Active Campaigns Key to Sales Success

The heart and soul of my sales methodology is a term called “Active Campaign,” which is when a sales executive has a “to do” triggered in their CRM associated with a particular prospect or client that is dated for some time in the future. The future can be tomorrow, next week, next month or in three months. Active campaigns can start off cold, warm or hot. You cannot actively campaign a company, you can only actively campaign an individual. You can certainly actively campaign more than one individual at a particular company. In other words, an active campaign is the act of following up and documenting when the next follow up is going to happen.

The inability to master this simple concept is in my opinion, the number one reason so many sales executives don’t make it. They do not have enough qualified active campaigns in their CRM. I want to stress the term “qualified” as well. What I mean is that the prospect they are actively campaigning has been vetted to the point that the sales executive is relatively certain that the company the individual prospect works for has a culture of using traditional staffing firms. The vetting process is doable and will be addressed in another blog.

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One of the terrific advantages of emphasizing and measuring active campaigns is that it gives everyone involved a measurable metric. I believe active campaigns are as important to measure as gross profit and fill ratios. The great thing about measuring active campaigns is that the sales executive is 100% responsible for the metric. When it comes to GP for example, in a split-desk model, many factors outside the control of the sales executive have to happen in order for the placement to be successful. For example, the recruiter has to do his job, the candidate has to show up for the interview (and for the job, if offered), the budget has to remain approved, etc. You get the picture. On the other hand, active campaigns are the sole responsibility of the sales executive.

In a split-desk model the sales executive should have at least 300 active campaigns in the company CRM. Building up to 300 active campaigns usually takes at least a couple of months. Depending on the role of the sales executive, the number of active campaigns can actually be as high as 500. Each individual active campaign has a life of its own and it’s the responsibility of the sales executive to determine when and how the next follow-up will occur. The sales executive does not get credit for an active campaign if it’s not documented in the CRM, and as importantly, the next follow-up date is triggered incorrectly. Please don’t get the impression this is simply “dialing for dollars,” because it’s not. These are qualified opportunities determined by a judgement made to the best of your ability. Don’t let the number overwhelm you as it’s very doable. Pedal to the medal everyone …

MORE: Overcoming sales objections

Chris Cosmos

Chris Cosmos
Chris Cosmos is founder and managing director of Cosmos Sales Professional.

Chris Cosmos

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