In addition to enhancing reps' prospecting skills, another way to ensure that they achieve their "magic number" is to help them improve other KPIs in the "magic number" formula, such as their closing and first-appointment-to-proposal ratios.
Once you have done so-and documented best-practice strategies for handling each scenario-create mini training modules and/or job aids that show reps how to handle each scenario effectively.Ĥ. Map out all possible scenarios that might occur during the prospecting process. With your objective in place, it's now time to break down and document the steps in the prospecting process and train reps on how to make better use of their prospecting time during each step.ģ. For example, if the average weekly amount of time that sales reps devote to prospecting new clients is 22.5 hours (out of a 45-hour workweek), your organization's objective might be to cut that prospecting time in half (to 11.25 hours per week) while simultaneously exceeding current appointment-setting levels. Define an appointment-setting objective and train to that objective. As an organization, announce that the ability to convert conversations into appointments will become a KPI of the sales process.Ģ. If she is falling short of her six-appointments-per-week goal, your job as a sales trainer is to find ways-through targeted KPI training-to help her bridge that gap and achieve her "magic number."ġ. Once you have identified the magic number, the next step is to determine how many new appointments a rep is currently generating each week. Magic number: (approximately) 6 new appointments each week (Proposal to close-measures proposals submitted vs. (What percentage of the time do reps gain commitment from prospective clients to "take the next step" in the sales process after the first appointment?) What's her magic number? In other words, how many new appointments does she need to set each week in order to achieve her sales revenue goal of $15,000 per month? Her average revenue per sale, meanwhile, is $2,500 her current first-appointment-to-proposal ratio is 60 percent and her closing ratio is 40 percent.
Say, for example, that your company sells copiers (for which an average sales cycle is 45 days) and that a rep's monthly sales revenue goal is $15,000. But I replaced the monthly quota with the weekly ‘magic number’.Ĩ months later sales units sold increased by 520%.Ĭalculate your sales team’s ‘Magic Number’ here:Ī rep's magic number is determined by looking at several of her other KPIs. So I announced a training objective to enable them to do it effectively, (now branded the X2 Sales System®) and threw quota out the window for 90 days. I ran a KPI study and determined they were running 2 new appointments per week/rep, but their KPI’s dictated they needed to achieve 7. They were running at 38% of revenue goal for over 2 years. In early 2000 I walked into a VP of Sales mission with a sales organization consisting of 120 reps spread out over 12 sales regions. The most overlooked Key Performance Indicator is the "Magic number," which refers to how many new appointments a sales rep must generate each week in order to achieve their revenue goal.