Decreased margins, introduction of A4 MFPs aka MFD, lower MSRPs, increased competition for net new business equals a whole heck of a lot of work!!
Years ago you could sell four or five 40 & 50 page per minute multifunctional devices and the average selling price with accessories would be in the $13-$18k range. Over the years I've pretty much tracked about 6 systems per month, thus it was easier to hit your total revenue number and or your GP number than it is now. Continued pressure from Direct, introduction of A4's, lower MSRPs and the pressure to win net new business has lowered revenue and profits.
So, what is one to do? For starters one needs to prospect more, and some will say that I have no time left to add for additional prospecting. By the time I've made my calls, updated my CRM, did the appointments and created the proposals there is NO MORE time left in the week!
Yoda, would then tell you "Luke, it's time management, if you want to play with the big dogs, hit the revenue for each month and quarter, then you'll need to....."PROSEPCT BY DAY AND QUOTE BY NIGHT", and may the force be with you!
Prospect by Day and Quote by Night is one of the other sales quotes that I try to live by. Ours is not a 9 to 5 job, and if you need to add more prospecting time then you need to move one of your tasks out of prime prospecting time. Those who can't quote at night (family time), can maybe approach it by getting to the office an hour earlier and leaving 30-45 minutes later. Using this type of time management you can have an additional 7.5 hours of prospecting by moving your quote time!!
Newbies in the industry are probably not generating as many quotes and proposals, thus most of their time will be spent prospecting. Usually within to 3-4 weeks they have generated enough interest or gathered leads that they too will need to find the time to quote and prepare proposals. Point of the matter is that newbies will then sacrifice prospecting time to generate proposals and quotes, which then takes them on that downward spiral because there're not prospecting as much.
For instance this month (for me), is already 25% over, I have the next 3 weeks or 14 selling days to hit my number. Thus, I've already made a plan to be in by 7AM and leave by 5PM, and I'll save all of the quotes and proposal work for when I get to my home office. Don't have a home office? The I suggest you start one...NOW.
So from 7AM to 9AM, I will update my CRM, send emails, read emails, and prepare a few mailers. If I have no appointments for the day I will prospect all day long, since this is a short week in the US, I've got Wednesday and Thursday booked with half the day Tuesday and all day Friday ready for prospecting.
Prospect by Day and Quote by Night works, and I hope you'll be giving it a go!
-=Good Selling=-
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