Achieve sales goals with a powerful sales strategy.
A sales strategy is a documented plan or approach for achieving sales objectives. When you create one, start with an understanding of the market and the sales opportunity, then determine the resources and sales coverage approach that will maximize results. Leverage statistical data, trending analysis and feedback from subject matter experts to determine the best approach. You should regularly review and update the strategy to stay aligned with changes in the marketplace and customer needs. For a sales strategy to be successful, sales teams must execute on tactics and activities that drive achievement of the strategic goals.
Instructions
1. Analyze the sales opportunity for your product or service. Uncover what types of businesses or consumers may have the greatest need for what you are selling. Research your competitors and recognize whether your product offering is better, worse or relatively the same. Size the opportunity in dollars, considering existing customers and new customers, and both short term and long term goals.
2. Rank your sales opportunities from high to low, then select where to focus your sales efforts. For example, instead of targeting all financial services firms in the United States, target financial services firms in California and Oregon, with 500 employees or higher. Instead of targeting female consumers in New York, target female consumers between ages 20 and 30 living in Manhattan. The goal is to align your sales efforts with the greatest sales opportunities.
3. Build a customer contact model that includes the methods and frequency in which you will contact your target customers. Some will react better to telephone contacts; others will expect face-to-face visits, while some may need a combination. If your product has a short sales cycle, then two contacts per month may be appropriate. If your product has a long sales cycle, monthly contacts for six to 10 months may be appropriate.
4. Calculate the right number of salespeople to cover the opportunity. It may be helpful to build a statistical model, which considers costs, productivity and sales revenue. If you have a limited budget, align your finite sales resources with your most lucrative opportunities.
5. Detail what support resources are necessary to build and sustain your sales efforts. These include sales training, administrative support, customer service and sales technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM) software.
6. Document the value proposition for your product and service and the key messages that your sales teams should deliver. The messaging should be powerful, truthful and entice prospective customers to purchase from you versus your competition.
7. Align measurements to support your sales strategy goals. Common metrics include sales revenue, sales profitability and market share. Create processes to monitor actual performance against goals.
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