4 Quick Wins for Sales Managers

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Four Areas that Make a Real Difference on the Floor:

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Thank you for joining managing the metrics, which is how to use numbers to coach, to train, and to build a high performing team. Performance metrics are not important because of what they measure, but they're important because of what they tell us to pay attention to and they tell us what to do. So the numbers don't lie. They tell us the story of the team, of the culture, of leadership.

And in this session, we're going to move from reporting numbers to managing through those numbers. That's what we're gonna look at today. The first key is we're gonna look at is to interpret the key performance metrics that tell you what your team needs, and we're gonna break those down. So most managers have access to performance metrics either throughout the day. They may keep them open on their desktop. You may look at them once a day.

What is your particular relationship to how frequently you look at the numbers and what numbers you look, especially close ratio and average sale? In addition to I look at at goal as the primary metric. In addition to that, traffic close ratio, average sale, and then revenue per opportunity, I would look at as the the big the big four. And then from there, I would start to look at performance metrics like sketching and appointments to see what's happening with those as as tools to enhance the interaction and as results and outcomes of the interaction. And then key product or category performance looking at, say, protection, mattresses, and financing.

And I know that financing, is a little different across the board, but it's still one of my most important metrics. So I look at them, and you might look at them against last year, against goal, against the previous month to see sort of where you are for that. Now I would also look at them against the industry. Mhmm. So Trackwell AI, which is the door counter for a lot of people that that that that's able to sort of synthesize the information from the door and other CRM kind of information like contacts and appointments, and it does texting, I think, as well.

TrackWell AI puts out monthly national averages so that I know that for May, like, the national number of ups is 11 a day. The national written business each day. What the national amount of time is that people spend with an up, what the national close ratio and average sales are for both mattresses and furniture. And I really like that to look at that as when someone says, well, they're our top performer. And I say, well, what are they writing?

And they're like, well, they wrote 45,000 last month. And I'm thinking, yikes. That's like king or queen of a two foot hill, you know, with that. And so, you know, especially when you look at against the the national averages. So I like those so that we can see where do we stack up nationally against everyone, large and small.

So let's look at the top four. Let's look at traffic. So we'll start with traffic. So it's steadily been declining for the last five years, and there's nothing to tell us that that's gonna be any different.

And it's been declining between 811% for most stores. How much traffic you need depends on what you do with it, what your close ratio is, and what your average sale is. So that when salespeople say or designers say, we don't have enough traffic, my question is, well, what are you doing with what you've got? Like, what's your current close ratio and average sale? Because you may need not you may not need more traffic. You need to close more of the traffic that you've got.

Higher end stores can get away with less traffic because they can do more project work, which leads to higher close ratios and average sale than, say, an Ashley or or Bob's or a promotional store might do. And then we need to watch this in terms of marketing effectiveness, how many people are coming in return versus new opportunities, and how much time do we have for downtime or low traffic time for appointments and for training and coaching opportunities. Right? And when we look at staffing the store, how many people do we need for when we're open and for when high traffic times are? And it's surprising to me how some people don't really know when their high traffic times are. But if you just put your store into Google, it will tell you.

If you don't know, it will tell you. So do you know do you know how many people each of your salespeople and designers need to see every month for them to make their goal. It's a good number for us to have because we really need to give them that. Like, some of it, we we gotta let them create, but some of it, we really need to give them.

Mhmm. I look at stores that do house calls, you know, that do do a lot of appointments with that. They can go anywhere from 60 to 75. That's how low you can go with them. But you really have to cultivate projects because they are big ticket and they take more time. When I look at from 75 to say a 100 is stores that are still special order stores that they probably do more special order than they do selling off the floor, and then you could go over a 100 to a 125 per person with it, like, an Ashley store.

So when salespeople say then they're always gonna say I don't have enough traffic, but depending on what they're doing with the traffic that they're getting. But we need to know how many do we actually need so that we can give them a shot to make their goal. We have to provide something like that.

Okay. Next, close ratio and conversion. This is like the batting average. This is the critical number. And this is this number is often offset by what the average sale is so that I can look at stores that I work with that are very small stores. Some are high close ratio.

Some are not. But when they have a $5,000 average sale, they can afford to not close everyone because of that. But close ratio is a is the is the fundamental performance indicator because it is it's what you do with what you get. And we're gonna get to revenue per opportunity, which I think is even better. But what's your close ratio for your store now?

