11/24/2023-Q1 Planning

Don’t let December be a total washout of parties and coasting; pay attention to your Q1 today by reviewing the numbers that matter. Start with your sales call volume.

Strategic account planning is mostly about numbers; the numbers guide your selling strategy and direct your actions.

Obviously, your Q1 selling zone started a while ago. But, given it’s the Friday of a holiday week for many MSD subscribers, it’s a good time to analyze your numbers and revisit your Q1 selling strategy.

The challenge with numbers and data is that too much exists. So…what numbers should you look at to help your strategic planning?

Do some Q1 planning today by examining the numbers and start with the following:

1. Customer meetings/interactions: how many is your goal for Q1 24? Compare your Q1 24 goals against how many meetings you had in Q1 23 – break it out by new and existing customers.

2. What was your gross pipeline number in Q1 23 at this time last year? That data will tell you how you’re tracking now for Q1. Cross-index this data against your meeting volume from last Q1 for added insight.

Obviously, you can use many more numbers to help your Q1 and beyond. Work with them today while it’s slow and you have a fighting chance to affect your Q1 rev.

Numbers….big data….the cloud….yada yada yada. Business cliches and jargon are everywhere, and sometimes it gets a bit silly, but the fact is, facts matter.

Numbers are facts. And CRM data can be your friend or a tangled mess of what-the-heck-does-it-all-mean?

The number that you need to be constantly monitoring is how many customer interactions you are having. This is defined as a meeting when real business is discussed (not a ballgame); it is a pitch meeting, a "sales call," or a "proposal presentation." It’s an event when business is being conducted face to face. (In every other communication mode, you don’t possess comparable selling leverage, so you need to be strict about how you define "customer interactions.")

While other numbers like close-rate, pipeline size, opportunity size, and close rate cross-indexed against opportunity size – – while all those numbers are helpful, you must stringently monitor your sales call volume. Taking it one step further means dividing your list of prospects amongst these categories:
1. KDMs (Key Decision Makers),
2. Influencers, and,
3. Quiet Observers who can’t do crap for ya (yes, it’s a client profile).

If you can calculate how many interactions you have against each customer type, then your layered analysis, including opportunity size, win rate (closed-won), etc., means something that can help you strategically.

Don’t let December be a total washout of parties and coasting; pay attention to your Q1 today by reviewing the numbers that matter. Start with your sales call volume.

Wanna watch a clip featuring some cool strategic planning? (Yes, "cool" and "strategic planning" can go together in the same sentence.)

Watch Matt Damon using numbers to plan against personal starvation while stranded on Mars in The Martian. This 4-minute clip showcases his ingenuity and resourcefulness that ultimately saved his life. (Okay…it’s a movie, but it’s still cool.)

Your strategic account planning will never be life or death like what The Martian faced, but your selling efforts will be more productive after you get comfy with your numbers.