What sales volume means
Sales volume is how many units, deals or sales you make in a set period. Revenue is the money those sales bring in. You can raise revenue by raising prices without selling a single extra deal. This post is about the count: more sales.
Most guides that rank for this search give you 19 or 21 tips, from recruiting better to running a sales contest. A few of them are useful, but they mix things that work at very different points in your sales, and they don't tell you where to start.
Every tip on those lists moves one of four levers. Knowing which lever each one pulls makes it much easier to choose.
The four levers
| Lever | What it means | Typical ways to pull it |
|---|---|---|
| More conversations | More buyers you actually talk to | More calls or outreach, better lists, faster replies to enquiries, referrals |
| Better conversion | More of those conversations turn into sales | Qualifying earlier, better discovery, faster proposals, asking for the decision, dated follow-ups |
| More per client | Each client buys more at once | A second product, a bigger package, a longer contract |
| Repeat buyers | Past clients buy again | A check-in after delivery, reorders, renewals, a reason to come back |
If you sell one thing once to each client, the last two levers barely apply, and your volume comes from the first two. If clients reorder, the fourth lever is often the cheapest of all.
More conversations
This is the lever most people reach for first: make more calls. It works, and it's the easiest to measure. It's also the most tiring, and it only helps if your conversion rate holds up as you add volume.
To see what a volume goal means in weekly calls, the activity calculator works back from your target to the calls, conversations and meetings each week needs, with your own conversion rates plugged in.
Better conversion
This lever gets you more sales from the same number of conversations. It usually means fixing one step: the first meeting that doesn't lead to a second, the proposal that goes out a week late, the follow-up that never happens.
It's often the quickest win, because the buyers are already in front of you. How to close more sales covers how to find the step where you lose the most deals.
More per client
Selling more to each buyer doesn't add to the count of deals, but it can add units, and it often costs you one extra question at the right moment. Offer only what helps them, because an add-on nobody uses tends to come back as a refund request.
The average deal size page shows how to work it out and why one large deal can skew it.
Repeat buyers
A past client already trusts you. They don't need convincing that you're real, and the conversation is shorter. Yet many sellers never go back to them.
A simple rhythm is enough: a check-in a few weeks after delivery, and a call when they'd naturally need you again.
Which lever to pull first
Don't pick the lever you like. Pick the one that's cheapest to move for your numbers. Here's how:
- Write down last month's counts: conversations, meetings, proposals, deals, and what past clients bought.
- Work out the rate at each step, such as proposals per meeting and deals per proposal.
- For each lever, ask: what would it take to move this by a fifth?
- Pick the one that takes the least extra time.
The weakest step is usually where the cheapest gain sits. If you have plenty of conversations and a poor rate from proposal to deal, more calls will just feed more buyers into a leaky step.
The four levers also combine. Sales velocity is the measure that puts them together: opportunities times deal size times win rate, divided by cycle length. The sales velocity calculator shows what a change to each one adds.
Made-up example: a rep selling commercial coffee machines and supplies to offices.
Last month: 80 conversations, 20 first meetings, 10 proposals, 4 new deals. 30 past clients, of whom 2 reordered without being asked.
She works out what it would take to add about one more sale a month through each lever:
- More conversations: at 1 deal per 20 conversations, one more deal needs about 20 more conversations. That's roughly 60 extra calls, or three extra hours a week.
- Better conversion: 4 of her 10 proposals closed. She reads the 6 that didn't. Four went quiet after she emailed the proposal with no call booked. Booking a review call for every proposal might win one of those back. Cost: about an hour a week.
- More per client: most offices buy the machine and nothing else. Offering a supplies plan at signing could add a sale to one deal in four. Cost: one question at the end of each close.
- Repeat buyers: 30 past clients, and she hasn't called most of them since installation. A short check-in call to each over a month is 30 calls, and she guesses 2 or 3 will want a second machine or supplies. Cost: about 45 minutes a week.
The obvious lever, more calls, is the most expensive. She starts with the review call for every proposal and the past-client check-ins, and keeps her call volume where it is.
End of the next month: 5 new deals, 2 supplies plans added at signing, and 3 past clients ordering again. That's 10 sales against 6 the month before, from about the same number of calls.
Your cheapest lever will depend on your numbers. That's why the counting comes first.
Picking the right lever starts with counting the week. ActivityTracker logs calls and meetings in one tap, keeps every callback on today's list, and shows by Wednesday if your week is enough for your target.
What doesn't work
- Pulling all four levers at once. You'll be spread thin, and you won't know which one worked.
- More calls into a broken step. If proposals rarely close, twice the calls means twice as many proposals that go nowhere.
- Discounting for volume. You may sell more units, but each one earns less, and buyers learn to wait for the next discount.
- Selling to anyone who'll say yes, since volume from poor-fit buyers comes back later as cancellations and complaints.
What to do this week
- Count last month: conversations, meetings, proposals, deals, and repeat orders.
- Work out the rate at each step.
- Pick the one lever that's cheapest to move for your numbers.
- Change one thing for that lever, and keep everything else the same for a month.
- Count again, and compare.
If most of your sales come from a small group of clients, the 80/20 rule in sales post covers how to spend more of your time on the buyers who look like them.