Let's look at average sales. So average sale is the easiest number to The challenge is is it doesn't matter what you increase it to unless you close it. High end stores tend to have a higher average sale because of the product, which makes performance look better, but it's really not about performance as much as it is about product mix. So when we look at both of those together, close ratio and average sale, is how we get revenue per opportunity, which is revenue per opportunity, dollars per up, sales per guest, performance index. It's all the same.

So when we look at revenue per opportunity dollars per up, the the thing I I love most about this is that since it's a combination of both close ratio and average sale, it tells you what every customer is worth based on who waits on them. So if someone has a revenue per opportunity of, say, $7.50 and someone else has revenue opportunity of twelve fifty, I would much rather the twelve fifty because they're gonna close more than they're gonna close for bigger tickets. And unlike most most revenue per opportunity, if you drill down to close ratio and average sale, you're gonna see with the strength and where the deficit actually resides. So that you know in terms of training, where do you wanna lean into, what's the number that needs a boost. When we look at it, there are really only actually four things that increase both close ratio and average sale.

So the the four things that increase it are not in any order, but they're they all matter. Sketching increases both close ratio and average sale. You close more people and you close for bigger tickets. Appointments of any kind, on the phone, be back appointments, house call appointments, or virtual appointments. You increase your close ratio and you increase your average sale.

So house call appointments are four times your average sale. 90% close ratio at the first presentation is what it should be and what it is when you follow the system. Feedback appointment, 67% close ratio. On the phone, if you close them on the phone, that's a 100.

Because if you're only doing close ratio by traffic count, then start making more appointments on the phone. If they're gonna go home and measure, say, great. Let me give you a call at 06:00 after you've measured. We can do it over the phone. You don't have to come back. That's a 100% close ratio.

One traffic unit, unless you count it by contacts, and even if you count it by contacts, it's 50 per So we've got sketching. We've got appointments. Financing. Financing increases both close ratio and average sale. And it's a whole thing all by itself just like protection is, that you've got people that aren't selling using protection.

They don't see it as a value and all that. Blah blah blah blah blah. It's like you gotta use financing. Financing is not just for people that can't afford furniture if they didn't use it ever, ever. And lastly is mattresses. Because mattress average sale is above the national average for furniture, and it's an 80% close ratio.

So if we look at it and say, I want to improve revenue per opportunity and I want to improve both close ratio and average sale, then it's like, shoot. I am I'm not going to focus on everything, but I am gonna focus on the things that drive those numbers up. If you wanted to increase close ratio as a sales manager, what are your actions and what are the salespeople's actions? What actions because actions are the only things that produce results. What actions will increase close ratio?

Fabric samples do not leave the store without an appointment to return. Like, never, never, never. Like and you could charge for them or or say or not charge for them and let them know you don't charge for them. But if they without an appointment, they are gonna shop with that sample.

Yep. And you lost control. That's why mechanic don't let their tools out of the garage for a good reason. It's a good thing to look at because speaking to performance indicators, because that's what they indicate, and we have to look a little bit further, is that are they just using a sample as a hook, but it's still, you know, probability to close is, 30%. But they're using it as a hook, or is it really something that they're that interested to take a sample home?

And if they're that interested to take a sample home, they're that interested to make an appointment. The sample becomes their homework that tethers them to that salesperson. If you make appointments, you're gonna close it because it increases the serious nature of what we're doing. Other actions that increase close ratio.

Be prepared to follow-up five times and alter the method of communication. But if they're not if they're not gonna do five follow ups, one is it doesn't matter. You gotta be able to do five. There was a team I was with the other day, and they had worked with a customer. It was a quote, didn't schedule an appointment. They called them and left four messages.

Four messages. And the manager said to her, send them a text. Bang. Customer called, texted right back. I thought, oh my gosh.

How long is it gonna take us to learn this lesson? So I would say a couple of things when it comes to increasing close ratio. Ask for the sale. I know. It's such a duh.

But we need to watch for ask for the sale. And get really good at two things, asking discovery questions and handling objections. They're the flip side of the same hand because they're the same content. One is used early in the process. The other is the other is later.

If you haven't asked it, it's gonna come up as an objection. So in addition to protection, what else will increase close what else will increase average sale? How do we get that number up? I think that we have phenomenon in our industry that we have a lot of things that we say that don't help us because they're limiting beliefs. And one of them is calling all this stuff behind me as calling them add ons.

