If you’re a sales leader, you are probably asked by those that you work with to be able to create the perfect sales strategy. If this is you, then this blog will be right up your street as I am going to share with you my top tips on how you can create a perfect sales strategy.
WHAT IS A STRATEGY?
I am always intrigued by what people actually mean by the term “Sales Strategy”. One of the first things I want to do is to look at what the word strategy means.
A strategy is detailed, and it is written down so that you can refer back to it and what you want to achieve. This leads us nicely into our first point.
WHAT IS YOUR OBJECTIVE?
- Is your objective to become the biggest company in your market space?
- Is your objective to hit £25 million in revenue in the next 5 years?
- Is your objective to dominate all other competitors out of the market space so that you are the only one left standing?
Depending on your objective, it will affect the sales strategy that you put in place. Consider these elements when you’re putting together your strategy.
- What is it that we want to achieve over what time period?
- What is our overall market and business strategy?
- How does the market and business strategy fit in with what we’re trying to achieve?
Consider these elements when you’re putting together the strategy. All of the elements have to be aligned if you want to make the sales strategy work – if you have a different objective in your business to what you are trying to achieve in sales, things are going to get lost.
Be clear about your objectives and then use that as a basis for building the strategy up from there.
VISION AND MISSION
Your vision and mission must fit in with your sales strategy.
So many companies have strategies to achieve sales success but they don’t align their strategy alongside the vision and mission they have for their business.
It took me a long time to realise actually how important vision and mission are when it comes to sales and being successful as a business owner. When you have a really strong vision (what you want to achieve) and your mission (how you’re going to get there), it really captivates and enhances your strategy and the work that you do.
My sales strategy is all about how I can make my vision and mission happen!
MARKETPLACE DIRECTION
Let’s work through this using an example. Let’s say you’re in the sales training market space.
I know that in my marketplace we’re going to see a lot more virtual reality in the next couple of years. Since covid, people are doing fever things face-to-face. A lot more will be done online and maybe even in the virtual reality world.
It’s not maybe happening right now today, but it’s something that is a strong possibility in the next few years. I have to take that into account and understand how I can make sure that my sales strategy is aligning with the direction the marketplace is heading.
Be in tune with where your marketplace is heading. I suggest you read articles, attend webinars or listen to podcasts of people talking about your marketplace.
Your strategy must be a plan for long-term action. The last thing we want to do is create something that hasn’t taken long-term market directions into account.
WHO IS YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER?
When you are developing a sales plan or any sales campaign it’s so critical that you have a target audience in mind and that you are clear on who this is.
Don’t be everything to everyone. I have made this mistake in a previous business, I really don’t want you to go down this route. Don’t mistake me, I’m not suggesting you only sell to that specific group of people and ignore everyone else, but that group of people needs to be the focus.
When you have a particular focus it makes it much easier within your sales strategy to know who you are perfect for and how you can impact their world.
Hope is not a strategy, and hope is what bad companies do when they have no idea of their plans . It ends up wasting their time and costs them many, many hours. Make sure you know who your target customer is, it’s essential if you’re going to develop a strategy that will get you success.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
I am a big believer in making sure that you lead rather than follow, but I’m also conscious that you have to be aware of what’s going on in the landscape competitively around you, who else is out there, what are they offering, and how does that differentiate with what you do?
Doing this can give you perspective into what might need to be in your sales strategy. I encourage you to just have a think about what competitors are doing. You are better to address it within your sales strategy rather than hope it doesn’t exist and then find that the sales work you’re doing doesn’t work. Doing this can help you have better chances of success.
SALES TEAM
How are you going to go and get potential engagement with potential clients?
Your structure will depend on the elements that you put in place, and what your competitors are doing. Start to define how many people you need, and what type of people at what level of skills.
It is a massive factor in putting the right strategy in place. I’m working with a client at the moment who has a strategy to engage some massive players in their marketplace. I call it whale hunting they are literally going after some of the biggest people in their industry and guess what the strategy for doing that isn’t just picking up the phone and doing stuff on teams they’re having to fly around the world and engage with these prospects because the potential value for their strategy is worth millions, so therefore they are having to invest time and money in taking the right actions.
Here at the Small Business Sales Academy, we can help you come up with the right structure that works for your company.
The reality is you’ve got to make sure that structure is there to know how you’re going to engage with your potential clients and how you’re going to bring them across the line.
COMPENSATION PLANS
Salespeople like to have compensation plans. They like to know how they’re going to earn money and be incentivized. This needs to form a part of your sales strategy.
There is no point in trying to be a leader in a business and trying to create an engine that achieves big numbers and goals without actually paying your salespeople that will make that happen.
Your salespeople are the spear of your business arrow, and they’re there to go and make things happen. If they’re going to get results, they need to be compensated for that. Make sure that a compensation plan forms an essential part of your strategy and it can help you win big business.
There you go these are the elements that I think are important to consider when creating the perfect sales strategy. I hope they have helped you and given you some insight into what I think are critical factors in winning business consistently for you and your company.
