Don’t get ‘Socked in the Shorts’

Mark Levy

By: Mark Levy
Revenue Development Resources, Inc.

Hold on, hold on – it’s not what you think! February 15th is Presidents’ Day. Beside a well-deserved day off, this day also means that selling time for the week will be shorter – 20% shorter. And shorter selling time means a team of 6 sellers averaging 6 good sales calls per day will make only 144 calls in a week instead of 180. Their efforts will be “shorter” than an average week, hence these types of weeks are what we call “Shorts.”

But there’s more. Many sellers turn a Monday holiday into a 4-day weekend by taking the Friday before off as well. If 4 of 6 sellers do this, and sellers make 6 good sales calls per day, Friday’s calls will be reduced from 36 to only 12, bringing the week’s total to only 156. This means that the week prior to the Monday holiday is also a “Shorts” week.

• Now let’s put it all together and look at the money, using the 6 seller team making 6 good calls a day but with 4 of them taking the 4-day weekend:
• In the 2 week span covering that “Monday Holiday Week,” instead of 360 sales calls, only 300 are made, or 83.3% of a “regular” 2 week period.
• If your average ask is $1000 and your average team closing ratio is 40%, instead of writing $144,000, your team is writing only $120,000, or 83.3% of a “regular” 2 week period.
• Ergo, you may be getting “socked in the Shorts.”

So what can you do?

1. Look at the calendar now and see when these events fall.
2. Put an incentive program together to get the money from these 2 week periods in early. Ask your team to see what they would like to have in this incentive. Maybe it is the same for the entire team or maybe it is customized for each seller.
3. Change your vacation policy so the team can’t take the Friday before the Monday off? Please don’t, unless you want to be one of the most hated individuals in all of media management.

There are a number of Monday holidays this year so take time to get proactive to make sure you won’t get “socked in the Shorts!”

Editor’s Note: The views and opinions of this article do not necessarily reflect those of the MAB. Contact the MAB for information on the MAB’s official editorial policy.