It's like it's not an add on. It's how you complete the room. So as is I would take on as a mantra, we do complete work. Complete work means it's accurate. Complete work means we're sketching.

Complete work means we're asking all the things we need to ask. Complete work means we're following up. We do complete work, and complete work includes accessorizing a space, especially and I would lean into because I know this is not happening. I did a four part series with a team in Los Angeles all about house calls. I have a house call seminar, and we broke it into one hour meetings.

I had people that write, but they're, like, 1.5, $2,000,000 writers, but they were the only ones on the call that did accessory house calls. No one else did it. No one else. And this is a high end chain of stores. It's like, wow.

How do you not do accessory house calls? Anyway, there's that. So making accessories part of doing complete work, making a rug part of every upholstery sale, making a rug part of every dining room sale. We used to call them overs and unders. And for us as managers to be looking at the ticket and say, what are the overs and unders?

Looking at their sketches, what's the overs and unders that you're recommending? One thing you recommended. Don't ever write one thing on a ticket either. Like that. Like, how do we get them thinking complete the room?

When customers buy a sofa, they expect that a sofa going into a room with existing furniture is going to transform that room, and it never will. And they're not completely happy, which is why you have salespeople that don't wanna make after delivery phone calls because they say I don't wanna open a can of worms. Another phrase we need to get rid of. And so but think about it. That that is an opportunity that they're not looking at it the way that creates an opportunity.

That's what makes the room beautiful. It's stunning, and that's what we're looking for is stunning. Okay. So I'm gonna give you some other stuff in terms of the metrics. I recommend creating quarterly training based on performance improvements that you're looking for.

So number one, establish a revenue goal for the year and a target. For instance, the example is is 4,500,000 is the revenue goal, increase close ratio from 25 to 35% by the end of the year. So, like, pick a target. I'm gonna share my screen.

Numbers. So if you look here, we've got the yearly goal is 7.2, but every month is broken into what percentage each month has to 100%. You gotta fudge it a little bit, and then to the quarters. So you'll notice that q one is a 31% quarter. Q two is a 21% quarter. So that when you start to create your goals for the year, make the numbers, not just one number every month, but make the numbers reflect the seasonality of that target.

Next, you wanna break your goal into again, for this one, direct the team, that's the manager, direct the team to write six hundred thousand twenty twenty six, increase revenue per opportunity from $8.96 to 9 to a thousand. And then the strategy is to use four channels of performance improvement for achieving goal, sketching, protection, mattresses, and appointments. And then the manager actions, current performance is at 18, target is 50 for sketching, and then what the quarterly milestones are to achieve 50 by q four. And that's true across the board, and then the sales manager actions that would go along with having those numbers be achieved. Not what the salespeople are doing, but what the managers are doing.

And then the last one I want to show you is also about you. Am I going to organize my time every every month to hit that target. So this one is about sketching. Increased close ratio to 30 per 32%, and then this is when the sales meetings are gonna be on on Wednesdays. And they're all about sketching and about making appointments, handling objections because this is about increasing close ratio, and where the meetings and the huddles are gonna be, as well as what contests are gonna run for that particular month that reflect what the targets are. So everything works together.

Everything works together, but it's gonna start with the manager. Because performance performance metrics are actually indicators. They indicate something that we need to pay a little bit more attention to, and that requires observation. And I don't know what it's like for you, but observations and and data go hand in hand. So that if someone's got a 26% close ratio, the team is at, let's say let's say the standard is 28, performers are at 20 performers at 26, the goal is 32, then this is probably a training and a coaching thing based on what the team's performing at and what the what the individual is performing at.

So I recommend three to five observations per person. And so this is my seller to schedule a checklist, which as you can see is a checklist. If you were to observe the salesperson from start from the time they greet someone until they walk them to the door when the interaction is over, you get to watch all of their actions from the connection, the discovery questions, sales presentation, handling objections, getting the sale, all the way through. And just to begin to find consistent, inconsistent actions, all of which contribute to increasing performance.

All of it. But without us observing them, the data is not enough. We tend to go into data and make something up. And then when we observe them without some sort of objective format to manage our observations, we're gonna observe them to look for evidence to what we already believe versus a more scientific method, which is let me find out what's happening, and then let me test it against some other similar actions and see what's really happening. Because it's easy to say someone's not closing enough.

