Step by Step with eyes on the goal! Transitioning to Activity Based Selling

In a past interaction with a trusted and established sales professional and Country Manager of an industry leading multinational company, he reiterated a point many sales persons would agree with; “Sales results are not events; they are babies of consistent positive selling activities.”

In my sales career and having been managed by a wide variety of sales managers (trust me, all sort of sales managers) and also in the early parts of my life as a sales manager, I committed the ultimate sales management error; forget the activities and focus on the results. I managed to run down the motivation and confidence of my team and eventually, I could not even trust the team to deliver results!

What changed?

Then my lights came on! I discovered Activity Based Selling and there, I found respite, a new beginning in managing my team and the revival of team confidence. With good guidance, I transitioned from Results Based Selling to Activity Based Selling.

How do you manage and direct a sales team through Activity Based Selling?

1. Understand the company’s goals in sales language

Many companies and sales leaders fail to translate the expected results into the relevant sales language. The company’s revenue goals mean

• having happy and satisfied customers,

• delivering products and service to the customers,

• getting into sales meetings,

• defending the company’s price points,

• securing the revenues on the deals won with proper agreements, etc.

Understanding the focus of the company is very direct activities enables the sales leader to marshal the troops and turn them in the right direction. Sales team members can also focus on activities with better clarity; there is no ambiguity in understanding what “ROI” means

2. Map your success

This is a clear advantage of Activity Based Selling over Results Based Selling. Managing on the activities enables the company and sales leadership to identify the step to success on an activity level. What did the sales person do to secure that appointment with the entire C-Level of the prospect company? What steps did the opportunity go through until it reached the negotiations stage?

Sales leadership is able to provide more guidance with a success map. What activities are common to the successful deals and relationships of the company? How did the sales team chalk success in their opportunities and convert them to results and revenue? Can these successful steps and activities be the selling milestones for the company in new deals?

3. Tap into the resources

With Activity Based selling, you can have more than just a few result champions; you have multiple activity champions! This provides you with a bigger pool of experiences and this is valuable resource that can be used to prop up and improve the sales team. Because these are very little and simple activities, it is easier for the sales manager to guide the team to learn, absorb and replicate the successful actions from your result pool.

From the Phone Call Activity Champion, other sales team members can learn how to place successful calls. What do they say on a telephone? How do they keep the conversation short and engaging? How do they get an appointment from a phone call?

From the Prospecting Champion, other sales team members can learn who to avoid wasting time with uninterested prospects. How to interview prospects to uncover their real need and when they desire solution. Activity base selling provides you with valuable successful experience all through your sales function and it is at your disposal.

4. Calculate and work the action metrics

Activity Based Selling is all about action on little activities. But these need to be calculated, linked to the overall goal, measured and monitored to the end. All activities in this form of management need to be linked directly to a strategic goal of the company. And in your company’s tactical plan, you need to guide your team to work the numbers.

How many leads? How many proposals? How many presentations? How many negotiations? How many agreements? How many wins? How many delivery sign-offs? How many happy customers on boarded? Track each action metric. Celebrate the successes, review the results, analyze the impact and in times of shortage, plan your recovery.

We suggest a few performance indicators to help you drive your company’s selling with progressive activities. Look out for

1. Number of deals and opportunities (with strong focus on new opportunities)

2. Size of the deals in relation to revenue expectations

3. Sales cadence

4. Opportunity progression paths and rates

5. Contact quantity and quality

If you are open minded about getting an expert to partner in this transition to Activity Based Selling, click on the "Contact us" tab below and let’s schedule an engagement.