How to Measure Your Cold Calling Efforts

By Ron La Vine, MBA
President, Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.

Reaching selling goals not only requires that they be written and date specific but also having the ability to measure the results. The following exercise will enable you to measure your selling effectiveness. You will need your phone bill and/or a log of your phone calls to complete the exercise.

SALES FORCE METRICS

MEASURING CALL EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY EXERCISE
How much talk time do you have per:
Hour __________________________Day ___________________ Week ____________

How many people do you actually speak with per:
Hour __________________________Day ___________________ Week ____________

How many messages do you leave per:
Hour __________________________Day ___________________ Week ____________

What is the average length of each call you make: Minutes _______________

How many calls do you need to make to get a qualified contact or sale per:
Hour __________________________Day ___________________ Week _____________

What do you say during a successful call:
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

What occurs during an unsuccessful call:
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________


CONTACT QUALIFICATION SUCCESS RATIO EXERCISE

FORMULA REQUIREMENTS

“A” is the total number of hours worked during a specific period of time (day, week, month, year)
A = _____

“B” is the total amount of talk time
B = _____

“C” is the total number ‘successful calls’ (i.e., spoke with the intended contact)
C = _____

“D” is the total number of prospects qualified
D = _____

OVERALL PERFORMANCE FORMULA

D divided by A = Number of prospects per hour = Overall Performance
D _____ / A _____ = __________ = Overall Performance

OVERALL EFFICIENCY FORMULA
C divided by A = Successful calls per hour = Efficiency
C _____ / A _____ = __________ = Overall Efficiency

OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS FORMULA
D divided by C = Prospects made per Successful calls = Overall Effectiveness
D _____ / C _____ = __________ = Overall Effectiveness

OVERALL CALL ANALYSIS FORMULA
Take the number of quality calls made (C) and divide it by the total calls made during the amount of talk time (B). Then ask yourself at what times of day were these calls made. Why were these calls successful? Note: Overall Performance = Overall Efficiency x Overall Effectiveness.

Here are other areas where you or management can measure your performance or evaluate your abilities:

QUANTITATIVE METRICS

SALES RESULTS
During a specific time period (a year, quarter or month), what were the:
1. Total dollar amount of sales of your sales production? ____________
2. Number of sales you made? ____________
3. Number of sales calls by phone you made? ____________
4. Number of sales calls in person you made? ____________
5. Average sales size (units or dollars) ____________
6. Batting average (sales + sales calls) ____________
7. Number of sales canceled ____________


SALES VOLUME

During a specific time period (a year, quarter or month), what were the dollar sales volume by:
1. Customer type ____________
2. Industry type ____________
3. Product or service category ____________

ACCOUNTS

During a specific time period (a year, quarter or month), what were the:
1. Number of new accounts you generated _____
2. Number of lost accounts _____
3. Percentage of accounts sold _____

Sales Efforts

During a specific time period (a year, quarter or month), what were the:
1. Number of sales calls made to current customers _____
2. Number of sales calls made to prospective new customers _____
3. Average amount of time invested per call _____
4. Number of sales presentations or software evaluations _____
5. Amount of selling time vs. amount of non-selling time _____vs._____

Be sure you are setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time specific) and you will be on your way to increasing your sales in less time than before.

REPRINT PERMISSION

Ron S. La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the complementary bimonthly Sales Tips and Telesales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com/free_tips_signup.htm. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Training please call Ron at 1-818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.