Compound effect in selling

With the state of art tools in sales (CPQ, CRM…), we tend to over-complexify the performance analysis. Large corporations with the means to use and implement those tools do most of those analyses to « please » some executive directors, who « sell » those indicators in the board meetings.

A significant difference exists between measuring performance and taking action on performance improvement.

Indeed, you cannot improve what you don’t measure. Yet, it does not mean that everything you measure will get improved.

Particularly in sales, teams lose so much time and energy on measuring the performance they almost forget why they started to do it in the first place. Therefore, they are left with no power and focus to work on the most critical part: Improvement.
When they do, again, they build up strategic action plans, work groups, training, etc. Finally, they lose traction.

I keep saying « they,» but I also include myself in this group. And I go back to basics each time I catch myself overcomplicating things.
In sales performance, essential improvement action is simple. It is incremental progress. It means every week, focusing on doing one more of everything linked to your activity. It can be one more visit, quote, demo, the deal closed, a project in the pipeline, new order taken…anything. Just focus on doing a tiny bit more but consistently.

It sounds easy, but not really. Because when you do so, you will not see the benefits in the short term. The compound effect will improve your performance in the long term. For example, visiting one customer more or less will not make you miss your quarterly target, nor will it make your target. But in the long run, the impact of those visits will be visible as new projects, sales, repeat orders, and customers…

Let’s finish with a very concrete example. Saving $5 a day would not make you poorer or richer for the day or the week. However, if you keep saving $5 a day, at the end of 10 years, you would have $23 725 (Yearly interest rate taken as 6% for the example). You can clearly see that the compound effect shows its impact beginning with Year 4.