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D32 is a premium business growth network where business leaders and experts in Perth and across Australia form meaningful relationships so they can leverage the time, contacts and activities of a vast network. D32 supports the little guys (and gals) and the 7-8-figure businesses. We’re a community that has each others’ backs. This podcast is about all things business, entrepreneurship and connectiom.
Sale Goals
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Kingsley: [00:00:00] Welcome to the District 32 podcast. Dean, glad to have you back on the East
Dean: Coast. Yeah, great to be back. Glad I missed, Alfred
Kingsley: the Typhoon. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect timing. It was, it's interesting because some places got hit hard and some places like where we live, we were. Very, very lucky. Lucky, to, to miss a lot of it.
But yeah. I know some people We had a house full of people. Yeah. Because they were gonna get safe and the cops were saying, you need to get outta here. Alright. Oh, okay. Cheers. So, yeah, so it was an interesting, interesting scenario.
Dean: Well, it's good. It's
Kingsley: gone. It it is. Good. It's gone. And now we've got you here instead of Alfred.
Oh, cheers. Bad substitute. Hopefully you'll be a bit nicer to us. Alright. I'll do your best. Now we've talked about a couple of a few subjects over the time with sales, marketing, networking, all of this sort of thing. So obviously you being big background in sales and sales management and all that sort of thing.
We were talking before and you wanted [00:01:00] to hit a subject, which I think is fantastic and I probably a lot of people haven't drilled down into this a lot yet, which is sales goals. So when you're setting sales goals, what, what's the actual thought process behind that? Obviously there's setting a goal. Yeah, yeah.
But drill down into setting a good sales goal.
Dean: Yeah. I, I think probably traditionally you probably, with sales people, they tend to kind of, probably go OTT with sales goals. As in knock it out the park. Big style. But, I think it's always, it is better to be prudent. Like it has to be manageable and kinda set a goal, that, you know, that's reachable, that'll stretch you a wee bit.
So just be reasonable. But I suppose other elements as well, you're gonna think of what, what, what is the process? So we, we touched on it before, like it, it's a, a no brainer. You have CRM is part of your system, has, has to be a part, part of that growth. I think thing as well as. Your ideal client?
Like who, who is your ideal client? And where are they hanging about? How are you [00:02:00] gonna prospect, prospect for them? How are you gonna engage them? Whether it's through networking, through the phones, through referral partners. So come up with a plan and the system of how you're actually going to, interact with these people, and kind of do, doing the, doing the figures I think is important.
So say for, for myself, last time I looked at my figures, I needed, uh, introductions, which would give me five warm leads, which can be one, one client, but that doesn't mean you're, seven more was they just probably need more, nurturing. So again, like you can do this kinda manually even for a period of time, just so you know, okay, well I need to have 60 meetings a month to get x amount of clients.
So I think it's important that, you know, the figures, 'cause it's, it's really, it's actually really good for the mindset as well. 'cause you kinda, okay, well. That's another one. I'm closer to getting to that, new client. So it's really good to have those, that, that data
Kingsley: for yourself. Can I pull you back and take a step back on that?
So someone's just, they, they've been running their business maybe for a few years and they've just got a bit of sales, isn't [00:03:00] really A category. Yeah. In their business, so to speak, or a department in their business at the moment, or maybe they're just starting. Yeah. How do I start to put figures like that?
Like what are things that I look at as far as how do I work out how many leads I need to, to warm leads to prospects. Yeah. To deal done. Where do I start?
Dean: Well, if you had zero experience, zero knowhow in sales, like talk to people, talk to other people in business. Explain to 'em here, here's what I'm doing.
I haven't a clue about how, how I'm gonna go about it. Here's what my ideal client, here's the people I wanna work for. And people who are in business a, a while can say, save you a lot of energy. And obviously dollars as well in terms of the process, the system. Like, I mean, sometimes people turn up for say, join, or come to a dis districts for event.
And you go, why? Networking? And they go, oh, someone said to me I should do networking. Be good for me. But there's no top behind it. No networking. I would recommend networking, and I'd recommend district 22. And it is a good strategy, not just for [00:04:00] the, the knowledge, the inspiration, but also from a sales point of view.
