"Do we have enough qualified meetings to make our revenue plan?"
Sales and executive management love to focus on closing sales - and rightfully so; if deals don't close, revenue has no chance of being recognized. But while all of the focus and attention is on closing deals and getting business "done" this month and quarter, our real emphasis should be on getting more qualified meetings - more qualified meetings than necessary to meet revenue expectations. If you don't get more face time with real prostpects, you don't get more sales, you don't get more revenue. It all begins with a continual, healthy, and ongoing pipeline of real prospects...qualified meetings.
While you're closing business this month, what about sales next month, and the month after, and the month after that? Without focused attention, effort, and action to get more meetings, you're likely to create peaks and valleys in your revenue - big revenue months followed by voids of significant sales.
Companies should have ongoing programs to create more and more qualified meetings, creating more sales time with prospective customers, resulting is ongoing increases in their revenue.
About the author: Jim Logan is founder of Accelerate Business Group, LLC, a revenue growth company. Accelerate Business Group partners with their customers to build revenue the only three ways possible - getting more new customers, increasing the value of your average sale, and getting more repeat business. Jim can be reached at http://www.jslogan.com.