Sales

Sales can solve quite a lot of business issues, if you are selling, then it shows there is a market for what you are delivering and if the numbers are there then you are a decent way in to running a successful organisation. Obviously sales go hand in hand with other areas of the business which also need to operate efficiently (e.g. Accounts receivable – ensuring your customers are actually paying for what they are buying), but it is important at least that your business is attracting enough of the market to generate sustainable revenue.

Sales Strategy

In regard to sales it is good practice to ensure you have a resolute plan and this should go hand-in-hand with your marketing strategy.

You need to have a solid idea of who you are going to target, how you are going to target them and what sales tactics could be used to attract their attention. This is the same for both a business to business organisation and a business to consumer organisation – it is a necessity to know who your target base is, whether that is a particular customer segment or a specific target vertical, the sales planning process will also help you identify which products and/or services could be targeted at each of your target customer bases in order to maximize sales.

The keys to developing a successful sales strategy are therefore as follows:

1. Identify the right customer

Often when you start a business there will be a disconnect from who you thought was going to buy from you and who is actually buying from you. It’s important to refine that customer profile and verse your sales team on their characteristics, that way they can tailor their approach to target the customers that are more likely to convert from a lead to a sale.

2. Unify Sales and Marketing

In many organisations, the Sales and Marketing functions work in silos, however a unified approach is needed. Feedback loops between the two areas will create a more targeted marketing solution giving the sales team the fuel they need to grow revenue and increase market share.

3. Hire the Right Team

You need to hire the right people that are going to fit with your brand and ethos. Creating a list of qualities in your ideal salesperson and using it during the interview process is a good start when looking for the right individuals. On an ongoing basis the environment should be challenging, but not overwhelming and provide the arsenal of templates, tools and training to keep the sales engine running.

4. Put the right process in place

Defining a sales process will create a structured set of repeatable actions that lead to a sales conversion. Initially you might not have a set definition, but it is important to track your actions and understand what worked, how you initially approached the customer and what steps (free samples, demos, trials, meetings etc) worked to turn that prospect into a paying customer.

5. Refine and adapt your strategy if needed

From your cash flow and financial forecasting you should have a rough idea of the level of sales to break-even and subsequently turn a profit and from such analysis you should set specific and measurable objectives as to where your sales need to be at particular time horizons in order to keep you on track. If sales are not reaching these target levels then you may need to switch up your strategy to ensure the level of growth you had forecast is met or exceeded in order to keep you on a path toward success.

Take care with the use of sales promotions

Often when sales aren’t quite on track companies tend to race for sales promotions and discount periods to boost sales in the short term in order to hit targets, however frequenting such a strategy is typically a recipe for disaster.

Companies who do this on a consistent basis are essentially borrowing against their future, accepting significantly cut margins in the short term to artificially boost sales data, this also causes a requisite increase in spend on inventory to manage against the demand and if the promotion isn’t as successful as initially anticipated then the organisation will have tied up significant capital in needless inventory.

Even if customers do buy at the promotion price, it generally means that they will buy less in future as they are “stocking up” at a discounted price meaning the companies’ sales in future will suffer as a result and they will have sold more in the short term at a cut margin rather than selling consistently at a higher margin over the longer term.

Promotions also have a requisite impact on the purchasing side, as attempting to extrapolate prospective increases in demand is near impossible and generally leads to a company over purchasing and thus being in a situation in which further discounts are required to move excess inventory levels. Companies who get sales promotions right typically stick to very regimented sections of the year e.g. around holidays such as Christmas.

A Focused Offering

Building your product/service range organically is also a necessity from a sales perspective, you want your products and services to have focus and be pushed strategically rather than trying to sell everything and anything.

Smaller concentrated product/service ranges initially can give your business not only focus, but identity, your marketing can be more targeted and your sales department will be able to keep track and push concentrated programs to the market, purchasing will also be able to concentrate its efforts on managing a smaller range of products/services and investing the capital where it needs to be.

A broad wide ranging catalogue or products and/or services can be cumbersome for even the largest organisations, so for a smaller business it is definitely wise to have a small concentrated range to reduce waste and from there build organically.

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