Ever wonder how a really good salesperson can consistently hit his quotas? And why others can’t seem to even come close to what they need to make to just pay their salaries? Well, so do a lot of people!
The key is in statistical analysis. But what is that? And how do you use it to generate income and help salespeople make their quotas?
The first step is to figure out what is actually needed to keep your business a float. Then take it a step further and figure out what is needed to make your business viable. Then take it another step and figure out what is needed to expand your business 10 times. Now you have a number you can work with!
Then figure out how that number breaks down between your salespeople and issue the quotas. But, be warned, these numbers will not always be met with enthusiasm.
The problem? Salespeople (and everyone else) gets comfortable with what they can do based on what they have been doing in the past. The problem is companies have to continue to expand or they die a slow painful death.
The hard and fast rule in business is you are either expanding or contracting. You don’t stay the same and there is no in-between. So, in order to go forward and expand, salespeople (and everyone else) has to recognize this fact and go beyond their comfort zone. I’ll help you with this later on in this article.
The first step is to track statistics. For Salespeople, you generally want to track:

• Leads
• Calls Out (depending on the type of sale)
• Emails out (depending on the type of sale)
• Contacts (people actually reached and talked to)
• # of Booking or Agreement to Move Forward
• Agreements Signed (depending on type of sale)
• # of Sales
• $ Value of sales

There are others, but these are some common statistics for salespeople.
Ideally, these should be tracked weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. There should be quotas for each of these as well. There should be great rewards when the main statistic quotas are met and penalties when they are not.
Management should then look at these statistics on a graph and if the statistic is going up (and in a viable range) then back up that salesperson and ensure no one gets in their way! And if the statistic is going down then step in and do something to invoke change towards up statistics.
Stay far away from judging people by anything other than statistics. You hire a salesperson to sell. So if they are selling and the customers are happy then back them up so they can keep selling for you. If they are not selling (based on statistics) then you need to step in and immediately handle it.
I like to ask people to get an idea of what they feel they can make for the month, quarter or year. Get them to get that number firm in their mind. Write it down. Decide they can make that.
Then I ask them to double it. Now how do they feel I ask? A little more uncomfortable! But then I have them state how their lives will change if they do double it. What will be different? What can they do or afford with the extra income? Now, they get happier about figuring out how to achieve that!
Then I ask them to figure out how can they achieve that? What do they need to do to achieve it? At least at this point, I have their attention. They want to achieve it and have some purpose towards achieving it.
This is key!  Think about it. If someone came up to you out of the blue and asked you to double your numbers without any other information and you already feel like you are doing everything in your power to get the numbers you are getting, how would you feel?
So, I use the power of the salesperson’s “willingness” and their personal decision and getting them to even want to figure out how making more is even possible to get their agreement to make more!
Once I have that, I ensure I monitor the statistics. If the statistics are going up, I do nothing. If the statistics are going down, I jump in with both feet to handle the salesperson and get them back on track.
I hope this helps!
Lisa Terrenzi