Most sales advice sounds like it came from a 1990s motivational poster: “Make more calls! Send more emails! Hire more bodies!”
That’s addition in a multiplication world.
Here’s the formula that actually matters
ECCT = R
(Effort × Confidence × Conversion × Time = Revenue)
Notice those multiplication signs? That’s not an accident.
EFFORT isn’t about doing more of the same ineffective work. It’s about doing the right things with laser focus. One strategic call to a decision-maker beats 50 cold calls to gatekeepers. Every. Single. Time.
CONFIDENCE compounds exponentially. Confident reps ask for bigger deals, negotiate harder, and close faster. Scared reps discount their way to poverty. Your confidence level literally multiplies your results.
CONVERSION is where the magic happens. Bump your close rate from 10% to 15%? That’s not 5% better – that’s 50% more revenue. Small improvements in conversion create massive results.
TIME is the sneaky multiplier. Most reps think longer sales cycles are bad. Wrong. The best reps compress decision timelines while extending relationship value. They’re not working more hours – they’re making every hour count more.
Here’s what kills me: Sales managers obsess over activity metrics (addition) while ignoring effectiveness multipliers.
“Alex made 100 calls this week!”
“Cool. How many resulted in qualified meetings?”
“Um… two?”
Meanwhile, Sarah made 20 calls and booked 8 meetings because she researched, targeted, and prepared.
The brutal truth?
If any variable in your equation is near zero, you’re screwed. Amazing effort × zero confidence = zero revenue. High conversion × terrible targeting = zero revenue.
But get all four variables above average? That’s not 4x better. That’s exponentially better.