// knowledge base

How a sales department works, in numbers

What we measure on real projects, and what market research shows. No sign-up, no email, no “leave your details to get the file”. Read it and do it yourself.

diagnostics 3with AI 2processes 11people 13metrics 18tools 4oversight 8money 8

diagnostics

with AI

processes

How to roll out a CRM people actually use

Reps skip the CRM for three reasons, and none of them is laziness. What to do before setup, during, and after.

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Which written rules a sales team actually needs

Four sets of rules without which a sales team runs on instinct, and what exactly belongs in each. Taken from our own build schedule.

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Rules for working in the CRM

Twelve points without which CRM data stops matching reality, and the three fields reps skip most often.

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Rules for handling inbound and outbound leads

Who takes an enquiry, within what time, what they do next, and what to do with the ones that arrive outside working hours.

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Rules for talking on the phone and in chat

What a rep has to establish before talking about the product, when to quote a price, and the things never to do.

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A sales rep's day: the running order and the priorities

The order a rep takes tasks in, when they call, when they write, and what they do in the first thirty minutes of the day.

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The sales process: how to describe it so people use it

A one-page process description: stages, inputs and outputs, owners and deadlines. And why a twenty-page diagram never gets used.

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A funnel in the CRM: what to put in the specification

What belongs in the specification for a funnel, which automations pay off most, and how to check that CRM numbers match the bank.

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Lead qualification: how to stop burning the team on the wrong customers

Four questions that tell you whether this is your customer, plus two ways to qualify financially on expensive products.

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The two-tier model: when your expert should not be selling

The rep qualifies and sells, the expert delivers. When this model pays off most, and what breaks inside it.

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A customer care team: taking the support role off sales

When reps spend half their time looking after customers who already bought, sales stop growing. What to move into a separate role.

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people

Which sales rep to let go

Before deciding about a person, rule out three things that look like a weak rep and are not.

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A rep's comp plan: making it pay to do what you need

The three parts of a comp plan, the proportions that work, and a scheme that produced 15% conversion at a $2000 deal size. Plus the usual mistakes.

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Hiring a sales rep: test the work, not the talk

Why experienced sellers are not always better, how a test conversation is set up, and what a recording plus a scoring sheet gives you.

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The target candidate profile: where hiring starts

A profile describes conditions and requirements you can verify, not personality. What belongs in it and what has no place there.

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The job ad: what a candidate actually reads

The structure of a job ad that brings applications, and four things that stop strong candidates applying at all.

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The interview: questions that actually show you something

Ten questions that produce facts instead of self-presentation, and two questions that are not worth asking.

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Onboarding: a new rep's first thirty days

A week-by-week onboarding plan, what the person should be able to do at the end of each week, and why new reps fail to reach results.

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Training by sales stage: what a rep genuinely needs

The five stages of a conversation, the typical mistake at each, and how to teach on your own recordings instead of somebody else's course.

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Objection training: understand first, answer second

The order of moves on an objection, why hard closing fails at mid and high deal sizes, and how to drill it every week.

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A sales rep's job description

How a job description differs from a set of rules, the seven blocks it needs, and how to stop it lying dead in a folder.

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A team lead: when you need one and what they do

The signs your head of sales can no longer keep up, what a team lead does, and the main mistake made when appointing one.

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Head of sales: what they are answerable for

Five areas of responsibility, the numbers to judge the role by, and why an owner cannot run the sales team for long.

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One-to-ones: the conversation that changes something

The structure of a thirty-minute meeting, three questions that work, and why a talk about results with no numbers goes nowhere.

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metrics

First response time: what every hour of silence costs

The average business replies to an enquiry after 42 hours. The one who replies in five minutes closes two and a half times more. How to measure yours.

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How many touches it takes to close a deal

Eight sales in ten close on the fifth touch or later. The average won deal takes 8.4. Reps stop earlier, and that is where the money sits.

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Sales cycle length: what is normal

The median B2B cycle is 84 days, and it has grown 22% in three years. What is normal for your deal size, and what exactly stretches it.

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How to calculate conversion so the number does not lie

The same company in the same month has a conversion rate of 7% and of 12%, depending on what you count as an enquiry and what you count as a sale. Our working definitions.

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Metric map: why a dashboard does not give you control

Having data and attractive charts is not the same as having control. What is missing is a fixed logic between metrics and decisions. How to build it.

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Metric tree: breaking revenue into things you can actually control

Three ways to decompose a headline metric, the tests a component and a driver must pass, and six criteria for deciding what to fix first.

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Vanity metrics: how to spot one and what to do about it

A vanity metric creates a feeling of progress and suggests no action. An eight-question test, and how to cure a metric instead of dropping it.

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How to pick your key metric for a quarter

Eight questions that rule out unfit candidates, and one rule about speed: a metric slower than your planning horizon cannot be the key one.

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Average deal size: how to count it and how to lift it

Why the median is more honest than the mean, which three ways of lifting the average deal work in a sales team, and what goes wrong with them.

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LTV and repeat sales: money you have already paid for

A customer who buys a second time costs whatever the conversation costs. How to calculate LTV simply, and what to do with a base that stays silent.

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Receivables: selling is easy, collecting is harder

On instalments and split payments companies lose up to 40% of profit, because nobody collects the second part. How to build the process.

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Cost of sales: what your sales team should cost

How to calculate the cost of selling as a share of revenue, what to compare that figure with, and what it breaks down into.

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Loss reasons: how to collect statistics that mean something

«Too expensive» on 80% of records means loss reasons are not being collected. A working list of reasons, and how to get reps to fill it in.

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Plan versus actual: how to see a miss before month end

A monthly plan checked at the end of the month is not a tool. How to break it into weeks and drivers so you see the gap in week two.

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Funnel stages: how many you need, and the rule for them

A stage exists if the move to the next one depends on the rep's action and can be counted. Everything else is a status, not a stage.

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Owner dashboard: what belongs on one screen

Three types of dashboard, the one-sheet-one-goal principle, and the set of numbers an owner can read in two minutes.

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Which numbers to track for every sales rep

Six numbers that show how a rep really works, and two more that only create the illusion of work.

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The cost of missed calls

A missed call costs what an enquiry costs in advertising, plus the margin on the deal that never happened. How to calculate your own figure.

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tools

oversight

money

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