right now. If you have more pending than you do inventory you are going to be rich soon and poor in two months! Not a good position to be in.
Here is your ACTION STEP… one of the toughest parts of being a Commissioned Salesperson is the specter of a fluctuating income. The Peaks and Valleys can cause stress. There is a solution… there is an alternative. Think of your business as a Conveyer Belt. Visualize it in the following fashion:
1. The Sales Cycle for your product/service determines the length of the Conveyer Belt. It could be 30 days, 90 days, even six months.
2. In the beginning you generate new leads and load them onto your Conveyer Belt.
3. You nurture and follow up these leads on an ongoing basis as the belt moves along to the end of the cycle. When items get to the far end of the belt, you get paid!
4. Some of these leads will fall off the Conveyer Belt, that is normal (they change their mind or you decide not to work with them any longer).
5. The key is to make sure that there are no gaps in the process. These gaps always show up at the far end of the belt in the form of a "zero payday". Not good.
Make sure that you always have a strong supply of leads on your Conveyor Belt. For your business to grow, the optimum would be to always have more hot leads than pending sales. No matter how busy you get with the pending sales, you must make time every day to generate more hot leads. Keep loading up that Conveyer Belt. Keep that ratio in your favor. NO Excuses.