So, how much money do you want to make this year?
Your initial response to the above question is probably something along the lines of: “I can’t believe he just asked me that! It’s really none of his business.” And in fairness, you are correct, it is none of my business. But it is yours.
Simply put. You need to know your number. You’ve got to set a target income goal. And of equal importance, you need yourself a plan that will get you there.
So, what’s your number? I mean, how much money do you want to make this year?
For the sake of this illustration let’s say that you’d like to make $41,000 this year as an annual income. Let’s begin by getting the number down to bite sized chunks. Divided over 12 months your target goal is $3,400 per month. Okay, technically speaking we’re talking $3,416.67 so we will do a little rounding here.
- Next step: How do we get to that $3,400 per month? Now you are going to need to do a bit of homework. You will first want to determine your station’s average order size? Example: This month your station billed $60,000 in total local revenue and there were 40 different contracts that the account team wrote to get to the total. Now divide the total dollars by the number of contracts and you will find your station’s average dollars per account to be $1,500.
- Next you will need your commission rate. How much of that $1,500 do you get to keep? For this example, let’s use 10%. So, you’ll make $150 in commissions on every $1,500 that runs in the month on your station. Still with me?
- A little math here. $150 dollars times 23 accounts equal $3,450 dollars in a given month. And $3,450.00 X 12 months will make you, wait for it, $41,400.00.
Great, the math works! Lets keep going…
Next, we’ve got to figure out where those 23 accounts are going to come from.
- These relationships don’t happen by accident, you’ve got to reach out to them. And that all begins with an email or a phone call. We call them a touch. So how many touches are needed to make an appointment?
- Let’s start this step with an assumption. I work with broadcast radio and TV companies all over the country. What I’ve found through my travels is that it tends to take about 10 “cold-calls”. 10 phone calls and/or introductory e-mail touches to generate 1 face to face appointment. A 10 to 1 ratio.
- Time for another assumption. Through my experience you should expect to close about 3 out every 10 of those face-to-face appointments. It will take time; it will take a killer C.N.A. and proposal. But on average 10 appointments will eventually distill down to about 3 sales. With me on that?
- So, in this example you will need to begin with 35 touches. Using our 1 in 10 assumption that will result in 3.5 appointments which based on a 25 to 30% closing ratio will result in 1 sale. Stay with me here.
- But wait, that’s only one sale. You need 23 of these. So, in this scenario you’ll need, give or take, 800 touches every month to get enough appointments to get you to your $41,000 income.
You look at that number and say… I can’t do that! Even if you were to pour yourself a big cup of coffee and sit down at your phone and say, “ok here we go”, let’s bang out a quick 800. (Heck, even if you substitute the coffee with a case of Red Bull it’s not going to happen.) Again, you have to look in terms of those bite sized chunks.
- There are 20 Monday through Fridays in a given month. Are you with me? That averages out to be 40 phone calls and emails each of those 20 days. Let’s say 20 contacts in the morning and another 20 in the afternoon. OK, now we’re getting somewhere.
- The next step is to meet with these clients. A combination of C.N.A. and follow up meetings with proposal. This is the fun part, the fruit of the labor of setting up those face to face meetings.
- 80 face to face appointments each month should net out to 24 sales and get you to your desired revenue goal. Based on that 20-day work month, that averages out to roughly 4 face to face calls per day.
20 phone calls each morning to set the appointment and another 20 in the afternoon. Then you will have 4 face-face meetings in between. Now you’ve got yourself a plan!
Tip: Your next step is to replace these assumptions with your own numbers. Track your personal success in setting appointments and closing the business. If you would like help, we have developed an income calculator that takes the guess work out of the plan. Just log into your account and or register for our free 7-day trial and search for the course, Goal Management.
So, what’s your number? I’m Speed Marriott for P1 Learning. Good Selling!
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