Sesson #4: Accountability for Sales Activities and Sales Results

Who’s Holding You Accountable for Sales Results Mr. Business Owner?

Willingness to be Accountable and Hold Your Team Accountable for Sales Results Essential

To whom are you accountable when it comes to getting sales results in your business? To whom is each and every person charged with selling or managing clients held accountable? If you’re like most business owners and professionals I meet the answer may be that you don’t like to be held accountable to anybody for anything.

I’ve been guilty of that. Until I hired my first business and sales coach many, many years ago. As business owners it’s pretty easy to get stuck in our silos with lack of accountability for making sure the sales results fall in line with projections.

Let’s define accountability compliments of Merriam Webster’s online dictionary.

ac·count·abil·i·ty

noun ə-ˌkau̇n-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē

Definition of ACCOUNTABILITY
: the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions <public officials lacking accountability>

The word that jumps out at me in this definition is responsibility. We, as the owners of our businesses, must make sure we are willing to be held accountable for our own sales and business development behaviors. Show me a business owner who isn’t out selling, networking and closing deals and I’ll show you a business owner who is probably lacking for sales. We must be responsible when it comes to managing our sales and business behavior.

So how do you become more accountable for daily sales activities and results for your own business? For me, like with any sport I’ve wanted to get better at playing, I’d hire a coach. I’ve also hired many sales coaches, business coaches and one life coach (she was a disaster but I won’t bore you with the details.) If you want to be more disciplined and get consistently better sales results you and your entire sales team will need to be held accountable for the only thing you can control in a given day; your activities.

Let’s face it. We only have so much time in the day as business owners. Sales people too. Okay everyone. But the point is you can only control activities. If you’re sitting at your desk and sorting your paperclip box or whatever, and this is typical of your day, you are probably not focused on the highest and most productive use of your time.

What if you and your sales or business coach decided that in order to meet your sales and profit goals or this year you needed a plan that detailed your level of activity as it relates to your specific goals. So let’s say you decided you want to grow sales by 50%. What would this mean for your activities or those of your sales force? Typically it means you will need to double the volume of sales activities or increase your prices.

Which means every day that you get into your office you know you need to do the following if you had focused on the level of daily sales activities you need to achieve …

1. Call 30 prospects and customers today to address new business potential.
2. Talk with 10 prospects and customers today to address new business potential.
3. Schedule 5 new business meetings every week.
4. Close one new deal every week.
5. You have committed to your coach this level of activity that relates to sales results.

Now if you as the owner of the business is willing to be this way what do you think would happen to your sales team if they were coached, educated, nurtured, managed, and lead by a dynamic sales leader who sets the pace every week? Big difference in sales results would be my conclusion.

How are you held accountable today? Are you focused personally on sales results or do you defer to a sales director to handle this with you? What have you noticed for positive change by virtue of your willingness to be accountable for daily sales activities?

We always appreciate your comments and feedback here on the blog.

Let us know your thoughts about impacting sales results through accountability in your business.