Math and Sales Data are essential to improve the sales efforts of Sales Reps. The use of Math and Sales Data can provide a wealth of insights in terms of how effective a businesses sales campaigns are doing. In my previous post, How to be your own Manager of Sales, I detailed how Sales Reps could track their own sales numbers using a Closing ratio.
“Closing ratio is calculated by taking the number of sales you make per day, dividing them by the number of sales calls you have made and setting it equal to X/100. Next set each of the proportions equal to each other, cross multiply and solve for X. For example, if I made 3 sales per day and made 30 calls per day; my closing ratio would be 10 percent. 3/30 = X/100 = 10%. Try this with your own sales numbers”
Our closing ratio can be further extended to examine the number of exposures it takes to convert a prospect into a customer. I will call this the Prospect to Customer conversion ratio. The prospect conversion ratio is a great way to examine your prior sales calls to determine how hard you will need to work to get the sale. For example, during my time as an Outside Sales Rep in NYC; it would take me as many as 10 exposures before I was able to convert some prospects into customers. Some times the number of exposures were as low as two or three or some were as many as 20. Typically, if I cold called and the customer never heard of my product it usually took about 10 exposures. To calculate this ratio for a particular customer,I would take the number of times I called on the prospect and divide it by 1. For example, if it took me 20 exposures to convert the prospect to a customer, I would divide 20/1 and my prospect to conversion ratio would be 20/1. If it took 10 exposures, the ratio would 10/1 for that particular customer. If you track your prior sales calls and examine the Prospect to Customer conversion ratio; you will notice a pattern in the number of exposures to sales in many cases.
However, this method will work in all cases. Remember, not all prospects are created equal. As a Sales Rep, you need to prove to prospects that you and your product are worth it’s purchase price. There are no free customers unless you are calling on a new start-up. In most cases, Sales Reps will need to take prospects from competitors.
Using both the closing ratio and the prospect to customer conversion ratio; will provide Sales Rep with invaluable snapshot insight into how they hard you need to work along with how effective they are in the field. If you are a Sales rep and you are not examining your call patterns, I guarantee that your Sales Manager is!
In fact, most Sales Managers use both the closing ratio and the prospect to customer conversion ratio to set sales goals and daily sales call requirements for Sales Reps. This Math and Data analysis is also used to help Sales Managers mentor their team.
As you can see, studying the data from sales calls and doing the math using ratios are power methods for Sales Reps to use to boost their sales.
