Tracking Your Success

Knowing Your Numbers: When I made a commitment all those years ago to doing what ever I needed to do to become a Top 20% producer, I was taught about the importance of knowing, tracking, and interpreting the number and kinds of phone calls I was making. Before this I had no idea of how many or what kinds of calls I was making, and

I soon learned how much more effective I could be once I began tracking them.

First of all, let’s talk about how to do it. Even if your company can track your total number of calls, I still highly recommend that you take responsibility for it in the following way —

1. Each morning get out a new sheet of paper and make three columns at the top — Calls, Contact, and Deals/Leads. Down the left side, create one-hour time slots — 8 to 9 AM, 90 to 10 AM, etc.
2. Next, use stick figures each time you dial the phone; make four of them and then cross them all with the fifth one so you can easily count them later. One line for each time you dial the phone, but record one in the contact column only when you reach the prospect, buyer or decision maker. Obviously when you accomplish your goal of a qualified lead or deal, then record that in the third column.

Here’s what to look for — first of all, after a few days of keeping track of this, you’ll see not only what your overall effectiveness is like – how many total calls you’re making – but also what time of day is more effective for contacts, cold calls, etc. Now that you have hard numbers, you’ll also be able to begin setting goals for making more calls in a day or week and thus be able to track increased effectiveness. This is crucial for setting effective goals.

Another benefit is that you’ll also be able to divide the number of calls by year earnings and come up with a hard number of just how much money you make each time you pick up the phone. Is each call worth 5 dollars? $10? Or more?

Knowing this kind of information is very empowering. It will suddenly create an urgency for you that wasn’t there before. Now each time you’re not dialing, you’re literally robbing yourself of money. Try it and you’ll soon see what I mean.

Also, if you’re a manager or business owner, you’ll soon find that the numbers don’t lie. Not making your revenue numbers? How many real calls is your sales team making? This is a great way to hold your group accountable.

Overall, knowing how your numbers equate to your actual results and success is what each Top 20% producer thoroughly understands. You should too. Why not start today?