In our previous blog, Kalle and Janne opened up the mathematics of sales, especially through quantity mathematics (check out the blog), and we wanted to continue with the same theme.
With mathematics, you can prove not only the effect of changes in quantity, but also changes in quality and direction! Sure, this is theoretical, but a good story always has the power of proof.
What would happen if your salespeople improved the quality of their meetings, for example, or met more potential customers for you 1% better every day?
At first, nothing - but in the long run, explosively. This is super productivity.
Super productivity means that even a small improvement per day leads to incredible results in the long run. As humans, we often overestimate what we can accomplish in the short term and underestimate what we can accomplish in the long term. Mathematically, super productivity (percentage improvement every day) looks like this:
- 1.01^7 = 1.07 (change per week)
- 1.01^ 30 = 1.34 (change per month)
- 1.01^365 = 37.78 (change per year)
At first, the change is therefore slow, but in the long run, it will multiply enormously.
Please note that the same thing also works in reverse - if you slowly slip away from the level of doing, you won't notice the change right away, but over a longer period of time it will totally slow down.
- 0.99^7 = 0.93 (change per week)
- 0.99^30 = 0.73 (change per month)
- 0.99^365 = 0.03 (change per year)
So if your current level is good, take care not to slip!
What could a percent per day better mean in practice?
When, as a seller, you meet a customer, i.e. another person or people, the quality of the encounter determines the end result. When the seller and the customer both feel a positive vibration during the meeting, sales success is more likely. So ask yourself as a seller - is our meeting the best or worst day of the month for the customer! At its best, meeting creates a great atmosphere together, things to do and joint wins.
One percent better per day can mean, for example, better preparation for the meeting, improvements that take place during the meeting, improvement of the post-meeting work, development of the offer presentation or development of operations after the deal is confirmed. Here are some tips on what can be achieved by making 1% improvements per day!
Awesomeness checklist before the first meeting:
- You have confirmed the agenda and schedule with the customer.
- You have gotten to know the client company and the person(s) you met.
- You have prepared questions that generate better thinking using, for example, the SPIN model (Customer's situation, customer's challenges, consequences of the customer's situation and challenges, return expectation for meeting customer needs).
- You have a couple of value-producing views about the value chain of the customer's industry, customers or other stakeholders.
- We believe in positive psychology, so this is the only prohibition on the greatness checklist: DO NOT, at least, start your own 45-minute power point slide show, i.e. PowerPointSlideShow, during which the client takes a nap behind the black Teams screen, right after the first two minutes.
Checklist for greatness on a first date:
- Once again, confirm the meeting schedule and agenda.
- Ask and listen - you have two ears and one mouth = Listen so that you want to be spoken to and speak so that you want to be listened to.
- When you have found common ground through dialogue, briefly summarize where you could possibly help the customer.
- Arrange the next step, such as the offer presentation, in the calendar and make sure that all relevant people from the customer's side can attend.
Awesomeness checklist after the first meeting:
- Send a thank you message and a short summary of the conversation.
- Record memo and summary in CRM to increase organization's customer knowledge.
- If necessary, prepare together with other organizations the solution package that best suits the customer's needs.
- Prepare for the offer presentation.
Checklist of greatness in the offer presentation:
- Go through the cooperation proposal by discussing and asking questions - work on the necessary changes immediately with the customer's people together with iterations.
- If the customer is ready to decide right away, ask the store, and if their internal decision meeting isn't until later, make sure there's still something they need to support their decision-making.
- Arrange a joint situation update after the customer's moment of decision and ask if we can serve.
Checklist of awesomeness after the deal:
- Redeem your promise.
- Plan working methods with the customer for continuous active development of cooperation and put these moments in the calendar.
Remember - we overestimate what we can accomplish in a short time. If there are flaws in all of the above points, don't fix everything at once, but try to make things more likely to become habits with a calmer change. If you need help with this, please get in touch - we will be happy to help!
