3 Keys For Sales To Avoid Stress On The Last Day Of The Quarter
Posted by
Chris Lang on Thu, Mar 29, 2024 @ 05:01 PM
VP Marketing – hey man, just a reminder that you’re up for a blog today.
ME – seriously? You really think I have time to write a blog?
VP Marketing – Oh shoot you’re right…its end of quarter….never mind.
ME – Wait…oh yeah its quarter close. I was talking about the sales team golf outing!
We hit our number about a month ago. I’m not trying to brag, (maybe a little) it’s just a simple fact. We’ll hit our number next quarter. I’m confident we’ll hit Q3 quota and if I had to guess I would say that we’ll hit Q4 numbers as well. While I would like to think that my sparkling personality, unbelievable sales acumen and modest demeanor are what create these accurate predictions, I can’t take the credit. (I’ll still take the commission though) We hit our numbers because we have a kick ass inside sales team with a great process. When it comes to forecast and revenue production, a good inside sales team can provide you with the holy trinity of business development needs: Predictability, Scalability, and repeatability. Is repeatability a word?
First off, our numbers are predictable. I can look at the amount of MQLs we’re working on, the number of dials we’re making, the connect rate and slew of other KPI’s and determine how many leads my reps are going to pass us on a monthly basis. We also have parameters around lead quality so that the level of quality is consistent. If I have a consistent lead flow and consistent quality I can then use our close rate to figure how many closed deals we’ll have. Therefore I can predict at the beginning of the quarter where we’ll be at the end of the quarter.
If your CEO is anything like mine, he/she likes to reward you for having an outstanding quarter by drastically raising your number and forgetting all about the previous 3 months worth of work.
CEO: “Lang, nice job by the team this quarter! “
Me: Thanks, I’m happy we could….(cut off)
CEO: (after cutting me off) “It’s time to talk about you increased numbers for next qtr”
The good thing about using a capable inside sales team is that when the CEO’s number goes up, I can easily increase sales by turning up the dial on the inside team. If the boss wants 20% more revenue, I’ll have to increase the calls by 20%. Now of course I’ll have to use more resources, but at least I know that my investment in a larger database and additional headcount will yield the right amount of revenue. It’s easy to be scalable when you can virtually guarantee the ROI to your CEO.
I’m a man of emotional extremes. I cried reading “Marley and Me” (if you don’t you have no soul), I jump when I hear loud noises, (thank god I have my wife to protect me from slamming doors and parades) I laugh uncontrollably at 80’s comedies (I peed myself a little during Space Balls) and I stress uncontrollably when I have ebbs and flows in my forecast. I want to close a predictable amount of business month after month rather than do awful one month and have to kill it the next. I’m more of a singles hitter rather than a home run hitter. A good inside team allows us to consistently close deals all throughout the quarter so that we don’t have to rely on closing the mother of all accounts on the last day of the quarter while I have a heart attack in my office. My inside team makes for a very repeatable sale, which in turn saves me from ulcers.
It’s coming up on the last day of the quarter. I would like to thank my inside sales team for giving me the option to look at Facebook, play 18, or do anything other than panic about meeting our quota!