How Software Sales Stars Are Hitting Their Target This Year

We’re more than halfway through the year now, which means that it’s a great time for software sales companies to start planning new goals and assessing their progress towards sales targets.

Sales targets are a crucial part of making sure that your business continues to grow and drive new revenue. Unfortunately, many employees fail to reach their sale targets, either because their goals are unrealistic within the time frame given (yes this can happen!), or their strategies simply don’t work.

If your current profit pipeline looks a little dry this summer, don’t panic. There’s still time to recover and come out of 2018 on top. All you need to do is implement the right process.

Here’s how software sales pros are setting themselves up for success this summer.

1. They Set Targets that are Challenging, but Achievable

The first step in boosting your chances of successful sales this year is making sure that you’re setting targets that make you stretch like crazy though not ones that are demoralising.

Goal setting is a tricky process. On the one hand, it’s important to make sure that you’re challenging yourself to accomplish bigger and better things every year. On the other hand, setting targets that are impossible to reach can damage motivation, and decrease in team productivity. After all, it’s hard to feel inspired and confident when you know you can’t reach your goals.

So, how do you find the right balance?

Software companies need sales goals that their staff can achieve at least 70% of the time. This ensures that the targets are challenging enough to push the team to excel, but not so difficult that they feel overwhelmed.

2. They Follow Clear Steps

Any effective process begins with a strategy.

Software sales professionals work best when they can see a path leading towards their goals, complete with measurable steps.

The steps involved in any sales strategy will vary according to product, business model, and industry. However, most plans will include:

• Identification of the ideal prospect ready, willing and able to buy.
• Initial contact: How the sales pro will contact a prospect and carry out the initial sales conversation/needs analysis.
• Offer: How the client in ‘closed’ on the offer objections handled, and the next steps are agreed.
• The Follow-up process: Conversion today happens with relentless and appropriate follow up.
• Final agreement: The final sale approved by both parties

The right process makes it easier for sales stars to organise their time, and make sure they’re making progress towards the right results.

3. They Know Their Customer

Today’s customers want highly-personalised, bespoke experiences when they invest in software. To deliver this, salespeople need to know everything there is to know about the market they serve.

In a world driven by customer experience, there are plenty of tools that can help organisations to learn more about what their clients need. For instance, companies can use:

• CRM (customer relationship management) analytics
• Customer surveys
• Sales analytics

Sales pros know that they need to translate the data available to them into actionable insights they can use to connect with customers. Many of the most high-performing sales stars aren’t afraid to dive into technology to find the information they need.

In fact, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review, companies with sales strategies driven by data are up to 6% more profitable than their counterparts.

4. They’re Both Persistent and Respectful

Today’s sales teams need to walk a fine line to achieve their sales targets.

While communicating with a prospect too frequently can cause frustration for your customer, it can take up to eight conversations before someone’s ready to buy your software according to a recent article on Salesforce.

A great sales rep can’t afford to abandon a prospect after a single follow-up. The best employees need to be persistent, but cautious. They ensure that they’re staying in touch with their leads, but that they’re not annoying them with constant emails, phone calls or messages.

However, sending an email with information that helps the customer to achieve their goals is just “persistent”.

5. They’re Always Learning

Finally, if you’re already meeting your sales targets, then you might think that you’ve reached your goals, and you can simply sit back and relax. #Wrong!

The best salespeople never rest on their laurels. They know that there’s always going to be a new target to meet, which is why they’re constantly honing their skills, learning new things and looking for additional opportunities.

Whether you’re worried about sales targets or not, it’s hard to achieve a meaningful level of career growth without a commitment to learning. What’s more, as sales continues to evolve with new strategies and technology, the salespeople who stay ahead of the curve will be the ones that excel.

Thanks,

Nikki

About LivRecruit

LivRecruit specialises in Inside Sales, Senior Sales and Technology Recruitment. The LivRecruit team is based in South Manchester and have over 17 years’ experience providing recruitment solutions for technology companies across the UK.

If you are looking for the right new hire for your technology team or want to take your career to the next level call us on 0161 883 2856 or email us here.