3 Items to Track For Your End Of Year Sales Inventory

The end of the year is right around the corner. For some businesses, this will be their busiest time, when the holiday sales heat up. For others, like myself, it can be a horrible time to try to sell. Let's face it, no one wants to purchase a life insurance policy during the holidays. I have been working this business for over 20 years, so  I have come to expect the downtime and make good use of it.

Whether you will be busy or not, you should still do an inventory of the year. In this inventory (for 2020 it may be an autopsy) you should probably break your work into a few categories. For instance:

1. Sales calls. How many did you make? Did you even keep track? Were you working the phones, making drops, cold calls or all of these? Keeping a track of your activity and the results can give you a much better path to figuring out what works for next year. 

A few years back I was taking clients out to lunch because my sales manager claimed that it would increase my closing percentage. He said that people bought more if they could see that I was willing to spend a few bucks on them. I asked if I could substitute a meal, which would cost me on average around $25 for two people, with a cup of coffee. He said that I should try it. 

At the end of the year, I went back through my appointment book, adding up all of my meals with clients and as well as my trips to coffee shops. When I did the math, my closing percentage was about the same! Instead of dropping $25 once a day, I could have three appointments for coffee, and spend about the same amount of money. 

The point of this story is that I wouldn't have any of that information if I didn't keep track of my activity during the year. The raw numbers were right there in front of me. 

2. Marketing dollars. The key here is to see what kind of marketing you are doing and what is getting the best return on your investment (ROI). Are you advertising on social media? Are you paying dues to a chamber of commerce? Are you buying leads? All of these expenditures are important to keep track of because they can be adjusted. 

In years past, for example, I have joined networking groups and gotten nothing out of it. As a result, I cut my losses and moved those dollars to other places that did work. If you are paying for leads that are dogs, either find another source of leads or learn to generate your own leads through referrals or another route, like social media. Don't be afraid to try new things to see what will work for you.

3. Your sales pipeline. This is a direct result of your marketing dollars, and it may just seem like common sense, but you need to keep an active list of people in your pipeline. Just as important is knowing where they are in the sales process. Some prospects will go from prospect to client to paying client in a matter of a few days, while others will need more time. What you don't want is to have no prospects at all, with an empty pipeline. That leads to desperation we call "commission breath" and your clients will smell you coming from a mile away. 

Don't be too concerned if your prospects drop out of the pipeline. They will and that is okay, as long as your marketing efforts keep replacing those people with new ones.

By keeping records of your activities this year, you can make better decisions for next year. 

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.