It's a great way of building pipeline, building connections or referral parts and all that type of stuff, but you should know why you're there in terms of, from a sales point of view. Rather than just signing up. Yeah, yeah. If he wants to sign up, just
Kingsley: gimme a show. So with, with putting the numbers, should I just set an arbitrary figure of, okay, I'm gonna make this many calls or get this many leads or whatever and see how it goes from there?
Yeah. Well, I, I think probably
Dean: would say as well, time management is, is, is a key thing. So, I mean, map out your week, okay, how much am I gonna spend at networking events? How much am I gonna spend on the phone? How much am I gonna spend, prospecting on LinkedIn? So start there. I mean, you don't need to have definitive the way I've just broken it down, as in I need 18, introductions to the X amount of leads to the X amount of, clients.
Start from scratch. Just record yourself. Okay. This week I. I needed, 20 introductions to get three warm leads to gimme one client and see what the trend, you'll probably find the [00:05:00] figures improve over time because you're actually doing the activity. But just start from scratch. Like I record it manually, as in,
how many calls I've made this week? How many, how many warm leads did I come to and how many, , new sales that I get?
Kingsley: So you're almost saying do it the opposite. Yeah. Just start doing it. Yeah. Writing down the figures. Yeah. And then you'll work out what figures you need to be. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, great.
Dean: And then, I mean, once you've got a handle on those sort of figures, then you can kinda set kind of. Okay, the target for whatever, March, April, et cetera, et cetera. But just put, we just do it. Is, is what I, if someone had no experience, just talk to people, and take action on the back of, the device.
You get there, obviously, filter it yourself. I. Do I feel comfortable doing it if I don't get someone, get a mentor or a coach to work with you around whatever those strategies are. 'cause we, we all started, I think, no one went out intentionally and said, I wanna be a sales guy when I grow up. I think for everyone, I, myself included, it was an accident.
So, yeah. So, and I was fortunate enough, across good people who gave me some time mentoring [00:06:00] wise. Along the way. So, yeah, get, get support, reach out if it's outside your comfort zone
Kingsley: and you have no experience. So when it comes to the goals, should we be focusing more on the end result or how many, what we are going to do for getting leads and things and how many.
You know, whether it's calls or how many, LinkedIn, you know, connections we're trying to get or whatever like that. What's, what should we be focusing on initially? Well,
Dean: it, it really depends on the business owner. 'cause like, say for someone like myself, like I'm spending all my time doing business development activity, whereas someone who's starting out, if it's safe, for example, it's an IT company.
They're in the business as well. They're doing the mechanics of servicing IT clients. So they may only have, let's just say it's 15 hours a week for business development activity. So you, they need to, you need to maximize that time. So, okay, where are we gonna spend my 15 hours this week in terms of, one-to-ones networking, LinkedIn activity, on the phone.
So, again, it will vary from individual to individual. As I said, [00:07:00] like someone like myself, like it's full. My whole week is all around business development sales, where if it's someone who's maybe starting out. They're, they're, they're in the business. So they might only have 10, 15 hours, 20 hours a week for activity.
But look at maximizing it. Like, for me it's all around, the activity, , and focusing on, okay, well, if I set myself a target to do 10 calls today, that's, that's the target for today. If tomorrow it's, I have more time, maybe it's 15 calls, 20 calls, and that's, that's the goal for just maximizing my time, as much as I can.
Kingsley: Okay. No, that's awesome. Is there anything else we need to know of about goals? Like should we have big year end goals?
Dean: Yeah, yeah. Like it's, yes, definitely set, set goals for closed business or increasing, turnover. But again, look, looking at the mechanics of how you're gonna do that. Like a question I got asked there last week is, should it be cold calling?
Not necessarily. If you kind of think there's so many ways to. Get in front of people, as in your, your contacts, referral partners, LinkedIn, [00:08:00] like if you're targeting someone, like who are they connected to through LinkedIn or life in general, even your social involvement with charity clubs. Just connections there.
So, cold call. I've only done cold calling probably once in the last probably six months. So there's ways around it where you can get warmer introductions, 'cause cold calling, return rates generally. The last time I checked were. A half a percent. So if there's ways where other people can put you in front of their contact list, their database.
