How to Hit Your Numbers and Become a Sales Superstar

Up your hitting average through referrals, and up your sales game for a winning season.

Batter up!

Baseball season is in full swing here in the United States. It’s time to get your sales prospects on base.

Baseball is a long season with 162 games per team over approximately 30 weeks. It’s probably the only sport where you can be 30 percent successful and still be considered a star with a multimillion-dollar contract.

Let’s break down what it takes to be a superstar. Here’s an example from the movie, Bull Durham:

In baseball, what separates a superior hitter from an average hitter is only 30 more hits in a season. That’s all. While a .250 hitter is considered an average ball player, a .300 hitter is considered superior. If each of them has 600 at bats in a season, a .250 hitter will have 150 hits, while the .300 hitter will have 180 hits. The difference of only 30 hits equates to approximately one extra hit per week for an entire baseball season.

What’s Your Batting Average?

This is the same kind of analysis you need to do for your business. How many additional “hits” do you need to get to reach your revenue and profit goals? How many more referral meetings and referral clients will get you to your goal?  Choose all of some of these metrics to manage your referral activity:

• The number of people you ask for referrals each week
• The number of referrals you receive
• The number of referral meetings you schedule
• The number of referral meetings you conduct
• The number of new deals you book
• Increases in revenue
• Increase in deal size
• Increase in new customers
• Increases in profitability

Business referrals come from everywhere. Think about it. Identify all the people you know (and you know lots of people). The people you know, know people. (Everyone is part of your sales team.) And you don’t know who people know until you ask. You might get the perfect referral from your attorney, a fellow passenger on an airplane, your fellow employees, your next-door neighbor, or even your family. You’re the missing link in your sales success.

Ask for at least one referral week, and you’ll hit the ball out of the park. You may not make millions of dollars, but you might help your clients do the same. You’ll be at least a .300 hitter, and everyone wins. (Here’s how to ask for a referral.)

Step Up to the Plate: Comment Here

There’s a saying in baseball that you’ll never get to second unless you take your foot off first. There’s a saying in sales: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Are you getting at least one more hit a week?