A great thing about being a salesperson is you get to essentially run your own “enterprise” (assist to Chris Young for branding that word). There are two big challenges that come along with that responsibility:
1. Deciding which current and future customers should receive the focus of your time
2. Working and communicating with others internally on what their role is in creating, growing and executing those sales (which we will tackle in the next Time To Win)
An exercise around the 80/20 rule is a great way to tackle the first challenge – meaning 80% of your revenue is generally from 20% of your customers. Once you have done the exercise you should know the minimum revenue to be a top 20% customer. At GKB we do an exercise called Keys and Targets to identify the 80%. Whatever process you use, the overall goal is to prioritize your time on the right current and future customers to maximize your revenue. Your focus can then be on:
1. Current customer growth: It’s generally easier to grow a customer from $100,000 dollars to $200,000 than take a customer from zero dollars to $50,000.
2. Future or new customer growth: Now that you have a base dollar amount for what makes up 80% of your billing, focus your time on those current and future customers who could one day make that top 20% threshhold.
We all have a limited amount of time to run our “enterprise”. When you focus your time on your biggest opportunities you and your most important customers will win more.
