The Action-Tracking System - - Profit Pointers=?ISO-8859-1?B?gSAgIA==?=Curriculum, Issue 17
The Action-Tracking System - - Profit Pointers™ Curriculum, Issue 17
(For application of these principles to: business, real estate, network marketing, personal development, see APPLICATION TIPS below.)
It always amazes me how little attention we humans pay to sales leads, and yet we moan about wanting new business.
Let me start by asking you a question. How do new customers find our about you? Is it through referral of current customers, or do they come from advertising or both? And what else? And what about network marketing – what are all the ways your new folks are introduced to your network?
However your business comes, I guarantee that you don’t have an air tight system for following it up and turning it into sales. How can I make such an audacious statement? Because I’ve trained thousands of companies large and small, and the story is always the same. Some leads fall through the net, and it’s for a very simple reason. If you conquer this simple reason, you can double and triple your revenue.
Would you like to know the answer? OK, it’s to have an air tight ‘Action-Tracking’ system for your new business leads. By that I mean a way to record the leads, that allows you to take action on every single one. In addition it should allow you to take the right action at the right time.
In my book ‘In Pursuit of Profit,’ I talk about company accounts. Every company has someone looking after the money in and the money out, and it is done meticulously. Yet the leads, if turned to sales, would be just as important to the company as the accounts book. So why I ask, don’t we all have leads books?
And that’s what I call in our business training seminars the ‘Action-Tracking System.’ It’s a book or a spread sheet just like a book of accounts that allows you to record the prospect’s name and the date you should take action, and what the action will be. So you have two critical things listed for every prospect IN ADVANCE of doing it: the date you’ll do it, and what you will do.
Most companies do it as a postmortem, IF they do it at all. They say they have a tracking system because they write down the action AFTER it was taken – this is totally non productive because it does not cause the right thing to happen at the right time. It’s simply a record of what was done, good or bad.
Let’s take an example. You know that your prospect has a short interest span. Let’s look at network marketing again. If the prospect comes to an introductory meeting, they’ll be very excited that evening. They can see themselves succeeding at it. If your action is to talk with them and sign them up, you’re chances are much higher if you meet with them immediately after the meeting. If you wait to call them the next day, many things from everyday life come up to deter them. Their regular job seems overwhelming, the kids have soccer practice, there is no time etc. However the night of the event, their optimism is high and they imagine their ability to do it. That’s what I mean by timing.
The same is true in every business. Whether machinery sales or real estate, if we wait too long to close the sale the prospect can go off to a competitor, or spend their budget on something else.
And so in your lead book, you write the name, the intended action and the intended action date. Then you cross it off when finished, and record the intended follow up until you get a sale or a no sale. The more you take the correct action on the correct day, the better your sales. The less often you take the correct action on the correct day, the lesser your sales.
When I was interviewing top sales people around the world for my book ‘Secrets of the World’s Top Sales Performers,’ they all said the same thing to me. They said, “Christine, anybody can do it.” Most of them were making 500% - 600% of the amount of their colleagues selling the same thing in the same area. What was different about them was their consistency. They all knew exactly what they would do every day, and they did it. Day in and day out. No excuses. No alibis. They had their ‘Action-Tracking System’ and they stuck by it.
3 MINUTE ACTION TIP: To dramatically increase your sales, think of how your customers find out about you. Then create a lead book called your Action-Tracking System, showing what day you should take action and what that action will be. Then implement according to plan. When you do, your revenue will multiply.
APPLICATION TIPS:
Business and sales, USE THIS ACTION TIP to increase sales, and increase management control.
Real estate, USE THIS ACTION TIP with your assistant, team members and yourself to improve results.
Network marketing, USE THIS ACTION TIP with your team members and yourself to improve recruitment by leaps and bounds.
Personal/ leadership development, USE THIS ACTION TIP with all new contacts to improve your results on any goal.
REFERENCE RESOURCE: Chapter 12, Pages 111-122, In Pursuit of Profit, by Christine Harvey - an international best selling training tool, used by corporations around the world to improve results instantly.
About the Author:
Christine Harvey was the first woman and first American elected to Chair a London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where a business start-up initiative was launched with Prince Charles. She also served as Director on the International Board of Zonta, with 36,000 members in 62 countries and Margaret Thatcher as honorary member, as well as two venture capitol boards – one in the UK and one in the US.
She is the author of six international marketing and leadership books now published in 25 languages by 48 publishers, including ‘In Pursuit of Profit.’
She has been a lecturer at the Institute of Directors in London, and her company has trained over 100,000 people in management in Europe, America, Australia and Asia. She was honored by addressing the Parliament of Czechoslovakia on the subject of Privatization of Industry, and the Parliament of Rwanda on Policy for the Growth of Private Industry, and has been consulted by the media in numerous countries.
