Why You Need a Sales Fitness Tracker

If I checked your wrist or belt or pocket right now there’s a pretty good chance I would find either a fitness tracking device or an app on your smartphone that performs the same function. More than 12% of Americans currently use wearable fitness trackers – and that doesn’t include individuals who use their smartphones for this function. By 2021 an estimated 75 million people will be using some type of wearable fitness device. Why the craze for this technology? What does it have to do with sales? Let’s work through those    questions.

• First, why the craze? Well, we are living in an age of fitness consciousness. That doesn’t mean we’re all fit – or even getting there – but we are aware of the need for fitness. Mortality is looming and most of us want to live as long as we can as healthy as we can. Trackers are so popular because they provide feedback – in real time for the most part – and that can be very reinforcing (or discouraging!). Arguments abound as to whether fitness trackers are helpful or accurate, but regardless, they continue to fly off the shelves and onto the wrists of millions every year. The premise behind them is that if you can monitor your activity on an hourly basis and have that activity compared to goals you have set, you can receive continuous updates that will either congratulate your accomplishments or remind you of your shortfall while there is still time to make up that shortage.
• So, what does this have to do with sales? Actually…a lot. One of the biggest challenges sales reps and sales managers have is maintaining visibility on effective daily activity levels in order to be pre-emptive with course correction. With a fitness tracker you could be alerted that you need another 120 steps this hour to hit your hourly goal, in the sales scenario you would be aware that your weekly call activity has fallen below your established activity target – early enough in the week to do something about it. Now, alerting you doesn’t guarantee you will fix the issue, just like knowing you need more steps may not get you up and moving – but it does highlight the issue and remind you of what is needed.
• Just as we all know that steps alone do not dictate your overall level of fitness or lead to the weight loss goal you may have set, the number of sales calls you make will not guarantee successful sales results. Most fitness trackers also track caloric intake, heart rate, water consumption, sleep and (accurate or not) calories burned. A proper combination of all these factors will lead to the best results from a fitness and/or weight management endeavor. The comparison in sales would be the need to track not just call activity but whether calls are being made on the right prospects, if decision makers are being reached, if contacts are resulting in opportunities (proposals) and whether the opportunities are moving through to closed sales. Just to be clear on an important point, I do not believe that activity alone – even the right activities – are enough to guarantee sales success. I don’t agree that sales is a numbers game – it’s a craft that requires skill and nuanced application. That said, the most talented sales professionals in the world still need enough of the proper activities to be successful. Talent doesn’t mean much if you don’t put it to work.
• Lead vs. Lag: Focusing on PREsults to ensure REsults
• The message with the use of a fitness monitor or in a sales scenario is that effective presults will lead to desired results. When we wait to determine our sales effectiveness until after sales are closed we miss the opportunity to uncover any activity deficiencies until it’s too late. It’s like failing to track what you eat or your activity level, then getting on the scale at the end of the month to see if you’ve lost any weight. The outcome is not likely to be a good one. Improving performance (or your health and fitness level) involves modification of behaviors and behavior modification requires monitoring (and self-discipline). How do you think Weightwatchers has built a $1 billion dollar business? Their foundation is getting people to track everything they eat – to write it down every day. That’s a lead measure, that’s focusing on a presult, then they weigh you in – that’s the result or lag measure.
• Unfortunately, there is no wearable device that automatically records your sales activity, but you can still apply the fitness tracker concept to your selling role. In order to set yourself up for the greatest chance for “sales fitness” success, establish and monitor the following presults:
• • Establish short term sales targets (weekly or monthly depending on your business) then define the weekly activity and opportunity funnel needs required to achieve those targets.
  • Identify the number and mix of the highest potential accounts and prospects you need to see on a weekly basis
  • Enter sales activities and opportunities in your CRM as soon as they are completed and update them weekly
  • Generate frequent opportunity (proposal) reports in order to determine the level of success being achieved with the sales calls being made
  • Take appropriate counter-measures to correct any issues that arise, i.e., increase sales call activity, re-define target prospect profile, seek out sales skill training, etc.
• Take a page out of the fitness tracker playbook and make sure that you, as a sales rep or as a sales manager, are using lead measures – presults – to ensure that you will achieve the results you desire. Recognize that no matter how long you have been in sales, consistent self-evaluation is always required. You may know what you need to do to improve your fitness level or lose some weight, but without consistent monitoring, feedback and assessment, your health goals may remain more dream than reality. The same holds true for achieving and maintaining success in sales. Start using a Fitness Tracker approach today to exceed your sales goals!