GROUP SALES MONTH: Group Sales Time Management

Group Sales Month on Empowerment of a Salesperson is sponsored by FEVO. FEVO is a sales amplification tool used by industry leading pro sports teams, colleges, and festivals. For more information check out FEVO.com.

The formation for Empowerment of a Salesperson’s Group Sales Month came from a note I received from a young groups sales rep…

I sell group tickets. I have literally no idea how I’m supposed to spend my time each day, week, month, year, help!

As I asked around, I learned that this was either the same answer I got from every rep I talked to…or worse. Their answer was almost completely focused on either their book or the operational side of the business. Notice there’s no new business there at all.

In multiple conversations with managers and directors, I was able to isolate four areas where group sales reps should be spending their time. They were:

· Prospecting: Finding new leads and opportunities. Reps should spend 25% of their year finding new opportunities.

· Developing: Concentrating on the areas in their book of business that have real growth potential. Reps should spend 25% of their time focused on developing their top prospects.

· Transacting: Reps spend an inordinate amount of time with their current book with no thought to the size of the group. The smaller the group, the more transactional the relationship. Reps should spend 25% of their year transacting.

· Executing: The better we are at executing our groups, the more groups that will come back to us. We need to spend time here…but this is the place where I see reps spend WAY too much time. Reps should spend 25% of their year executing their groups to success.

At different points in the year, the percentages of time spent in each should be different. For example, the off-season might look:

· Prospecting: 40%

· Developing: 40%

· Transacting: 20%

· Executing: 0%

The beginning of the season?

· Prospecting: 25%

· Developing: 25%

· Transacting: 25%

· Executing: 25%

The end of the season?

· Prospecting: 0%

· Developing: 20%

· Transacting: 40%

· Executing: 40%

While the percentages above aren’t scientific…I think they need to be pretty accurate for a rep to maximize their success.

We can’t get so tactical that we forget to continue to introduce new leads and opportunities…our book will disintegrate over time. We need to find opportunities to grow high potential leads, too…for the exact same developmental reason. We also need to make sure we spend an appropriate time executing against the smaller groups in that book. And we need to spend time making sure our groups see success when they are in our building…with whatever we are doing. I just see, so often, reps get so transfixed on those last two (transacting & executing) that they forget the first two (prospecting & developing)…and watch as their book shrinks year-on-year.

Always be conscious about how you spend your time on the group sales side and you’ll almost have to see success. Come in each day without a goal? A shrinking book of business is all you’ll be left with. It’s really your choice.