Tutorial 2: Excel in the Real World

College teaches many things. So many of them seem to be conceptual and quite frankly not applicable to a true professional business person. However, there are some that are very useful. The class on computing in business introduces some key concepts that are essential for succeeding in the real world. Excel has quickly become a staple for business people today. This tutorial below is an example of how excel can allow you to position yourself above peers.

I have been in sales for many years but I recently started a new job. My new boss wanted to know more about my activity than any boss I'd ever had. At first he just wanted to know major wins and losses, then it moved into letting him know what actions had been taken on our team initiatives. Before I knew it I was sending him information on the previous week's sales activities, major wins & losses, the coming week's schedule, and other general updates. It was taking me hours to answer him in a variety of formats. Something had to change.

So I took inventory of all the different information the boss was asking me to report on and the various weekly conversations we'd had. Then I produced a very simple spreadsheet to track all of the information he was looking for, in one place.

Below is step by step instructions and explanation of  the different fields in the report.

For starters the report is assigned to the salesman, territory, and date. I set it up so that the dates in the body automatically populate from the date entered on top.

The Date initiated, Customer engaged, Subject and Description fields can be used later to track progress. The subject field is meant for sales initiative. It will usually contain a manufacturer name, new product, or new service that is being promoted. The description is typically the customer individual name and/or position, their reaction, and next action planned (dead-end or follow-up).

The Wins/Losses fields can be used to report on any major wins and losses of the week. I use this field for any win or loss over $20,000 or any significant accomplishment that will eventually result in wins.

After using this report a few weeks I new it was missing something. Their was always something more that didn't really fit in the report. Therefore I made a place for comments or "General Territory Update" field. I use this to report on industry trends, customer changes, impacts from competitors and other various information.

As I was getting to know my new boss it semmed like he was frequently asking where I was. So, I fill in the Schedule portion of the report with the coming week's schedule to save us both time and phone minutes.

So every week I'm filling in this report, my boss is thrilled and leaving me alone. After a few months I realized that I am quickly building a ton of useful data that is just sitting on my hard drive. Consequently I created the Master Sales Database to track all of the sales activity for my territory. By a simple copy function from my territory update spreadsheets and paste to the Master Database I am able to update the report with little effort. I also added a complete column for filtering purposes.

To mine the data for various purposes I applied a filter to the spreadsheet. I use several different filters for different reporting functions. For example, as I plan my sales calls I filter by customer and completed columns to see what I need to follow-up on with my customers. So I limit the possibility of forgetting or "dropping the ball" on.

Throughout the year our sales team meets with various manufacturers to make plans for promoting products to various customers. Typically the manufacturer and salesman are great out of the gate. Major targets are presented to and some marginal success is acheived. Unfortunatly, busy schedules typically kill the persistent activity required to be truely successful.

So here I am with all of this information in one spot just waiting to be used. Once again by copying and pasteing I created a tool to report to the manufacturers. After our initial plans I report activity quarterly to my boss and the manufacturers on the spreadsheet below.

I am the only sales representative in my field that does this for my manufacturers. Because of this the manufacturers that I work with help ensure my success. Many give me the best price and other useful information simply because my quarterly update specifically tells them the work that I am doing to sell their products.

 
Today's salesperson is constantly bombarded with customer requests, management tasks, and many other demands. By just managing the kaos, most salespeople end up jumping from task to task and never accomplishing anything. What started as a time cutting excercise to report to my boss, now separates me above my peers with my boss and above my competition with manufacturers.

So college students pay Attention! You never know when one of those UF professors are going to teach a principle that will give you that edge you need among today's professionsals.

All Screen Shots were created and supplied by Joey McDonald in February of 2010.