Awesome Fish in a Smaller Pond; Fewer Customers Means More Sales

What is the number one goal of any salesperson? The quick answer is simply: to maximize the amount of sales revenue for the company or business you represent. Yes, that is THE single biggest objective of any salesperson, and rightfully so. Obviously, sales reps need to bring in the sales to justify their jobs, firstly, and maximize their income.

But HOW do most salespeople go about doing this? Sadly enough, the answer most would give is this: maximizing sales revenue means maximizing the number of customers you have. The more customers, the higher your sales revenue. True? Not exactly. Have you ever considered REDUCING your customer base to bring in sales results that would give you jaw dropping sales figures? Yes, I am saying it here. To maximize your sales potential, look at decreasing your customer base.

Here's how to do it:

1) Review your sales figures at year end. If your sales reports are accurate and provide enough information, it will reveal something to you that will reflect a very old rule, called "Pareto's Principle". You may know it under another term, the 80/20 rule. This means that, in sales terms, 80% of your sales revenue comes from 20% of your customer base. Review your list of customers and contacts to determine who falls into the top 20%. Regarding the rest of them, do what you can to drop them or give them to another member of your sales team. Trust me, before long, you will not need them nor want them.

2) Work at maximizing your relationships with your top customers. You may need to re-think your whole way of doing business with them. Ask yourself these questions: Do I know what my customers value? Do I try to sell before I understand what it is they want or need from me? Have I developed a deep enough relationship with my clients to warrant their trust? Before you ever try selling anything to your clients, make sure you instill a high sense of trust in the relationship first. That will keep your customers FOR LIFE!!

3) With your new customer base in place, you now have the time and energy to focus on bringing the maximum effort to your sales business. The customers will quickly see how you have placed a high priority on their needs, first and foremost. They will see that you have placed them ahead of you and will reward you in ways that you may have thought were not possible. One of my favorite speakers in the field of selling and success, Zig Ziglar, said this about reaching your peak performance. "You can get anything you want in life, if you just help enough other people get what they want."

I realize this may not be what most sales managers want to hear from their salespeople, but I believe that we need to look at our careers and determine that we, as salespeople, try to be everything to all in the never ending quest for the biggest piece of the pie. If we focus on the quality rather than the quantity, we may find that the pie tastes so much sweeter.