So look at referral partners and using technology, but even, even something simple, like if you think about your phone, if you scroll tr go, go to, the letters, whatever, f like, and just haven't spoke to them in a long time, haven't spoke to them in a long time. So you really able say, oh listen, business is going well.
I'm looking to me, X, Y, z, , industry sector. But that's, so that's an untapped database. I mean, there's people on all our phones we haven't spoke to in weeks, months, or, or probably years in some cases. So there's a database of people who actually know you potentially, who could open a door for you. So even if you said, okay, [00:09:00] for, five minutes a day, you're gonna send out five texts that people haven't spoke to in the last three months.
Hey, it's just something simple. Hey, how you doing? How's life, how's business? And people usually reciprocate, well, how's things going for you? And then your conversation can develop so that, that would only take you about five minutes a day to send or leave less if you're, if you're a teenager, five texts a day.
Kingsley: Yeah, no, that's, that's a great idea actually. Really. And it's just building relationship with people, isn't it? That's, yeah. Which is a foundation. Good seller. Yeah,
Dean: exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think probably the other thing as well around setting goals. 'cause as I think we touched on before, mindset, plays a big impact on it.
So, , and you're only at more negatives generally with sales than you're positive. So, so what are you doing around your mindset? So, what are you reading, what are you listening to, who you're talking to? So, and, and that's important, even when you're starting your day, like is there a particular, is there someone positive?
Maybe it could be a podcast you're, you're listening to for 20 minutes or more. Definitely listen to this podcast. Well, you recommend that as well. But, but even who, [00:10:00] who are you talking to? Because, particularly when you're starting out sales. It, it can be tough. So who, who, who, who can you bounce it off?
And again, even if your experience, sometimes things change. It could be the economy. Maybe you've picked up a bad habit. So I could say, Hey, Kingsley, I'm really struggling lately. I'm not getting as much traction as I already do. Can you have a look at what I'm saying? And, and doing. And gimme a view.
And sometimes getting that third party opinion, can have, a massive impact. It could be just a line you're saying wrong or a tone. So yeah, so how, how, think about the mindset, around your goals. You wanna be positive. So think about what you're reading, what you're listening to, and who, who you're, who, who, who can you surround yourself with as well Is, is, is important to hitting your goals there as well.
Kingsley: A hundred percent. That's fantastic. Anything else you got there?
Dean: Probably just review, because as we were saying there, like markets change, people change, competitors change. So just review regular, like don't go a month without reviewing, what you've, what your performance is in terms of activity, in [00:11:00] terms of the results.
And just review. And again, if you need, bounce it off someone, a friend in business. Who, who, who can give you a view if, if you're struggling there then as well. So would you say then review your scripts as well? Yeah, a a hundred percent. Like I like scripts probably that I was using in the 30 years ago.
Probably wouldn't work now. No, no. So like things change again, I said sometimes it can just a sentence that just doesn't come across well. Or it could be as, it could be even just the tone you're using with a particular sentence, that could be offputting for people as well. So
Kingsley: it sounds like a lot there.
Mm. When you, when you're talking about it with selling, especially if you're in business and you didn't get in business to be a salesperson. No. No. You got in business to run a business. Yeah. Can you summarize very briefly? Yeah. Some things, simple things for people to do.
Dean: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We'll, we'll, well take, take action is important.
Even if you don't know what you're doing, take action. Go networking, meet with other people in business. Pick their brains in terms of tell 'em what you're doing, who your, who your ideal client is, who you wanna work [00:12:00] with. And I find people who visit generally are really good. They'll give you a bit of time 'cause we've all been there.
Starting, thinking your activity each week, okay? I've got five hours a week, 10 hours a week. And set yourself goals around the activity. X amount of time on the phone, X amount of time, networking, X amount of time, one-to-ones. Whatever those strategies you're gonna try. And, and, and review it.
Review everything you do, particularly if you're only starting off. In a kind of a, a business development sales role. Re review it as regular as you can weekly,
would be ideal, but don't go a month without not reviewing it.
Kingsley: Awesome advice as usual, Dean. Oh, cheers. Thank you very much. I've got some homework.
Oh, I've got stuff. Keep you outta trouble. Hopefully.