Hey salesman, how much are you going to earn this week? You think it all depends on your luck?

So did I, once.

Then at the Monday morning sales meeting we had to attend, my Sales Manager put me wise to this.

'Robert, how much do you want to earn next week?'

Not having a clue about what he was about to tell me and with a certain amount of bravado, I said, 'One thousand pounds'. This was 1980, so it was about 5 times an average wage.

Ian, the manager said, 'Ok, let's make sure that you do'.

Here is the process he took me through: 'What's the value of your average sale?' 'I replied, 'About 2,500 pounds'.

'And how much commission do you make on that?' I told him, 'My commission rate is 10%, so I'm paid 250 pounds on that order value'.

'Ok, so you need 4 sales this week to make 1,000 pounds commission. But let's say it's five, just in case some of your deals are smaller'.

'What is your usual closing rate?'

I answered, 'I can usually get an order, one out of every three presentations'.

'So that means you need to do 15 presentations this week. In order to get an appointment, how much prospecting do you need to do? How many people do you have to talk to?'

Looking at my reporting sheets, I was able to work out that on average I had to talk to 12 people to get an appointment.

'So if we multiply 15 by 12, you need to talk to 180 people this week to make your big pay day happen. How many days are you going to work?'

I told him, 'Six'.

'Then you need to speak with 30 people every day. Get started'.

So I did. That week I knocked on 180 doors - literally, talked to the people, made the appointments, went back and did my presentations and, with a bit of hustling on Sunday, to bring in the last reluctant order, I made the necessary total.

Next Thursday, my pay of just over one thousand pounds was deposited to my bank account.

You can apply the same formula, too. What's luck got to do with it?