Turn up. Do your best. Be consistent.

In last month’s publication, I wrote about how chasing the money is the wrong tactic when looking to grow your revenues. And I want to continue that theme but on a more practical level.

Sales targets are a curious thing for me. They are essential for the business in order to forecast and manage cash flow, but are they the right way to manage or measure a sales person?

The jury is out on that one (for me), but this is not about causing debate, this is more about exploring patterns of behaviour.

If I hire sales people, I want them to be consistent. I want them to turn up and try their best, every single day.

The reason consistency is so important in sales is that it mitigates against peaks and troughs in revenue generation.

Working in the media space, there were regular occurrences of having a last minute flurry of activity to drive revenue before the end of the month in order to hit the target, and earn the subsequent commission.

This meant that the billing cycle looked something like this, due to the last minute scramble to the finish line:

From a sales person perspective, it’s great. Target done, most of it in the last few weeks, and a big pat on the back. But I can tell you, having been one of those sales people, that its stressful, and takes a lot of energy!

From a company perspective, it’s also more difficult to predict outcomes of over (or under) performance.

Let’s assume you or your team stop being the types of sales people to have a sprint finish every month.

What if you showed up every day. Hit your activity KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) every day. Consistently booked meetings, booked demos, sent proposals and closed deals, EVERY DAY?

What would that mean to you or your business?

Well the short version is, you wouldn’t technically need to worry about these artificial deadline dates, as you will always be delivering the best you can.

That means your revenues, might start to look a bit more like this:

So given the choice of Person A) a whirlwind salesperson who hits big targets sporadically, or Person B) someone who consistently achieves every month, perhaps not to the highest levels, I would have person B on my team every time.

Consistency will always win when looking for customer and revenue growth.

Make sure you are setting the right KPIs, for the right activity, to generate the right outcomes for your business, and incentivise the right behaviours for your business.

Turn up. Do your best. Be consistent.

Ben Bennett is Managing Partner of Second Voice (secondvoice.co.uk) a Brighton-based company focused on enabling founders of B2B companies to accelerate growth through sales and operations. Ben is also a business growth mentor for the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator.

If you’re looking to grow your own company and want impartial advice or support, please reach out to Ben at sbt@secondvoice.co.uk