Confucius taught the future business administrators of China’s emperors and ruling elite. As I read his sayings, I realized I was in fact reading a business book. Topics were recognizably modern business topics and certain individuals in his text consistently spoke in particular ways and on particular themes. One sounds like a finance director, another like a marketing director and so on.
It was a short step, then, to adapt the text to the modern business idiom, yet still retain 98 percent of the original Confucian sayings in their English translation.
Say it again, Confucius
“He who is a good manager does not need to make way for the teacher!”
“Clever talk and a domineering manner have little to do with being a good manager.”
A seller’s sales plan is the company plan divided by the number of salesmen divided by
52 weeks in the year or 13 periods of four weeks.
If a seller doesn't have a sales plan he doesn’t know what he is doing. If his manager doesn't know the plan, he can give no guidance.
To plan well, a seller must know the time cycle and type of calls for each category of customer and the number of calls to convert a new order.
The sales plan is the agreement reached between the seller and his manager. It should detail what each requires of the other in support.
Too low sales targets encourage laziness, too high hopelessness. A seller needs a target he can reach and surpass with good effort & reward.
The seller must decide whether to sell big orders or more small orders. His incentive scheme will encourage him to do it the simplest way.
If you have a monthly sales target, achieve it monthly. Don't kid yourself you can take the orders next month.
Philip Lund most recent book, “Keynotes for Compelling Sellers,”is designedto rejuvenate the professional seller after a hard day in the field. Lund’s frontline sales experience over 40 years covers a huge market area from office products (Xerox top salesman 1966/67), to engineered products such as truck washing machines, vehicle recovery systems and stainless steel drainage, to financial services and credit cards, to outsourced services and management consultancy.
