Track Your Sales Opportunities

I wrote my last article about managing our sales opportunities.

Whenever I write an article about how flooring retailers might better run their businesses, I am conscious of the voice in my head saying, “You’re a fine one to talk”. So let me try to silence that voice with this disclaimer; although I know what I should be doing when it comes to sales and selling, I don’t always follow my own advice. Sometimes my process slips through laziness, distraction, or just a generally bad attitude.

“…selling is not a game of chance. We don’t have total control over the outcome, but to some extent, we can load the dice in our favour by ensuring we have a rigorous sales process.”

What jolts me into action is seeing sales numbers dip. Seeing them get back on track reminds me of the value of process and why our process should not slip in the future. Of course, everything slips occasionally, but it constantly reminds me that selling is not a game of chance. Sure, we don’t have total control over the outcome, but to some extent, we can load the dice in our favour by ensuring we have a rigorous sales process.

At a management level, it goes beyond implementing a follow-up process. At the management level, we want to know how many opportunities came our way, how many we won, how many we lost, and crucially, why we lost them.

Think about it like you are manufacturing widgets. When the components for your widgets are coming into your factory, you will expect that most, if not all, will end up in completed widgets you can sell. If you find those components are getting lost or damaged in your factory, you will take action to solve that problem; otherwise, you know you will go out of the widget business.

“At the management level, we want to know how many opportunities came our way, how many we won, how many we lost, and crucially, why we lost them.”

In my analogy, the widget we produce is sales, and the components that make up those sales are opportunities. Just like any component that comes into a manufacturing business, opportunities are finite; you will only get so many each year. It makes sense then that we should know the outcome of every opportunity that comes into our business.

Having a process in your business that tracks the outcome of every opportunity will fundamentally change your business for the better. Your staff will realise that opportunities have value and act accordingly. Whether that opportunity is talking to a walk-in, issuing samples, giving a quote, or following up on a quote, each is a component in a potential sale. We cannot afford not to know what happens to our opportunities.

“We will learn more about our business from understanding our lost opportunities than we ever will from the business we win.”

When it comes to those we lose, we should know why they were lost and who we lost them to. We will learn more about our business from understanding our lost opportunities than we ever will from the business we win.

Simply put, every opportunity that comes our way should be won, lost, or still in play with a date for the next action.

Your opportunities are one of the most valuable assets that you currently don’t put a value on. In my next article, we will look at how you can calculate their value.

In the meantime, if you would like to see how the RFMS CRM app would help you manage your sales opportunities, contact us, and we will arrange an online meeting to show you.

Chris Ogden is a consultant and Managing Director of RFMS Australasia (RFMSanz.com), a supplier of IT solutions for the flooring industry. Chris has an extensive background in all aspects of the flooring industry, and he can be contacted at cogden@rfmsanz.com.