Sales reviews, the bane of everyone’s lives. The sales manager has so many to do. The sales professional has to answer so many intrusive questions… and it all takes so long!

As the old adage goes… ‘time is money’… and as so eloquently expressed by the Romans all those years ago… ‘tempus fugit’… so time flies and the problem that causes is amply summed up by another old adage… ’so much to do, so little time’.

So, in the spirit of time is money, time flies and so much to do… then the shorter you can keep your sales reviews the happier everyone is going to be. Therefore, here are the only 3 questions that you need to ask…

1. Show me how you are going to make your number.
Following our pipeline methodology makes asking this question really easy. The sales exec is either going to show you how the number is going to be made, in which case move on to question 2, or not. If not, find out what they are doing to close the gap.

2. Show me how you are going to close your committed deals.
The committed deals make up the forecast and follow the binary method of forecasting – these are the deals the sales exec says will close. So, make sure the close plan is robust for these deals, everything else is incidentally because if these deals close the target is achieved… don’t waste time on incidentals!

3. Show me how you are filling your pipeline.
Lastly, s sustainable pipeline requires a full sales funnel. What is the sales exec doing to proactively fill the funnel? An empty funnel will lead to problems later.

There you are, 3 simple questions to help manage your team… I could have written a lot more, but kept this post short as time is money!

Share this post: Digg Delicious Technorati Reddit Stumble It!  Email This Post