An observation of sales organizations operating at maximum capacity reveals a common strategy: They track their business development efforts.

I’m not talking about tracking their opportunity pipeline or revenue.  These successful companies track the activities they perform to find new clients such as the number of times they ask for a referral, make a prospecting call, attend a networking event, speak at an association, or have an appointment with a new prospect.

Why is something as simple as tracking activity so important?  Perhaps it’s because you can’t tell where you're going unless you know where you are.

Following are some reasons to track your business development activities.

• Regardless of your closing skill, you’ll never generate substantial revenue if you’re not talking to a substantial number of new prospects.  Tracking your prospecting activities and measuring them against new sales will tell you if you’re making progress.

• Tracking the number and frequency of successful activities creates a roadmap for others to follow.  Handing new hires a template for success will help them get a jump start.

• Tracking activity holds people accountable for effort, independent of expertise.

• Tracking allows you to analyze what’s working and what’s not.

Tracking new business development activities is not a magic bullet to success, but it just might be the something extra that puts you ahead of your competition.

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