The human race is kind of crazy in that we seem to organize everything into neat little buckets. If you were to drop in from space these would seem to make absolutely no sense. Being in sales, the difference between closing a deal this Wednesday (September 30) and next Wednesday is paramount even though it would make no difference to the company in the long term. The difference in that small snapshot is critical. In most Direct Store Delivery businesses this arbitrary cutoff can be divided into much more manageable and achievable goals. In high transaction, low dollar businesses, you can’t leave it to the last minute. Every day is quarter end to some extent in this type of business.
If you tell someone how they are measured, in general they can tell you how they will behave. Following that logic, if you don’t measure it, don’t expect it to happen. Very often, this key step is missed and we are left at the end of a period wondering why all of our hopes and dreams didn’t come true. In route sales, by publishing and tracking daily, weekly and quarterly goals, you can keep the field team motivated to sell that extra box, do one more stop or prospect for one more customer. Growth comes from a lot of “one mores” put together in a line. It very rarely comes from some monumental single event. More importantly, it is critical to communicate that these goals/targets are being watched. No one will care about the goal if you don’t demonstrate that you care about it. One of our most successful customers literally meets each and every routeman when they come in the door at the end of the day to review the day’s activities, results and to plan for the next day. Active management in a team environment where everyone is committed to the same goals and results creates a pretty amazing selling environment. They may not make their numbers every quarter, but they make it or lose it together and they know where they stand every day.
Sometimes we tend to look at the end goal and don’t give any thought to how we will fill the void between where we are and where we go. I think my daughter said it best when she said “just one more daddy.” Kids have this figured out when they are 4; it seems to take us adults a lot longer. Everyone is saying that times are tough. As a collective team, if we all just do “one more” (whatever that might be) then we harness a lot of productive power into our businesses.
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