Closing Ratio

A simple way to evaluate your performance as a salesperson or as an organization is to determine your closing ratio. What percentage of your activities results in success? Over time, is there a trend upward or downward? Your closing ratio is a great barometer for the status of your career and your business.

Calculating your closing ratio is not rocket science. If you deliver ten proposals and close two of them, your closing ratio is twenty-percent. It is simple math.

I have a client who has increased their closing ration from seventeen percent to just under thirty percent over a five year period. Now, that is real progress. Getting there wasn’t easy.

The company made an effort to improve success and thus increase sales. Step one to improve results was to learn how to say no. In other words, they tracked and began to recognized opportunities that were winners and learned what opportunities they had little chance to win. They learned to pick their fights. Saying no to an opportunity is not always an easy thing to do.

Time is a precious commodity in business. Spending time on good projects and passing on long shots naturally improved the odds for my client. Losing is not fun. In reality, we lose more than we win, so winning more orders is great for moral and for your income.

Not everyone agrees with my argument. An associate recently told me that anyone with a closing ratio over ten percent isn’t trying enough. He thinks that if you make a sufficient amount of sales calls and proposals that you will lose more deals. I don’t agree with his logic.

Winning is more fun and profitable than losing. Figure out what works and what does not work in your world. Learn to say no to bad business opportunities and then keep score by measuring and tracking your closing ration.

Good selling.