Need to Make Your Annual Sales Goal? Get Moving Now!

4 Jul, 2018

It’s not quite fall yet and your end-of-year deadlines may feel like they’re miles away. But if you’re a new or inexperienced sales manager, you’ll want to take some advice from those who have traveled this road before you and you’ll want to learn from their mistakes. Most important: Objects in this mirror are closer than they appear — much closer — so if your medical sales goals aren’t quite in the bag just yet, now is the time to start pulling your team together and turning up the heat. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind.

New sales take time

Until you’ve experienced a few full annual cycles in your management role, you may not fully understand the rhythm and timing of the process that begins with a prospect and ends with a signed contract. Nothing important happens overnight, or even in one week, or even in one month often times. Emails are put aside, vacations and sick days occur, decision teams struggle to assemble, and sometimes new data appears to inform a decision that seemed well on the way to a closed deal. People experience changes of heart, businesses experience windfalls and reversals, and most contracts don’t come about after a single meeting or phone call. Give yourself — and your teams — plenty of time to establish a client relationship before you put your expected sale in the books. That means aggressively pursuing leads now if you expect them to bear fruit by December.

The end of the year is upon us

Fall is coming… and then winter… and if you think you have plenty of time left to gather your data, deploy your teams, follow up with clients and work out the details by the end of the calendar year with plenty of time to spare by the water cooler, think again. Break down your remaining 2017 schedule into months and then into individual weeks and you’ll gain a new perspective. (A hint: You have about 14 weeks, which means 70 business days. Another hint: You only have about 1.5 weeks of winter before the new calendar year starts, so fall is really closing time).

It takes time to determine the quality of the prospect that can become a lead

Contracts that are currently languishing in the “prospect” phase will need to be shifted over into the “strong leads” category, and quickly. But to make this happen, your sales teams will need to spend some time assessing the quality of that potential client relationship. If you need to invest several weeks in a dead-end partnership to determine that it is indeed a dead end, start now. Don’t wait. Motivate your teams and shake off the lazy days of summer. The finish line is closer than you think.

For more on how to exercise your leadership skills and keep your team on track, turn to the medical sales recruiters at Buckman Enochs Coss and Associates.