- Contact person is the targeted Decision Maker
- Size of the opportunity
- Proximity to our sweet spot for application/deliverable/service/function/fit
- Opportunity can be leveraged
- Profit opportunity
- Probable Length of the Sales Cycle/Timing
- If there is Competition and/or Who the Competition is Likely to be
- Odds of Winning an Opportunity Like This
Each variable should be weighted according to importance but to simplify the concept for this article, we will assign each criteria 10 points. Then, your opportunities can be scored like this:
- 100 points
- 90 points
- 80 points
- 70 points
- 60 points
- 50 points
- 40 points
- 30 points
- 20 points
- 10 points
- 0 points
We don’t score opportunities at Objective Management Group (OMG) but my sales consulting firm, Kurlan Associates, scores every opportunity and does not pursue anything below a “D.”
I even score my keynote speaking opportunities but my criteria are quite different than the criteria for Kurlan clients or for that matter, the other speakers at Kurlan. For instance, I turned down around 15 talks in 2015 for the following 10 reasons (in no particular order):
- The Fee (A Stipend – are you kidding me?)
- Time of the year (tough to commit to dates during snowstorm Season)
- How difficult it is to travel to the destination (I hate long flights and connections)
- Audience demographics (CEO’s – great; Marketing people – fagetaboutit)
- Potential for additional business (always a good thing!)
- Days away from the office (Sorry Asia and the Pacific Rim!)
- Conflicts with any of my son’s baseball or basketball games (a top priority for me)
- The topic they wish to have me speak about (Oh no – not that again!)
- The length of the talk (longer is actually better)
- The person who referred me to the organization or company (someone I don’t want to disappoint?)
You’ll find that sales cycles become shorter and win rates become better as you more effectively target ideal customers and hold salespeople accountable for executing on those targets.
Do you have a target that is interesting, novel, controversial or very predictive at your company? We would love to hear about it in the comments below!
Several top sales experts, including me, weighed in with our review of 2015 progress and expectations for 2016 over at Dan McDade’s PointClear Blog. It’s a short article and worth a couple of minute to check it out.