Recently I had an interesting experience that gave me an increased understanding of tracking first hand!
I work with a certain company's sales team on setting and reaching goals. Each one had determined for his/her own self the dollars in sales they intended to make for 2011. In my mind, I knew what should be true according to the law of averages and truth in numbers, but now it was time to show it to some doubting Thomases as to how it really works.
Here's what I did: I ran historical reports showing how many leads turned to how many sales which in turn created how many dollars for each individual. Then I just flipped it forward and said, ok so-and-so has to have so many qualified leads per day in order to make the goal. That is, if he/she keeps the average contract size the same as the previous year or two, the projected outcome should be close to target. If the contract size increases, obviously the number of sales can decrease...but we were just following and projecting on law of averages.
After a few weeks I brought the goals with me to a sales meeting along with the leads and sales reports for each person. In every case, the number of leads and sales was directly proportionate to what had been projected! For the person who doubled his leads required, he doubled his sales. For the ones who slacked on soliciting leads, their sales were lacking in direct proportion to the number of leads they had.
It was truth on paper. I had to say nothing more.
WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!How can you know unless you track?
Susan
