Know Your Numbers and Manage Your Success

Managing a Sales Representative to a high level of success is about helping them improve their skill sets and empowering them to make the right decisions about their daily activity. It starts with their mental attitude in conjunction with their daily routine. These two can most often be used to predict what their future success will look like and if they have the mental fortitude and discipline to be a successful direct marketing Sales Representative.

Lets look at some of the reported sales numbers and how they can be used to help manage your Sales Representatives to achieve high levels of success.

Studying the door knocking activity of a Sales Representative tells you a lot about their discipline and daily activity including their ability to manage their calendar and work schedule. Top Sales Representative are always consistent!

Few things to look for:

• What is their daily start and stop time including hours worked?
• How many DKs are they averaging per day, per week and per month?
• Are they being consistent with daily DKs everyday?
• How many DKs per hour?
• How many DM (decision makers) are they meeting per DK?

DK stats will often show the work ethic of a Sales Representative and how consistent their work schedule is. The overall number of DKs per week is one of the most important numbers to manage. 

We know that in most territories you can knock at minimum 20 doors an hour. So you can use the total number of doors knocked in a week… divide by 20 to figure out how many prospecting hours a Sales Representative spent door knocking for the week. 

• Is your Sales Representative working hard or barely working?

DkDm is a stat to let you know several things about your Sales Representative and the territory they have decided to work in. Some potential insights from DkDm

• The average company wide for DkDm is four. If this is a six, seven or eight for a Sales Representative, you must figure out why…? Is Rep working the wrong hours for that territory? Are there a large number of renters in the territory…? Is the Sales Representative filling out Sales Rabbit properly? etc. 
• If a Sales Rep’s DkDm is over 8… this must be improved immediately. At times, DM may not be coming to the door because of the appearance of the Rep at the door (see through window, door peep hole, camera, video door bell). Make sure that the Sales Representative looks clean cut, is always smiling and waves whenever they hear or see movement inside the home. 
• How you knock or ring the door bell is also important to make sure you get the most DMs to come to the door. Have a very friendly knock…. Loud enough to hear but not so loud it shakes the house and sounds demanding. After knocking, step back from the door five or six feet and wait for 15 or 20 seconds. Then ring the door bell and wait another 15 seconds before leaving. One knock is not good as the homeowner may feel a package has been delivered and they’ll just get it latter. 
• If it is a nice day and you are not getting anyone to come to the door, the homeowner may just be in the backyard and can not hear you. Go to the side gate and call out…. Is anyone home, are you there? Hello…. Often homeowners that were “hiding” inside will come out the front door because they heard you go to the side gate…. When they ask what you want??? Just say… “it’s such a nice day… I thought you were in the backyard.”   Door Pitch: I appreciate you coming out… I’ll make this brief……… My name is “……” and I am with Got Watts, here’s my business card”.

The stats on DkDm are both important to help you manage a Sales Representative to be highly successful. To be successful at Got Watts, everything starts with door knocking activity and a dedicated work ethic with consistent effort.

This is one of the most important stats for you to use to mentor a Sales Representative to success because it tells you how effective their door pitch is. Company average on DmBk ranges from about 12-14 but the top Sales Representatives are alway at single digits. To excel, DmBk needs to be between 5-7. Set a goal for a low DmBk for everyone of your Sales Reps.

If a Sales Representative’s DmBk is at a ten or above…. Don’t let them leave the office until you are confident in their Door Pitch. It’s just a waste of valuable time and your Sales Rep will get burnt out and potentially discouraged at their lack of success in booking appointments. Keep role playing the door pitch until both you and the Sales Rep believe their pitch is going to create appointments today. 

Role Play… Role Play!

The number of BKs you scheduled that turn into a Sit, with all decision makers at the sales presentation, is the next metric that needs to be measured and evaluated. The company average is 65% of all BKs turn in a Sit. If your Sales Representative’s ratio is below 65% then they need to practice the end of their door pitch to ensure they are setting high quality sales opportunities. 

Role Play… Role Play!