They should be asking for the sale more often. It's like, well, that's probably true. But it's likely that they're probably not asking enough discovery questions, and they're not sketching enough just as much. And then to look at your strong performers to help you When you wanna make up a deficit, it's not a time to put in the brand new people or the lowest performers to do that. I'm a big fan of not using first in, first up rotation for but rather having rotation be the earned position such that if you've got the highest close ratio, I want you to take the first person that comes in the door.

I would reward rotation by based on what their close ratio is. Most people don't because it doesn't seem fair, and most people, owners and managers think that rotation has something to do with fairness. It has nothing to do with fairness. Rotation's only function is to make sure that the person who's up is really up. And so when you're up, are you really up to close the person that comes in? Are you somewhere in the vicinity?

So I don't think that we honor being up at the level that's gonna produce the outcome that we're looking for. But I would do that. I would have people rotate it that way. There's a team I work with in the Midwest, and they do not only did they do that, but if you've had two days off, you're not in the first three because you're probably your head's not in the game.

So they know that their early mornings, they close more in the morning, so they want people in the morning in rotation up are gonna close those people. I know it's it's ballsy to do, but they have a 57% close ratio. And it's real because they have an actual person doing it. I love that stuff so much because it breaks all the rules.

All this all the foolish rules that we just do because we've always done that. So I wanna show another thing. This is a spreadsheet for performance. Alright? So I would say training comes first and then coaching. So when we look at this team and I like this because of all that it contains, starting with the number of people they saw, number of sales, close ratio, total sales average, revenue per guest, number of hours worked, and how much per hour that they're generating.

The number of sketches, percentage of sketches to total that they've seen, protection, total numbers, protection percentage to total volume, number of appointments, percentage of appointments to people seen, volume in mattresses, percentage of mattresses to their total business, and then percentage of finance percentage of of their business that was financed. I like this because it's got everything in it that we need. The other thing I like about it is that if you go down to here, twelve and thirteen, it's got what the goal is for that metric and what the standard is for that metric. So in this case, the standard is this team is the standard is 90. So their marketing is intended that every one of their sales associates is gonna see 90 people at least a month. That's what they want them to do.

The goal is to do a 110 because they think that there's a little more in there, but you can't do less than 90. And I wanna say something because this came up with, a a client the other day. When we set standards, we have to have a goal.

Because I was working with the team. They've got outside it's a it's a trade show, and they've got outside salespeople. And he said, well, the standard is that you've gotta make make eight outside appointments every week. I said, yeah. But what's the goal?

He said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, you know, the expectation is and it's like, yeah. But that's the expectation, which is the standard. So I get that the expectation should be eight, but the goal should be 12 to 15. Right? The when we set a standard with them as a metric, we wanna make sure that we have a goal.

Same thing here. We've got a standard. You can't be in rotation unless you hit 20% close ratio, but the goal is 38. Average sale, 2,000 for standard goal of of 3,000. So that when we start to look at the bottom here and get a real sense for the standards and the goals, and then we look up into the totals, because the totals tell a lot.

When we look at the totals and say, is the team performing above the standard and near the goal? Have they exceeded the goal? So, again, if we look at close ratio, they're 33%, which is closer to the goal than it is to the standard. Yay. Same thing with average sale, $26.80. It's like just it's a little closer to the goal than it is the standard.

Eight ninety six for revenue per opportunity. Again, same. But when we start to look over here at the behaviors that impact the right side that impacts the left side, that we have a performance standard for perception of 4%, a goal of seven, but there as a team, they're at four.

We have a performance standard for appointments at ten with a goal of 20, and they're at 17. Same thing with mattresses. So we look at it. It's like, wait a second. If we're performing at 4%, which is just at standard, and then we need to be doing more training with protection. More training, more coaching, more practice, more role plays.

Same thing with sketches. 25% is the standard, 60 is the goal, they're at 34. We need to work on sketches more. So when we see the gross numbers, that indicates what the training needs to be for the team. But when we look at the individual performance, that's gonna tell us where they need coaching, especially if you've got if we look over here with close ratio, standard is 20, goal is 38, the team's at 33, but we look up at Pat who's at 17.

