Aaron’s Answer: Some people really continue to believe strongly in route marketing. That is, you make so many stops a day in a territory every day, every week, every month. You knock on the same doors with the same message while dropping off the same brochure. If you’re lucky, you may be allowed to drop off donuts every so often so that people might actually be glad to see you and talk to you for a few minutes. I have yet to see anyone build a successful book of business based on this strategy, and yet many sales managers still insist on it. This not only demonstrates a lack of creativity and sales strategy, but it yields so little that the sales people quickly burnout and move on. That doesn’t mean that your sales manager is entirely wrong. We, as salespeople, need to maintain a level of activity every day in order to be productive and get results. Productivity in sales means much more than checking off the boxes and it should certainly be something more than a step up from a paper route. What you need is a plan with diversified sales strategies and the proper sales training so that you can convert prospects into meetings into closed deals. Diversifying your sales activities is exactly what Scorecard was designed to do. The one nice thing about route marketing is that you have your days planned in advance. You know where you will be and who you hope to see and all you have to do is execute the plan. Even if you didn’t get any results, no one can say that you didn’t do your job, right? However, there can be several steps in the prospecting process that route marketing quickly becomes expensive and inefficient. Not to mention quite boring as well. You need a scorecard that can track the different kinds of activities such as phone calls, emails, social media, and so forth so that you can approach your prospect in a manner of ways so that they feel more like they are being courted instead of stalked. If you are faced with this sales strategy proposition, you must approach it with caution and suspicion. Here are some questions you might consider asking your sales manager.
- What sort of results should we both expect to see from this strategy?
- Who else do we know that has been successful with this stop-and-drop approach?
- Who is responsible if (when) it is discovered that this process doesn’t work?
- Are you open to a different approach?
Setting yourself up with a Scorecard not only positions yourself for success, but also helps to take the pressure off of your sales manager as you take accountability for your own diversification strategy. The Scorecard Sales Power Score Assessment is a really great place to start. Contact Aaron Jacobs ajacobs@scorecardsales.com to get the PSA for your whole team.