As you put Q2 2016 in the record books, you’re likely asking yourself, “did everyone on the team do everything they could to make the number?” On average, only 38% (1) of digital ad sellers will make quota for Q2. So, what kind of activity are the ones making quota doing vs. those not? And what kind of activity should be the focus for the second half? Here’s three suggestions to start understanding what’s happening and what you can do about it.
- Drive Right Activity – knowing what type of client activity is working is the first step. Capturing the basics like # of initial meetings, # of proactive pitches, # of RFP’s helps identify what’s happening. Then use statistical analysis to determine relation to results like amount of new pipeline created or closed revenue. Look for trends that yielding results that can be leveraged for coaching. This will gain you more credibility with your team than setting an artificial target of “everyone should do X important meetings per week”.
- Drive Activity to Right Clients – we’ve seen many instances where media sellers spend all their time with a handful of clients, fishing the plentiful ponds. Whether your sellers are prospecting or working named accounts, you need to understand how concentrated the activity is. Perhaps there’s valuable accounts not being touched or about to go inactive, these are great opportunities to reshuffle territories or apply new headcount to grow revenue.
- Get Quality Activity Data – all of this analysis is worthless without high quality activity information. No seller wants to write call reports at night. Ideally client activity is captured and enhanced in the tools where it takes place like your email and calendar system, saving your sellers time. Enable your sellers with tools that save them time while providing insights that improve performance.
We’d love to hear what progressive organizations are finding is the right mix of activity that’s driving results.
