Basic Factors To Consider When Developing a Sales Strategy

The goal of most businesses is to attract the right users who are willing and able to purchase their product or service and also refer them to others. Some people have been saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that this happens, and if this is you, I have a few suggestions for your next strategy.

In my experience as a Growth Lead and a Senior Growth Manager, I have had several opportunities to develop several aspects of my team’s growth and sales strategy, with constant ideation to consistently improve the process, and below are some factors I suggest you consider when developing your sales strategy:

1. Identify Your Target Audience: This is my first choice because, at the end of the day, the product or service you are offering is for a targeted audience. Every human wears clothes but clothing brands have their target audience. Identify whom you are trying to sell to and create a user profile or multiple user profiles as this will help you tailor your messaging and marketing efforts to their specific needs and preferences.
2. Know Your Product or Service: Often, sales professionals approach sales with a mindset of buying and selling, closing deals, meeting the numbers, e.t.c. as much as you want to hit and exceed your targets, you also want to ensure that you know the product or service you are offering as this will help you create a compelling sales pitch that highlights the value of your offering to potential clients or customers. Don’t we all appreciate a salesman with an apt knowledge about his offerings?
3. Have A Goal: It is important to have a clear direction about where you are going with your sales strategy for example, do you want to increase revenue? Are you looking to expand your market reach? Having a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) goal will provide clear direction for you and your team’s efforts and also help you maintain focused and stay aligned.
4. Know Your Competition: This is not to say you should put a laser focus on your competitors. If you are in a field where there are existing competitors, it is helpful to understand what your competitor(s) do. Have a fair knowledge of their strategies, pricing, unique selling point, weakness, and target audience as this will help you effectively position yourself and differentiate your offering in the market.
5. Develop A Sales Plan: Be detailed on how you and your team will achieve your sales goal. You can have a blueprint of the sales cycle, techniques and processes for your team and understand that every salesman has unique skills (it’s why they were hired in the first place). Your plan should drive the core sales process, and its value while also allowing your team members to flex their skills. Remember how you feel after doing what you know how to do best.
6. Key Metrics Measurement: This is why your sales goal has to be measurable. Define the metrics so you know exactly what to measure. It is important to carry your team along so that at every point, everyone can see how they are contributing to the overall success or fallibility of the sales goal and make necessary adjustments when needed.
7. Collaboration: How did your last conversation on running a promo go with the management team?? It is worth noting that there are other departments whose activities directly impact sales, for example, customer service, marketing, operations, e.t.c. Every department has a goal that must conform to the overall business goal, so aligning your goals with these departments' goals will save you a lot of frustration.?

These are general factors you can consider. There are more things that will affect your sales plan based on your current industry, and it is important to consider those when developing your strategy.?

Practical Approach: We will use the fictitious name “UVW Group." UVW Group is a B2C retail shop with physical offices across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa that sells unisex fashion items for young adults. They focus on luxury brands.

Let us assume The Country Sales Manager (CSM) of UVW Group Nigeria has just concluded a meeting with the Country Managing Director (CMD), and the rallying cry is to grow the revenue by 7% for Q1 2023. How will the CSM drive this with his team?

As we just saw, the CSM must choose which target market will help achieve the goal. With the input of the data analyst, the CSM can gain insights based on historical data trends for the specified period, but if no prior records are available, think about employing a third-party provider. Based on your findings, create a user profile or persona for your ideal target audience. It will likely include age, gender, location, occupation, favourite brand, leisure activities, relationship status, e.t.c. Click here for a generic template by Alexandar Georges.

Let’s use another fictitious name “Eliana” for one of the users. Eliana loves tracksuits and her major frustration is finding matching sneakers. From the insights so far, marketing a matching pair of sneakers with tracksuits most likely lead Eliana to not only buy the tracksuits she loves but also buy a matching sneaker. Happy customer, good sales!

Remember the goal is to grow the revenue by 7% for Q1 2023. Now that the target audience is defined, the CSM needs to see if there are competitors who can also make Eliana just as happy. There are several ways to get insights into your competitors but for this example, we will use internal analysis. Based on the insight, The CSM has realized that they have two major competitors who will fictitiously call ZAB Stores and CDE Apparel.

Assuming the insights showed that CED Apparel's strength is in SEO marketing and pricing, and their reviews showed that they are yet to get their logistics right, while ZAB Stores’ strength is in their logistics (they literally deliver within 24 hours within Nigeria, the focus market), but reviews show that the customer service is poor. What can the CSM do with this information?

• Identify competitive advantage for better market positioning

The CSM now needs to develop a sales plan to help the sales team achieve this goal. Now Eliana wants to visit her sister in Jos and needs to stay warm in her tracksuit. She visited the UVW outlet closest to her that was offering a 10%–20% discount on selected sneakers and found four tracksuits she liked. With the goal in mind, the sales representative attending to Eliana showed her sneakers that are a great match for the tracksuits she wants to buy. Seeing that Eliana really hates to look for sneakers when going out, she purchased 3 sneakers along with the tracksuits thanks to the 18% discount and the sales representative.

January just ended, and the CSM needs to measure sales so far to see how the team is doing. From the report the analyst shared, it seems like the 7% increase is unattainable. Interestingly, the data shows that most of the purchases so far have been for three brands. Now that there is awareness, the CSM can do the following:

• Collaborate with marketing to promote the other brands
• Collaborate with marketing to increase awareness for the top 3 performing brands.
• Collaborate with the inventory to ensure that performing items aren’t out of stock
• Introduce more discount models e.g. accumulative discount on every purchase, referral discount, e.t.c.

It is essential to measure your goals so you can constantly assess performance and make informed decisions.

Now you will agree with me that there are other departments whose responsibilities directly impact sales. Following the UVW Group Nigeria scenario, the CSM will align with several departments, for example, inventory, marketing, and customer service.

This is only one of many possible scenarios and this approach is dynamic hence it is important to understand your market or industry and adapt appropriately.

I hope this was helpful.