The Daily Scorecard
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This is a subject that I have touched on before. Nevertheless, I think it deserves it’s own post all by itself. If there was one single thing that I would recommend to someone trying to make it in the business, it would be the construction, following, and succesful completion of a daily scorecard. A system that holds you accountable on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Fundamental activities in sales, done on a daily basis, is your best chance of achieving survival in the short-term and great success for the long term. The key is to complete a sufficient number of these fundamental activities on an ongoing basis to ensure your survival and eventual success. When I started out, I was adamant about tracking my daily activities. It helped me track exactly what I was accomplishing on a regular basis; it also made goal setting a lot more effective. Over time, I could figure out the numbers’ game; how many calls it took for so many prospects/new accounts/production/etc. Let’s say someone recently starting out want to open 100 new accounts, gather 15 million in new assets, and produce 200k in gross production for 2009. That’s great but how are you going to do it? How many new people do you need to speak with to open a new account? How many prospects do you need in the hopper to make that happen? How much money do you need to uncover on a daily basis? If you track your activity and results, you’ll know precisely.
While you can develop a system that works for you, here is what worked for me: The goal is 100 points/day and 500 points/week. Here is the point system I devised: - 1 point for every new contact - 2 points for every follow up call to an existing prospect - 1 point for every client call - 1 point for every hour worked - 5 points for arriving to work by a set time (think early morning here) - 5 points for each 30 minute appointment (i.e. 1 hour appt. = 10 points) - 1 point for each marketing piece/mailer sent out (10 points maximum/day) - 5 points for a new account You will notice that the activities are based on what you can control (5 points for a new account not withstanding). You can't control how a prospect is going to react; you can't control how the markets perform. It is imperative that you focus on activities that you can initiate, and have the utmost confidence that you will reach your goals if you achieve the necessary number of daily prospecting activities. When you reach 500 points for the week, get out of the office. That said, work Saturday if that's what it takes to reach 500 points. I would practically guarantee survival to any rookie that scored 500 points on a weekly basis over the course of two years, regardless of sales ability. Those that are really talented will simply have a higher degree of success. And the good news for those starting out with less experience and talent: just imagine how quickly you will progress and improve by talking to that many people on a regular basis. It's like a surgeon in the military operating on the front lines during a war- a lifetime of experience over the course of a year.Much appreciated information as always Judge. Your time away from this forum was far too long. Thanks for the post.
Judge-
Great stuff. But why the points for getting to work and working? If those are un-productive hours, then what is the point? You could get like 90 points jsut for showing up to work and working a 10 hour day 6 days a week. Seems like it cheats yourself. However, if that is one way to motivate oneself to get to work early and work, then maybe it serves a purpose.[quote=Broker24]Judge-
Great stuff. But why the points for getting to work and working? If those are un-productive hours, then what is the point? You could get like 90 points jsut for showing up to work and working a 10 hour day 6 days a week. Seems like it cheats yourself. However, if that is one way to motivate oneself to get to work early and work, then maybe it serves a purpose.[/quote]Because the first steps to a disciplined life is to wake up on time and to arrive to work at a predetermined time every day.
Just showing up is half the battle!
B24 -
I agree with you. Forget about the hours worked. I know there are days in which I am in my office and nothing productive happens. These days should be a subtraction from my total. Even worse, there are some guys who feel that being in their office pushing papers or dealing with meaningless client concerns is productive. When in reality that is an avoidance behavior. Unless you have 50mil under management you should still be finding new people each and every day, if your not, you are kidding yourself.Another great post idea from The Judge.
Regardless of whether or not you exactly agree with The Judge's point distribution system the point of finding a way to track your activity and reward yourself based on that activity is a key to success. I find The Judge's point system to be fine as he posted it.
The point about not having control over what clients and prospects do is also key. Yet, that's how we are measured. Changing it up and measuring our activity is a great way to reach a goal. Measuring activity usually leads to more at bats which leads to more hits. it also gives us a measurable way to determine our effectiveness. For example, We may feel that we are in a slump and not getting enough appoinments . Then we look at the numbers and see that we've only asked for appointments 4 times in the last week. Hardly enough for an effective sampling. Same goes with closong on a product or opening accts, etc. The answer is to get back on the phone.One could take the point system that The Judge has posted and remove the points allocated for on time and hours, etc. You could also change the system to make it tougher on yourself!!!
Ive tried the point system before, but for me it just didnt work. I would be able to do it for a while, and then one week I would slack off a little. Then a little more the next week and before I know it, Im not even keeping track.
I feel like it has only worked when things got slow to hold myself accountable. It was tough to do when business was just rolling in. Do you guys team up with others to have some sort of competitiveness added?
The only thing I really keep track of is my pipeline or top prospects list.
Looks like a great system to me. We use a similar point system where I’m at, and it lets me I know that I need to get in front of more people.
Judge,
When you say call, do you mean an actual conversation or a dial? The mental stress is much less for me when I just count dials because I have no control over them being home or not.
GT-
I understand your thought process, but just making dials accomplishes nothing. It shows that you can work hard, but you have to see results, even if answering the phone is out of your control.
B24 -
That makes sense, but won’t the law of averages just work out in your favor over time. 100 dials one day and 12 people answer, 100 dials the next day and 35 answer. Instead of one day going home pissed and hurting your motivation for the second day, you are satisfied at the 100 mark and you just march on.
Thanks Judge....one follow up question....
word for word....what would your phone script be?
Yes, that is very true. My point was, if your goal is to talk to 15 people each day, and it takes you, on average, 150 dials to do that, you can't be satisfied with making 100 and say "well I worked hard".B24 -
That makes sense, but won’t the law of averages just work out in your favor over time. 100 dials one day and 12 people answer, 100 dials the next day and 35 answer. Instead of one day going home pissed and hurting your motivation for the second day, you are satisfied at the 100 mark and you just march on.
No Doubt. In that case you havent done your job for the day. I am going to make you my mentor from afar! I need all the help I can get!
[quote=Highbury]
Thanks Judge....one follow up question....
word for word....what would your phone script be?
[/quote] Judge may come back and answer, but he doesn't drop by very often. Of course when he does we're happy to hear from him. To get you started until Judge drops back in, try this for scripts: www.billgood.com Once there click "About Us" then click "Site Map" scroll down to Public Access and the click on 'Prospecting Scripts." Then Click on "Tax Free Bond Fund Script" The TFB script can be modified for any product or service. I recco you prospect with a product. BG's website is one of the best resources on the net for people in our biz. While you're there look around and buy something. I highly recommend his book, Prospecting Your Way To Sales Success. Written 20 years ago and still full of valuable information. Bill has a new book due out next month. Buy it too.