Like, Pat needs she Pat needs coaching. Because the team doesn't need another training session on close ratio, but Pat certainly needs training. She needs additional help. And that would also go same thing with Quinn over here with he's just under it, but he or she is just under 2,000. But that's the standard. And standard, not hitting standard, should be sort of automatic coaching opportunity.

So my question to you is, how do you look at the performance of your entire team and the individuals on your team so that you know, is this a training issue or is this a coaching issue? You wanna look at what are quote to close, like, visit to quote, quote to close, time and ratio are. How much time So that you could that's a metric to reduce. I wanna reduce from quote to close time.

It might be forty five days. Let's get it to forty, then let's get it to thirty eight. Right? That as well as average sales. So those are two that you can that would have a direct relationship to account development and outreach.

So last thing that we wanna look at is what the numbers actually mean. So and this is really for the sales managers because the reality is is that the performance metrics are as much a measure of the sales manager's performance as they are of the salespeople's performance. So when you look at the store goal as your goal versus the store goal, So the store goal is four fifty. It's like, well, that's true, but that means your goal is four fifty. Your goal is to make sure that the team hits four fifty.

Their goal is to hit their, you know, one twenty five, but yours is that the store makes its goal. So the same belief that the sales team is a reflection of the sales manager follows through with the metrics. So that I there are certain metrics that I look at that are usually collapsed to salespeople that I look at as manager metrics. Like, I look at sketching as a manager metric. I look at perform at protection as a manager metric. That if a when a manager understands the value in terms of close ratio well, I'll add to that mattresses to that in retail.

When I look at protection, sketching, and mattresses, that what the sales manager is doing in that training, coaching, active engagement on the floor, helping overcome objections, helping them to close, identifying the salespeople who are poor in those categories and really helping them to close them, and what are the actions associated with doing that, that's what makes those numbers go up. Those numbers go up don't go up because of peer pressure from the salespeople. Those numbers go up as a direct result of the sales manager's interaction. Direct result. So that if you're at 3% protection right now and you wanna be at seven by the end of the year, that's absolutely and utterly doable.

When you look at what is what's the strategy and what are the actions that the sales manager has to take between now and the end of the year to make those numbers move. And there aren't a million things, but there are several things that to make protection go up. And the reason protection is a real sales manager number is that sales managers are often bonused on profit areas like protection, and the salespeople aren't. They're given what they're given.

But that shows where sales managers selling skills for that particular area are to either help them close it or help them sell it to begin with, and to handle the objections that they get. And to put that front and center knowing that in some some retail stores, protection and mattresses are what are keeping that store alive because of the profitability of those two categories. So I encourage you to look at your own areas. What are the areas that I'm really good at? I might some sales managers are really great at having enthusiastic sales manager meetings, sales meetings, but they're you know, the number's not so much.

Or maybe not so good on one on ones. They're not they don't love them as much. They like the bigger group meetings. Or some sales managers might be good at creating a team that really gets along well, but that team's not hitting their targets. So when you look at your own performance and say, what do I what do I need to develop in my in my sales manager ability?

That as I look at the rest of the year, what do I what do I need to work on? And just start making a note of that. Like, because that's what that's how it works. So this is a quarterly meeting, and it's usually right before my next cohort starts. I have a sales manager, seller schedule it, sales manager training program that starts in July. The cohort starts July 7 at one eastern.

And I also do this individually as individual coaching meetings as well with sales managers. But take a look at your performance and your team's performance and and ask yourself, if I'm good at helping people sell mattresses, what is it that makes me good at selling helping them sell mattresses that I could use to help them sell protection? Or I don't really know what I'm best at, but I do know what their numbers are. So what am I doing that's that's helping those numbers to be what they are?

And if you need any help on that, you know, you've got my contact information. Reach out. If anyone has any questions now about that, when you look at your own performance, do you think I'm good at this, but I could be better at this? And when I look at the the sales managers that have been through the program, the thing that I find is the most common area for most sales managers is organization and bringing structure to what they do so that they don't leave at the end of the day just being tired and spent, but they leave at the end of the day having accomplished the things that matter most and have really productive days. And their teams are making goal, right, which I think is, like, critical. A lot of sales managers are pulled in a lot of directions because their jobs are not well defined about revenue producing roles versus senior customer service people.

And you get pulled in stuff that's already in the drawer instead of helping put more money in the drawer today. So as we start to wrap this up, if there are any questions about any of this or about the program or one on one coaching, please reach out to me. Alright. Thanks, everyone.

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