Unlock the Power of Data to Start Driving Your Sales Activities. The Sales Equation.

The most successful salespeople I have seen in my career were those who knew where they were going.

The opposite is also true, those who struggled and underperformed were the ones who lacked direction altogether.

Both situations are quite common, but the latter is the most prevalent.

If you lead a sales team or are looking to build one, you should consider more than just assigning a goal, territory, or book of accounts. This does not mean micromanaging. Rather, consider using tools, frameworks, data, and processes to help your team understand the effort required to achieve the goal.

Most leaders, including myself in the past, tend to focus on strategy, board meetings, and high-level activities while leaving our SDRs or AEs to wander.

For example, a junior SDR is expected to hit 20 demos per month. But how can they achieve this goal? Similarly, a senior AE is supposed to bring in 500K ARR. Again, how can they accomplish this?

Most leaders fail to recognise this fact.

However, they do recognise the negative outcomes that often result: in missed goals, poor team culture, and high team attrition.

We need to start utilising data and analytics to forecast our team's outbound effort.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon this video from John Barrows while surfing LinkedIn during my lunch break. It made my day.

The sales tracking file John presented in the video was very similar to many others I have used over the years.

He called it the ‘Sales Equation,’ which I think is a perfect name.

What is the Sales Equation

The Sales Equation is a simple spreadsheet that allows salespeople to track their progress using cells and columns.

By tracking your conversions, you can determine the right number of activities needed to achieve your sales goal.

It’s like a car’s dashboard, providing everything you need to go from point A to point B safely and efficiently.

I have used similar files over the years, both as an individual contributor and as a team leader. Seeing John’s file inspired me to recreate my own and share it on LinkedIn, giving credit to John for the original idea.

Since posting the video, I have shared my template with approximately 50 people, and it has gotten a lot of attention.

How to Build Your Sales Equation

Start by setting your sales goal and break it down by average deal size.

How many new clients do you need to close to hit your sales goal?

Also, try to fill in all the boxes with relevant questions to understand your conversion rates.

Break it down by email, calls, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator inmails.

Then, focus on the conversion rates from discovery calls to proposals, proposals to wins, etc.

The “magic number” is the number of meetings you need per month.

This number can be calculated by analysing outbound activities and eliminating any new clients coming from inbound leads, SDRs, or referrals.

For example, if my “magic number” is 13, I need to consistently have 13 discovery calls per month to hit my sales goal.

If you need more information on how to build your Sales Equation check this out.

Summary

The Sales Equation is one of the best tracking tools I have ever seen or used.

Salespeople need guidance and direction to achieve their goals. Simply giving them a revenue goal is not enough.

Sales leaders need to step up and provide tactical ways to hit the goal.

The Sales Equation provides a final number of outbound meetings you need per month, by calculating how many emails, calls, and inmails you need to make per day.

Consistency is key, so you must stick to your numbers. To do so, you need the perfect calendar and some productivity tips.

Check out my previous newsletter where I talked about the Perfect Calendar and the Eisenhower Matrix: The Ultimate Guide to Time Management for Sales Teams.

This Week's Action Steps

If you are a salesperson, download the free template below and create your own based on what you have learned today.

For sales leaders, founders, or CEOs building a sales strategy, start by using it yourself and then share it with your teams.

Everyone who carries a sales quota needs this.

Implementing the Sales Equation demonstrates your focus on the "how" rather than the "what" and shows your team that you care about their success.

Leaving anything uncovered or unstructured in sales can lead to underperformance and we all know it.

Take control of your numbers and activities. Take control of your sales.

Thank you for reading this far. See you all next week!