Napoleon was once involved in a conversation with a colonel from a Hungarian battalion who had been taken prisoner in Italy. This fellow mentioned he had fought in the army of Maria Theresa.
“You must have a few years under your belt!” exclaimed Napoleon.
“I’m sure I’ve lived sixty or seventy years,” replied the colonel.
Napoleon continued, “You mean to say you have not kept track of the years you have lived?”
The colonel promptly replied, “Sir, I always count my money, my shirts, and my horses; but as for my years, I know nobody who wants to steal them, and I shall surely never lose them.”
This is a humorous way to say that it’s important to keep score, and is especially true if you are making your living in the sales profession. But many times numbers can be confusing, as in this math limerick:
“A dozen, a gross and a score,
plus three times the square root of four,
divided by seven,
plus five times eleven,
equals nine squared and not a bit more.” (Author unknown)
In sales everybody knows you can’t close it until you propose it, so it’s critical to determine the dollar amount you must expose and propose each month. The short answer to that question depends on two factors you should already know; your goal (budget), and your closing percentage (batting average).
Once you establish those two stats and have access to a calculator, you’re only a few guzzenta’s (i.e. 2 guzzenta 6, 3 times), like Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies from setting accurate proposal objectives.
Here are the basic calculations to determine your needed monthly proposal output:
- Enter your closing percentage: ______% (If this is your first sales job, use 10% until you establish your number).
- Enter your monthly sales goal or budget: $ __________.
- Now do the guzzenta’s and divide your sales goal by your closing percentage, and the quotient is the dollar amount of proposals you need to generate to hit your monthly sales goal, based on that given closing percentage.
Here is an example of what that might look like:
- Hypothetical closing percentage = 20%
- Hypothetical monthly sales budget = $50,000
- Guzzenta’s: $50,000 divided by .20 (20%) = $250,000 in proposals
TIP: If that figure sounds overwhelming, break it down to a daily goal by dividing that monthly amount by 20 workdays. ($250,000 divided by 20 workdays = $12,500 in daily proposal output)
This certainly sounds better, but you can do one more guzzenta to make your objective even more mentally manageable. Simply divide the daily proposal output by whatever the average size transaction is in your industry, i.e. $12,500 divided by $5,000 (hypothetical) = 2.5 “typical” proposals per workday.
By reducing this monthly proposal goal into a daily goal, you are left with a proposal objective much more achievable, assuming, of course, you maintain the proper level of daily activity.
So if this example mirrors your activity, 2.5 proposals per day would produce $50,000 in monthly sales, without improving any of your performance metrics! $50K in 
sales may look tough, but 2.5 sales proposals each day…not so much! Everything is a matter of perspective.
Yard by yard it’s hard, but inch by inch it’s a cinch!
How about making a comment in the Speak Your Mind area below about one of your experiences with forecasting your needed proposal output in order to reach your sales goals?
©2014 Robinson Training Solutions, LLC