Set a goal of having 80% of all BKs turn into a sales presentation. Sales Reps that are incredible at scheduling sales presentations will have Sit ratios as high as 90%. 

A few of the things that create high level of BK to Sit ratio are:

• Setting sales appointments with all decision makers agreeing to the sales presentation at the beginning is the key to having a high sit ratio. Talking to a wife who is interested in solar at the door and scheduling a sales appointment without her first checking in with her husband about his schedule, is not a solid appointment. Make sure Sales Rep is scheduling an appointment with all decision makers agreeing to the initial sales presentation time and date. 
• Make sure your customer is checking their calendar when you are scheduling the appointment with them. Getting everyone looking at their calendars and finding out when a good time to meet is an important part of scheduling a solid appointment.
• Setting up appointments for the next day, creates the highest sit ratio of BKs to Sits. 
• Never ask a customer, “when’s a good day for you?”. They may pick a day two weeks from now and those appointments often fall off or are rescheduled. Get your calendar out… along with your customer and starting tomorrow… go day by day by day looking for the next available date you are both available to meet with all decision makers present.
• Do not text or email the customer to “confirm” the appointment. The appointment was already confirmed when you set the appointment. Reconfirming an appointment gives the customer an easy out….. “Oh, I am glad you called/text… I can not make the appointment tomorrow…. I’ll have to call you back to reschedule our appointment.” Instead of the word confirm use “friendly reminder”. On appointments that were set more than a few days from the initial day you met them at the door, send the a text the evening before the appointment date. “ Good evening “……”, just giving you a friendly reminder that I’ll be there tomorrow at 3PM and I’ll be on time. Look forward to helping you switch to solar.
• People do not miss calendar events that they are excited about. Make sure you get your customers super excited about switching to solar and all the benefits they will receive. Let them know you will “roll out the red carpet treatment for them”. Get their anticipation heighten about the appointment and keep your conversation at the door engaging and fun. If you make them feel happy when you first meet them at the door, they will look forward to spending time with you on the sales appointment date. 

Value you own time. When people meet someone, they can often tell how important their time is to them. When a potential customer senses this from you, they will not want to waste your time by not following through on the appointment you set together. 

A Sales Representative can do everything right and then not close the business due to a poor sales presentation. A well executed sales presentation is the finest close.

Here are the sales presentation steps that need to be taught, reviewed and role played weekly.

• Preparing before the sales presentation
• Warm Up
• Needs Analysis
• Kill the Bill
• Save Money
• FAQs
• Timeline
• Numbers
• Closing Statement
• Handling Objections
• Schedule Site Survey and Finalize Agreement
• Warm Down

If your Sales Rep is creating a lot of sales presentation, but is closing below the company average of 20%, it will be very difficult for them to succeed. Top Sales Representatives will close at least 50% of the homeowners they present to. 

Role playing each step of the sales presentation… over and over and over and then over again and again is key to creating highly successful Sales Reps with high close percents. Each of the above steps needs to be presented flawlessly with conviction and passion. The enthusiasm, knowledge and skill to give an incredible sales presentation will be the key to establishing a consistently high closing percent.

If close percent remains low, it will be essential to do a field ride with your Sales Representative and watch them present to a live customer.  You can then give them pointers on what they did well and what they need to improve on. Also, have them watch you on another live sales presentation so they experience a top closer at work. 

Duplication of a successful process, presentation and memorizing specific word tracks is vital to helping a Sales Representative become a top closer company wide.

Customer referrals are a result of creating a relationship with your clients and giving them exceptional service. Customer reviews and referrals often come together. A client who gives you a five star review, will very often want to give you referrals as well. 

Referrals are an excelerator to creating significant amounts of closed business. A customer referral that turns into a BK, Sit and Closed Business Won saves countless hours of door to door prospecting. Becoming proficient at closing business by referral must be a high priority to achieve the highest levels of sales success. 

Create goals for your Sales Reps on the percent of customers who they earn referrals from. At least 20% of your customers should give you referral business.