Close Your Sales Rings

Go back 20 years and ask any given group of people if they counted the number of steps they took in a day, they would back away from you slowly and look at you suspiciously. Who cared? The answer is no one ... until the Fitbit became popular and we were all fixated on getting in our 10,000 steps.

In 2015, Apple did what Apple does best: Making something that already exists, better. One of the apps available on that device encouraged users to meet daily movement, exercise, and calorie goals and thereby “Close your rings.” The downside is, the app only covers physical activity. What we need, Tim Apple, is something that covers sales activity. But since that is probably down at the bottom of your priority list, allow me to take a whack at a prototype.

Sales activity is at the core of sales success. It is the first in many steps that lead to fame, fortune, and commissions. Reps are tasked with daily, weekly, and monthly activity. They oscillate between doing the work and planning the work. Close all the rings on a regular basis and victory is theirs:

Your Daily Rings (Movement, momentum, and staying in the game)

Prospecting Activity Ring — As a certain football coach would preach: No days off! New business activity is your oxygen. Every day must include some action items that service some part of the sales funnel. Small efforts act like compounding interest. Even setting a goal of just two calls a day before 9am is 10 a week, 40 a month, and just under 500 a year. That said, it is completely acceptable to set a weekly sales activity goal and then chip away at it daily and unevenly. Hit the goal by the end of the week and you’ve closed your prospecting activity ring.

Relationship Ring — Here, you want to make contact with existing customers; doing more than the useless, “Just checking in” waste of time. What can you do to strengthen the relationship? Who needs a “Do you know what else we do?” reminder? Where can you demonstrate you are keeping them top of mind? This ring closes when you have added value somewhere or improved customer loyalty.
Pipeline Ring — Acceptable actions include updating your CRM, following up on a quote, and sending an estimate. Move closer to a sale and you close
this ring.

Visibility Ring — This one is all about marketing. It's important to note how this category repeats itself in the weekly and monthly sections. That’s how essential it is. But with a low-bar end goal of reminding even one person you exist, even writing a personal note of thanks closes the ring. Other options are to post or comment on a post. And with common courtesies no longer common, the judges will allow something as simple as expressing thanks for an order. Sadly, that stands out as extraordinary.

Your Weekly Rings (Building strength and structure)

Appointment Ring — For the Fitness App, some rings are harder to close than others. Meeting this weekly sales requirement is not activity-based but rather results-based. Pick a minimum number of secured appointments as a goal. Hit the goal, close the ring. Until then, however, keep calling.

Opportunity-Check Ring — The next stage after sales activities is opportunities. This is the green room for closed orders. Determine how many opportunities (read: future business) you need at any one time and engage in activities to refill that bucket to ensure the number does not fall below your stated goal.

Marketing Ring — Here it is again: Marketing. This one is about you. To close this ring you must, at minimum, push out one piece of content. This might be a LinkedIn post or a case study. The goal is to position yourself as an expert in your field, so that when a need arises a customer contacts you because they see you as someone who understands them and their needs.

Learning Ring — Believe it or not, this is one of the most difficult rings to close. We all talk about skills improvement, but only the small percentage of salespeople who stop to sharpen the saw earn the right to close this ring.

Monthly Rings (Long-term growth)

New Account Ring — Here’s another results-based sales activity. Only by securing new customers do you get to close this ring. Side note: I’ve become a big proponent of setting new business goals to be a set number of accounts, not an overall dollar amount.

Greater Share of Customer Ring — (Self-Explanatory)

Relationship Depth Ring — When you turn a single point of contact into a situation where your walking into an account is akin to Norm walking into Cheers, you close this ring. You want a client’s office to be a place where everybody knows your name.

Marketing Ring — The third of three marketing appearances, closing this one requires launching a sales campaign, such as an email series to new accounts or selling more to existing accounts. This is a top-of-funnel project.

Pipeline Audit Ring — Once a month, clean out the deadwood by eliminating nuisance accounts or contacting customers who have gone dark. Remember, not everyone is your customer and not everyone should be given some of your precious time. Productivity involves the disciplined pursuit of the right activities.

Big Fish Ring — You can grow your sales slowly or you can take a quantum leap. Pick one. Big growth comes from adding a big account and that requires monthly actions be taken. You should have 7 big fish identified and be taking action on 5 of them every month.

There is nothing instant about physical fitness. Health is built action by action, day after day. The same can be said for sales growth. Successful salespeople meet daily, weekly, and monthly sales activity requirements. They don’t skip steps in the process. Little goals combined with the discipline to reach them affect the sales needle. Moving between being in the foxhole (i.e. – sales actions) and floating overhead checks both sales and marketing boxes. And that makes the phone go: Ring, ring!