It is a common fact that the world of sales is not the easiest of worlds to stay in. Quite often, the attrition rate is staggering, depending on the field. However, if you know your field and more importantly know your numbers, you will be miles ahead of your competition.

So what does it mean to know your numbers?

First, you have to understand the knowing your numbers is crucial to your ability to monitor your productivity. Second, you should know that the majority of salespeople in the word don't track their numbers, therefore by reading this, you will already be ahead of the majority of your competition.

So what do the numbers mean? It is actually an interesting concept that is easy to understand and implement, but you would be surprised at how few people use it. The premise of knowing your numbers is actually how many people that you have to visit or call in order to make a sale. However, there is more to it than this. As with most things, it requires a scaled down version piece by piece, in order to understand it all.

The first set of numbers

This is the initial set of numbers that you need to start with in order to track your sales. You will need anywhere from a month to three months to get an idea of what this number will be. You will know best based off the type of sales that you are in.

This is how it works. First look at how many visits or phone calls you make in a month that turn into actually meetings. See how simple this is. That's all the information you need to get the ball rolling! With this information you know how many people you will get a meeting from in a month, approximately, and based off this number you can tell if you need to bump up the amount of visits or calls to your territory.

The second set of numbers

The second set of numbers works off the first set of numbers. First, you know the number of visits and calls you have to make in order to land one meeting. Now you need to know how many meetings actually turn into sales. This is just as crucial as the first number but everything is boiling down to the point of making a sale, which is in the next section. This to will take about a month to three months to get an accurate figure. But now you know how many visits or calls it takes to get the meeting and then you have figured out how many meetings actually turn into sales.

The third set of numbers

This is the final set of numbers. These will show you how many of your sales turn into repeat sales. This is the hardest to figure out, since many companies won't have a need for your product depending on the type of sales that you are in. This one could take up to a year to figure out, again, depending on the type of product or service you sell.

It is the smart salesperson that knows there numbers. It is a great way to keep you on track from day to day, week to week, or even month to month. It is also a piece of mind, something that is rare in this line of work, because now you will have an approximate number that you are sure will get you results. Take the time to figure out what your numbers are now.

If you like this article go to Amazing Sales Techniques and see what new discussions this author and sales rep has on the lifestyle and the problems inherent in sales today. http://www.amazingsalestechniques.blogspot.com.

About the Author

Matt Ide lives and writes in Northern Michigan. You can find more of his sales techniques at www.amazingsalestechniques.com