Door to door sales is making a comeback. With “Do Not Call” lists, email spam, mobile devices and digital recording, it has made it hard for companies to get their message to consumers.
Today, one of the best ways to reach potential customers is by knocking on their doors.
Many have benefited from this trend, and you can too, but just like anything else it takes practice and a roadmap.
One important aspect of door to door sales is paying close attention to some basic sales metrics, which can enhance your door to door sales success. We’ve all heard the saying before: “What can be measured can be managed.” While this timeless classic is great in theory, it falls short in a major area. It doesn’t tell sales managers exactly what they should be measuring in the first place. It leaves them guessing and wondering which metrics they should actually be focused on.
The Goal of Metrics
The reason metrics are so valuable to managers is because it provides them with the insight they need to determine where a canvasser or sales rep is either having success or struggling. The goal of analyzing sales data should be to understand where you need to spend your time coaching. Analytics should tell you the exact area where each sales rep needs to develop their skill set most.
This allows you to tailor your training to target specific development needs.
The importance of this data isn’t limited to just understanding the needs of an individual sales rep. Sales metrics are invaluable to understanding the success of every sales team within the company, and entire sales department as a whole. They help you to spot trends and determine efficiencies, and inefficiencies, within the company.
Sales Metrics You Need to Know to Improve Sales Performance:
Contact Rate: The number of decision makers (DM’s) a canvasser or rep speaks with.
The number of attempts a salesperson makes shows the effort their putting forth. If they’re knocking 100 doors every day and only speaking with 3 potential customers, it doesn’t really matter how many doors they knock because they’re mathematically setting themselves up for failure.
This is the first metric a field sales manager wants to look at if a salesperson is struggling. Their contact rate should be between 30% – 40%. I’ve seen very few reps have success when they only have a couple conversations per day. The goal is for field sales reps to get as many “at-bats” as possible. Just using simple math, more conversations means more leads and sales.
Even if they’re the worst salesperson ever, some people are going to say yes just because they have the need.
Bonus – Increasing your contact rate is done by testing out different times of day and days of the week for prospecting. For example, you will more than likely have a higher contact rate later in the afternoons when people are home from work. Try starting later so you can go later. Don’t hit the streets at 1pm because by 5 when people start getting home you’ll be tired. You can also rotate days to get full market saturation.
Lead Rate: The number of leads generated from the conversations had at the door.
Almost all managers are aware of how many leads their sales team generates, but few know who their most effective salespeople are. This builds off of the sales rep’s contact rate. A low lead rate percentage generally means the rep needs help with their pitch. It could mean they need to make their hook stronger.
Maybe their hook is great but they struggle when it comes time to actually set the appointment, and they need to develop their skill set to be able to add more value during this part of their pitch. It’s generally one of these two issues.
Bonus – This is where skill and training really come into play. Don’t expect your team to figure this out by themselves. Have a proven talk tract or script that you can train the team on. For a more in depth look at how to make your script check out this post on Sales Pitch Examples and here’s a video with 4 tips to increase sales.
Close Rate: The number of closed-won opportunities from the number of leads.
This metric is widely known but rarely calculated. It follows along the same path as a lead rate because most sales managers know how many deals a rep has closed, but fails to recognize that the rep who thinks he’s hot stuff… well, not so much. Sure, he has 15 sales this month and is 2nd on the team, but he’s done 100 presentations from appointments that the canvassing team has set for him.
This 15% close rate isn’t going to cut it. Meanwhile, the sales rep who’s only closed 10 deals this month has done 30 presentations, making his 33% close rate more than twice as good as the rep with more sales.
There’s a large misconception surrounding closes. The person with the most sales is quite often viewed as the “best.” The focus shouldn’t be on who has the most sales, but rather on who’s the most effective at closing. If the rep with the most appointments has the most sales, congrats – you should have the most sales!
Bonus – just like the pitch at the door you must have a locked in place pitch that is given during the presentation. When first training your reps you train them on this specific pitch and they can modify it to better match their style and personality as they get better.
Set Your Team Up For Success
As a sales manager, you’re leading people who are all at different stages of their career, with different backgrounds, different learning styles and unique personalities. Some are crushing the game, others are struggling. Some want to continue to develop their skill set, other could care less.
Because of this, it’s especially important to coach and support the individuals who demonstrate their desire to get better, even if they’re currently struggling in a bad way. Recognizing their strengths is a great way to help each member of your team succeed.
Average Revenue per Sale: The average amount of revenue a rep generates for each sale made.
Average Revenue per Sale (ARPS), also sometimes referred to as Average Revenue per Unit (ARPU), is a great way to identify your sales reps who are comfortable working with larger value prospects. For door to door companies selling a lower ticket item like cable and internet, this typically won’t affect you. For companies selling a service with a high price point, this is essential to understand.
Some sales reps simply have more success selling more deals at a lower price point than they do trying to only sell a few deals that make up their entire quota. Determining each person’s ARPS will help you set them up for success by providing them with leads that are likely to fall into the type of sale that they have more success handling. Newer salespeople are often intimidated, and lack the skill set to handle high value targets.
Their success is just as much dependent on you as it is themselves.
Rate of Follow-Up Contact: Number of opportunities with at least 1 follow-up activity recorded.
One of the quickest ways to waste marketing dollars is to not create and enforce a follow-up strategy. Some prospects get busy, have emergencies, or simply forget about appointments; life happens. It’s key to follow-up with them though because you already know for a fact that they were interested in your company’s offering at one point in time.
Persistence almost always pays off. At the very least, you’ll usually get an answer whether it’s “let’s do this,” or “kick rocks, pal.” The worst thing you can do is not get a final decision, good or bad, because it is a complete waste of time for your team.
Knowing these key ratios will allow you to understand where you need to improve. Do you need to make more attempts? Work on your pitch at the door? Or ask for the sale more often? Track you numbers and you will have a clear path to hitting your income goal.
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