KAHLE ON SELLING

HOW MANY SALES CALLS SHOULD YOU MAKE IN A DAY?

------------ BY DAVE KAHLE

Q. HOW MANY appointments or conversations per day or per week should a salesperson make in order to be successful?

A. I have no idea. How’s that for an answer you’re not expecting?

OK, you know by now that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say to this point. I have no idea because I don’t know the specifics of your selling situation. The definition of a reasonable number of appointments varies tremendously from one situation to another. For example, I have worked with phone salespeople who are expected to have 50 to 60 conversations per day. On the other hand, I regularly spent a half-day with one customer. And that one account probably bought more from me than several hundred of the phone sales accounts.

Which hits to the heart of the issue. The factor that most determines a reasonable number of appointments is the potential dollar value of the sale. The larger the potential dollar value of the sale, the fewer calls should be made. That’s because the nature of the sale requires more in-depth relationships and more involved sales dialogues. Each call is more complex, and takes longer. You can’t make as many calls.

On the other hand, the smaller the potential dollar value of the sale, the more calls should be made. The phone salespeople, for example, were selling safety videos for about $100 each. Because of the relatively small order size, they’d need to make many times the number of calls that I did. I was selling hospital supplies via 12-month contracts. A typical deal would be worth $20,000 to $60,000.

So, the first thing to consider in developing quantifiable expectations is the potential value of the sale.

The second is a variation of the first. In order to be profitable to the company, each salesperson’s total costs must fall within a certain range. We’ve done extensive research on this, and I can give you a broad rule of thumb. I believe that, generally speaking, salespeople’s total cost to the company should not exceed 25% of the total gross profit they produce. For example, let’s say you have a salesperson who makes $50,000. When you add in the cost of expenses, fringes and taxes, the salesperson actually costs you $68,000. So, if you use the 25% rule-of-thumb, that salesperson should bring in at least $272,000 in gross profit in order to be profitable to you.

Armed with this calculation, the next question is, “How many sales calls does this salesperson need to make in order to generate $272,000 of gross profit?” That will help shed some light on the subject. One caveat: the 25% figure really is a very broad rule of thumb. I know of some cases, like sub-reps for independent agents, where the number could be higher. And, for many industries, like wholesale distribution, I advocate a smaller number, like 13% to 17%.

Another thing to consider is past history. If you’ve been in business for a while, you should have some sense of how many calls or appointments it takes to be successful. If you haven’t tracked that number, it may be a good exercise to track it for all your reps for a couple of months, and then to use that as a guideline.

Having said all of that, I don’t think the number of calls is an important issue for most salespeople. It does have some application to guide a new salesperson to an appropriate level of activity. After that, however, there are other measurements that are more important: the quantity and quality of sales opportunities unearthed. In other words, if your salesperson can uncover $1 million worth of viable sales opportunities in five calls a week, more power to him. If another makes 25 calls to uncover the $1 million, so be it.

Figure out what a viable quantity and quality of opportunities per salesperson is and track them. It’s closer to the mark than calls. The number of calls measures the amount of raw activity in which your salespeople engage. The quantity and quality of sales opportunities measures a more significant thing— the amount of worthwhile activities in which your salespeople engage.

DAVE KAHLE

Dave Kahle is a leading sales authority, having written 12 books and presented in 47 states and 11 countries. For more information, visit davekahle.com.

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