Are you diving into sales properly?

Sales is one of the main revenue lines for any business. The success or otherwise of your company's sales function has a more than direct impact on your company's revenue. SO ARE YOUR DIVING INTO SALES PROPERLY?

I was once privileged work in a multinational company as a Sales Manager with really demanding targets! My sales team members were out there in the field all the time and mostly on their own. We provided as much training to the team as possible. Sales “productivity” was “high” as per the lagging activity reports but sales results and revenue achievements were taking a nose dive!

Hitting our sales targets became an inconsistent game of change and luck. Forecasting was my biggest nightmare. Reporting on sales and justifying our target misses now became my main assignment instead of guiding the team and engaging the market.

The question was “How do we verify that reported “high productivity”? How do we see it translate to results and revenue?” A lot needed to change and we needed interventions to improve the situation. And this is the sales challenge for many companies!

What did we do?

We came up with a straightforward plan; Create a positive sales culture that would encompass and promote sales planning, sales engagement and sales support. The success of your sales function depends on how effective sales activities are within a proper selling culture.

1. Building the sales culture

How would you describe the sales culture within your institution? Does the sales team trust sales leaders in your company? Are promises fulfilled and plans executed? How much of your company goals is translated into sales language for the company? What are the sales metrics that will ensure the company goal is achieved?

What are the policies and processes governing sales in your company? How documented is your sales function and all that comes with it? How aligned is your sales function, the processes and the procedures to the company’s structure, objectives and goals, especially the revenue goals?

You can produce sustainable sales results only within an environment that supports and adds value to the selling activities. And that environment is the sales culture that you, as the sales leader, business manager or business owner, create for your company.

2. Sales planning

How much time is spent planning a sales team? How do you form the sales team, aligning and positioning the team to the corporate sales and revenue goals? What about developing customer persona, segmenting and positioning and territory planning?

How does your sales team conduct pre-prospecting research? What other critical plans do you need to put in place for selling activities to thrive? And how much time to you allow your team to spend on planning a sale?

These are keys to beginning any deal and this is where deals are made and lost.

3. How well do you engage prospects?

What selling activities are your sales persons engaging in? How much the active selling time do they have in a day? What conversations are the sales persons having with contacts out there? What are they telling the C-Level and how much detail do they give to O-Level? How much education are they giving to prospects so they can make an informed decision?

How does your sales person gather the true and pressing need of the prospect? Is he proposing well the right solutions, presenting properly, and negotiating well and closing deals in time? As a sales leaders and business manager/ owner, what activities do you bring to the sales to close it in time for the customers’ problems to be solved and for your company to realize revenue?

The continuous interest of your prospect depends on your company’s ability through the sales function, to offer value and remain top of mind always with the prospect. This is where you need to invest a lot into sales tools to ensure prospects and buyers are being seamlessly graduated through your cycles.

4. Deliver sales value to your clients

After a buyer consents to your product or service, what mechanism is in place to support delivery for the buyer to have a great experience? How fast and professionally do your other departments support sales to deliver the value the customer is paying for? Any delivery timelines, SLAs, OLAs, dedicated service teams and processes?

To fully capture your market in your trade, you need indirect selling channels to support your organic channel. The best indirect channel is THE SATISFIED CUSTOMER. How are you engaging your customers so that they become reference points for your company and the value of your products/ services? Which customer have you identified and are focused on converting to an indirect selling channel?

This is what we recommend!

It is damaging to allow your whole business to remain at risk because you may not get your numbers. If you need to make it and sell professionally, pursue the right actions!

1. Build the culture to enable and support sales!

2. Plan selling in your company to the minutest detail

3. Focus on the right selling activities whiles you keep the goal in mind

4. Deliver value to your customer with the aim of making them your raving customer

It is equally important to invest in a sales expert to guide, drive and deliver value your sales function. The benefit of engaging a proper sales expert with knowledge and tools to keep your sales function in line does not only ensure you hit your numbers but also frees up time to ensure product and market strategy alignment to sales is done so that you can achieve on your corporate objectives.

Inner Excellence Solutions is a sales support solutions partner. Our goal is to help you hit your numbers. Contact us to further engage you on DIVING INTO SALES PROPERLY.

Tel: +233 266 000405, Whatsapp: +233 577 553264

Email: engage@innerexcellencesolutions.com