For most companies the markets into which they sell have changed. The markets have contracted, it is tougher to get prospects to spend money and competition has intensified over the few remaining opportunities that present themselves. To survive in these tough times, companies not only need to re-think their sales strategies, they need to communicate the new strategies to entire sales force to get understanding & alignment and then successfully execute the plan!
It is surprising that a lot of companies we assist don’t have agreement between what the MD, CEO and Sales Manager’s think the strategies are. When sales strategies are not aligned it sends mixed signals to the salespeople and Sales Manager spend more time resolving conflicts instead of growing the business.
The key to an effective sales strategy is execution! This comes from providing salespeople with clarity of the sales objectives, holding them accountable to the activities that support the strategies and making sure that any discomforts with the strategies are uncovered and dealt with.
For Example:
If your strategy is to grow market share – Research shows that it takes 7-12 touch points to a new prospect for them to even remember who you are.
- How many times do your salespeople make contact before giving up on a prospect?
- Are your salespeople capable of handling fob-offs from prospects i.e. “we are happy with our current supplier” or “we’re ok ”
- Are your Account Managers capable of hunting for new business?
If your strategy is to sell more to existing customers – Research indicates that if you’re not calling on your customers every 90 days, they are no longer your customers.
- How well are your salespeople managing their territories?
- Are they calling on the right people (decision makers) or are they calling on people they are comfortable with?
- Are they building strong business relationships or just personal ones?
If your strategy is to up-hold margins
- Are your salespeople comfortable asking tough questions to indentify the prospects pain and magnify the impact of the problem in order to sell on value?
- Do they have a money weakness and cave in when customers apply a little pressure and want a discount?
If your strategy is to train and develop existing salespeople to support your strategies
- Do you know if your salespeople are trainable and how much investment it will take to get them up to the required level?
- Or would it be more cost effective to recruit salespeople who can support the current strategies?
Would you like to know how effective your sales force is?
Take the test………..
Happy selling
Paul O’Donohue & the SalesStar.com team
