I was having lunch with a business colleague today who works at a relatively small company and she was telling me her concern that her sales team was closing less than 50% of their targets. She was behind on her actual versus projected YTD sales and was frustrated about what to do to reverse this trend. So, I asked her a question: “Do you SCRUB your targets on a consistent basis?” She looked at me in a funny way and asked if I meant scrub as in washing a target. I said…Right On!
Okay so what do I mean by “Scrub your targets?” It works like this:
WEEKLY SCRUB between the Commervical Leader and his/her salespeople to make sure all targets are on track to close as planned, client concerns to close the targets are being properly identified and addressed, as well as, to keep each salesperson focused on their deliverables to close new business.
MONTHLY SCRUB between the commercial team and all headquarters functions directly related to closing targets to review status of targets, address open deliverables/issues and to insure the headquarters team is in lock-step with the commercial team to close the target. An added benefit of this scrub is that the manufacturing, quality, logistics and supply chain groups get critical information to better plan their deliverables to make sure a target will close as planned.
QUARTERLY SCRUB involving the leadership from the commercial, manufacturing, quality, supply chain and logistics teams with the C-Suite Executives to keep them informed of actual versus projected growth, areas where the C-Suite Team can help accelerate growth and to reinforce to upper management the value being created for the company and its clients by working as a cohesive team.
The point is if you are going to have a target list of new business to be closed and your business is counting on closure of this new business to achieve its financial projections, you have to use the target list as a tool to keep all functions focused on the timely achievement of their deliverables.
Another key point is it takes “teamwork” to close any new business and a target list created and agreed upon by all functions within the company is an excellent tool to make sure everyone has ownership in the success of the company.
As for my friend who gave me the funny look…..She will be SCRUBBING TARGETS with her team tonight!
Need help in improving your company’s target closure rate or to implement a target list/review process that results in profitable, new business closed on-time, I can help you. Call me at 248-760-6564 or email me at rich@TrueNorthPMPConsulting.com
