How Did Your Q1 Turn Out?

Welcome to April, aka the start of a new quarter! Hope the only surprises you had in Q1 were the March Madness results, but if you’re like our other clients, you’re probably evaluating your Q1 sales results and trying to figure out your sales trajectory for the rest of the year. Maybe you’re figuring out how to make up for a less-than-perfect first quarter. Maybe you’re looking to build on small successes and accelerate revenue and profit goals in the first half.

Most sales leaders start off the year with a passion, purpose, and excitement about Q1.?However, it is?commonplace?for companies to fall short of expectations presented in the first quarter.?Sales teams that miss Q1 should first look at which goals and metrics that were missed.?After this, identify where the gaps are and what went wrong. Also have a clear comparison to prior years and other first quarter results.?

Fortunately, weaker than expected sales performance in the first quarter does not mean a company will miss on the year's revenue and profit goals. The key is the leadership team evaluating the situation and acting quickly to get Q2 and rest of the year on track.?

At FireOneCXO, our managing partners each have an average of 120 quarters in leading sales organizations. The first quarter of the year can either be the driving force behind a company’s success or drag the business for the rest of the year.??

Here are a few areas to consider on why the first quarter goals did not meet the mark and actions to take now:

• Get a reality check on the health of the?pipeline.
• Identify your top sales performers and replicate what’s working.
• Evaluate sales capacity of the organization.
• Analyze strengths and weaknesses of the current team.
• Establish a robust Voice of the?Customer?program.?
• Revisit the topline goals that were set for the year.

In the coming days, we will tackle each of the above points in a short post that shares best practices, pitfalls to avoid and recommendations based on our collective experience and expertise.

All companies need to be 100% focused on annual growth and should succeed independent of external?issues, and despite volatile market conditions, readjusting where needed can go a long way in continuing to grow the business.

Stay connected by following us here or visiting us at?https://www.fireonecxo.com. Happy selling!

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