Many sales managers believe that persistence and hard work are the keys to success. Certainly, persistence and hard work pay off in many endeavors. World class athletes, for instance, don't become "world class" overnight. They train, practice, and train some more -- day after day, month after month, and year after year. They have a clear goal in sight, and a plan for accomplishing the goal. And, persistence and hard work are integral to the plan. Their training may be hard work, but their training regimen is smart. They know their limits, they focus their efforts, and they pace themselves. They don't overexert and risk injury or take shortcuts in an effort to speed up the process.

What does this have to do with selling?
There is a difference between "hard work" and "working hard." Working diligently, even if it requires substantial effort (i.e., hard work), when you have a clear goal in sight and a well defined plan for accomplishment, is working smart. On the other hand, working diligently and exerting substantial effort when you don't have a clear goal in sight, or you don't have an effective plan for accomplishment (even if you have a goal) is working hard: you exert the effort, but you don't make much headway or meaningful progress.

Working smart starts with a goal.
What do you want your salespeople to accomplish? The obvious answer is "close sales." That's why you assign them quotas. Quotas are necessary, but are quotas the smartest benchmarks by which to manage their activities? Closing sales and hitting the quota is the culmination of a group of interconnected steps:

• Identifying selling opportunities;

• Qualifying the opportunities;

• Developing the opportunities;

• Eventually making presentations and closing the sales.

To work smart, your salespeople need an effective and efficient plan to perform each step of the selling process. Like the athlete's training regimen, the plan should define specific activities to perform and also include specific criteria that must be met to keep the process moving forward. If the criteria can't be met, it's a clear indication to abandon the opportunity and pursue another that is more viable.

Allowing your salespeople to continue pursuing opportunities that have stalled, only because they've already invested so much time or the potential size of the sale is significant, is not a productive (or smart) use of their time. It's hard work -- hoping something will happen when there are clear indications that it won't.

What's your plan?
By what processes do your salespeople identify new prospects? Are their actions proactive -- initiating contact with prospects, networking, generating referrals, cultivating strategic alliances? Or, are their actions reactive -- waiting for marketing leads to come in or people to respond to pre-approach letters?

What criteria have you established to classify prospects? Does someone merely have to be interested and request some literature or information to qualify as a prospect, or are there other benchmarks to separate the real prospects from the pool of suspects?

Once your salespeople meet with a prospect, how do they determine the quality of the opportunity? What specific criteria must be met, and what commitments must be obtained from the prospects before you allow them to begin working on proposals or presentations?

Take a closer look.
If your salespeople's hard work is not translating into the goals you have set, perhaps it's time to re-examine your selling process and associated activities. Each activity should lead to a measurable result that indicates the appropriateness of either continuing or abandoning the opportunity. When you help your people channel their hard work into smart activities, they'll be working smart.

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