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Most sales people have their own lingo or language. If you walked down the hall
out our office, you’d think you were in another country. We have slang for almost everything, and in this section, we’re going to cover “common” terms that most sales industries use. (We’ve included a larger glossary of terms at the end of this course)
Lead: A Prospect is any candidate who may have a desire or need (currently or in the future) to purchase your product or service.
Prospect: Generally refers to a Lead who has actually “stepped-forward” to make his or her interest in your product known.
Calls (sales calls): Most sales people learn very quickly what calls are. “Calls” or “making calls” means contacting or attempting to contact someone who may be a Prospect to purchase your product or service. Most companies provide their sales team with names and numbers of possible Prospects.
Calls can be made in-person or via the phone. If you’re calling on a Prospect who has no idea that you’re planning on calling and doesn’t know you or any of your customers, you’re making a COLD-CALL.
Cold Call: Cold-calling, while being a very effective method of gaining new business, is also one of the most inefficient methods possible. It can take HUNDREDS of calls to find ONE good Prospect (a Prospect above or near the Buy-Line.) Cold-calling is also one of the leading reasons for the high failure rate in most direct sales industries. It makes sense! Who wants to call strangers all day to experience rejection after rejection! There are many other ways to find fantastic Prospects, while saving a ton of time in the process!
QUALIFIED Prospect: A QUALIFIED Prospect is a Prospect who verbally expressed interest in your product, and who admitted to being able to make a purchasing decision.
Appointments Set: Appointments set represent how many scheduled, QUALIFIED meetings you have planned with QUALIFIED Prospects.
Demos (presentations): A demo is the act of “pitching” or “presenting” your product or service. Demos can be done in-person or over the phone
(phone demos.) As a rule of thumb, we allow reps to count a presentation as a demo ONLY if they got through enough of it to discuss price or payment.
Sales: Getting a sale means you secured a signed contract (or P.O. number in
some industries.) NEVER count a demo as a sale UNLESS the Prospect firmly committed. In our company, we limit ‘real’ sales to those where a contract was actually signed. There’s nothing worse then “banking on” a sale that never materializes (like in the movie Jerry McGuire when Jerry thinks he signed the
number one draft pick- he celebrated but later found out the sale never had really happened (no signed-contract!) You may find yourself wanting to count a demo
as a sale, but DON’T do it unless you have the contract signed!
Dollars (Sales Dollars): The total dollar amount of your sale.
Average dollar per sale: Your total sales dollars divided by your total number of sales.
Closing Ratio: Total number of sales (in a given time period) divided by your total number of demos or presentations. Example: 10 sales this month divided by 20 total presentations equals a 50% closing ratio.
Pipe-Line: How many deals you have that you feel will close in a particular period.
Quota: The minimum productivity expected from a sales person to keep his job. Usually measured in dollars and evaluated monthly or quarterly.
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