Why Sales Strategy

??????????????????????????????????????????????????PART TWO

Why Sales Strategy

The important message is that every business must have a sales strategy to grow. Without a sale, the system doesn’t think your business will grow because it won’t.

A sales strategy is essential in addressing six common business challenges. These are:

1.???????????Stagnant sales revenues

A sales strategy is indicated when a performance gap needs to be addressed.

2.???????????Merger of sales forces

A sales strategy is needed to align the sales teams and have them follow one procedure

3.???????????Start-up of a new venture

A sales strategy is pivotal to getting sales started and realizing the ambition of both the founder and investors.

4.???????????New product introductions

A sales strategy is needed to deliver the expectations set by management. This is important when we see that new products increasingly determine success.

5.???????????Launch of a new competitor

A sales strategy needs to be put in place to counter the threat of new competitors. A successful sales strategy helps in arming the sales team with the means to deal with customer questions and forcing the sales value proposition against the claims brought by the new competitor.

6.???????????Expansion to new markets

A sales strategy is needed when the company is diversifying and expanding, e.g. from domestic to international or from the public (government) funded hospital sector into private hospitals. Ansoff’s product market analysis drives this.

When creating a sales strategy be clear which challenge(s) you are addressing

What are the critical building blocks of a sales strategy?

A winning sales strategy has eight key elements or building blocks. This is true for B2B and B2C selling. I’ll be a focus on B2B selling and feature the example of Firefly Clean Energy, a manufacturer of solar-powered generators based in Sussex. You can view their website here: www.fireflycleanenergy.co.uk/

1.???????????Goal and objectives

The first stage of any sales strategy is to know the goal of your business. In other words, you need to explain what exactly you want to achieve in both the short term and long term and answer what your overall aim for the business is.

For Firefly Clean Energy, it might be ‘We want to become the UK’s leading supplier of solar-powered generators by sales within three years.?An essential key requirement of good quality goals is that they need to be quantifiable and measurable to such a degree that it would be easy to recognize precisely what is wanted and to know if it has, in fact, been achieved I often see goal statements like ‘We want to become a top supplier in my worker. This is too vague, as the actual detail has not yet been quantified and it would be not easy to measure what is meant by top. Do you mean in your market sector? And what would be the measure? Sales, profit, market share, growth, and customer satisfaction?

The more quantifiable and measurable the company can make its goal, the better competitive and implement a plan of action that will be needed to achieve the goal.

Objectives are the bite-size deliverables of a goal that when completed, will deliver that goal when completed objective might be ‘We want to achieve sales of ￡1m this year. Like the goal, objectives need to be quantifiable and measurable.

A method often used to define goals and objectives is the SMART method: Specific: What do you want?

Measurable: How will you measure success? Achievable: Is it realistic and can it be done?

Results Orientated: Will it produce the required business results? Time-Bound: When will it be done?

Once the goal and objectives have been decided, the next stage of a sales strategy is to give some thought to the customer the company will sell to.

2.???????????The Target market

This is where you need to decide who, in, l buy your products and services.

If the company is selling to consumers, then the question to consider is, “What is the demographic profile of your consumer?” The term is used in marketing to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. This is usually defined in terms of age bands, social class bands (as the rich may want different products than the middle and working classes and may pay more) and gender (partially because additional physical attributes required for example other personal care and clothing products, and partially because of the male/female mindsets). An overall demographic grouping might be ‘the fashion-conscious 25-35-year-old professional female’.

?In addition, the company will need to know the buying behaviour of its customers.

This is when you need the help of the six wise (wo)men. I take them everywhere with me. Have taught me everything I know. Their names are: what, where, when, who, how and why?

Once the company knows the answers, it can concentrate all its efforts in the right direction on the people t who will buy and decide how it will approach them and hat sales value proposition.

The company needs to know whom it is selling to at the micro-level.

For a B2B supplier like Firefly, this could be the CEO, operations director or purchasing manager. Here, there is likely to be over one person whom the company will sell to. They are the budget holders, decision-makers, professional buyers and users.

In the current tough business challenging environment and economic conditions, we are experiencing changing buying behaviours. In addition to seeing more people involved in deciding, we are witnessing most decisions requiring a business case, procurement getting competitive quotations and conclusions often taking more extended, which can cause sales stalling.

In selling to business customers you will need to know their specific are broadly classified into professional needs, organisational needs and personal needs.

The organisational needs arise from a range of challenges the customer will face, which will direct them to ask specifically:

-?????????????“Can you save me time and money? And can you create efficiencies that will save me time and money?”

-?????????????“Can you increase my revenue or profit?”

-?????????????“Can you increase the value of my brand?”

Similarly, where the company is selling to consumers, it needs to understand the pains consumers experience makes up the demographic profile and be aware of the questions they want to be answered:

-????????“Can you improve my life?”

-????????“Can you save me time and money?”

-?????????“Can you increase my income?”

“Can you make me feel better about myself/improve how I’m perceived?”

3.???????????Products and services

Successful companies are preoccupied with building the best products and services that meet the needs of their target markets.

?What are you selling to the target market? The critical question is, “Why would the customer buy what you are selling?”

The sales strategy must articulate the sales value proposition their sale hinges on its strength.

What is the sales value proposition? It is a statement of benefits that fulfils customers’ needs and delivers value for the customer and the company’. This is covered by a separate article in the series.

4.???????????What are the competitive advantages?

Now that the company knows who its potential customers are, it needs to determine its competitors who are its customers.

The critical question is, “What are their strengths and weaknesses?” as it is these strengths and weaknesses that the company will need to sell against and exploit.

There will always be competitors. It is na?ve to think there are no competitors. Essential to know “Why did the business previously choose the competitor?” Also, you need to know “What are your competitive advantages?” and “How are your company’s products better/cheaper/faster?” because the company will sell head to head. Prospective customers will ask you many questions: “How are you different?” “Why should I choose you?” “What is in it for me?”

The message here is that the company needs to know its current and potential future competition.

5.???????????Route to market

How do you reach and sell to your customers? Will this be direct, via channel partners or through the internet? Or a combination of all of the above?

Going direct is a model used by many manufacturers and,d of course, retailers. If you are going the natural route, will this be via a field-based sales team, email, telesales, trade shows/exhibitions, and similar events?

Employing a sales team is common in all industry sectors,s including automotive, business software, industrial products and pharmaceuticals.

Telesales can be effective in business-to-business for new and repeat sales but generally has a low conversion rate.

Sell through an intermediary or channel partner if you are a manufacturer. This could be a reseller such as a retailer or local distributor for international markets.

The internet and the company website have grown phenomenally as a route to market. It is seen as a relatively inexpensive route to sell to the customer. Online selling/purchasing is now well established and predicted for many goods and services to be the predominant route to market.

Social media also helps to attract and direct customers to the company website.

6.??????????Selling process

The selling process is the collection of activities that bring about a sale. There are typically five steps involved in the selling process, which begins with prospecting – this is about generating leads, approaching, presenting, closing and following up.

Presenting your ‘sales value proposition’ is the heart of the selling process.

An essential part of the selling activities is face-to-face engagement, which in B2B selling is known as the ‘critical hour’. Why? Because many first time meetings take about an hour. This is a phrase coined by Russell Ward, who described the five competencies needed to succeed in that hour in his book ‘High-Performance Sales Strategies.

The critical hour is weighted with vital importance in that it determines the future of the relationship with the customer.

7.???????????Resources, skills and capability

This is all about what resources (e.g. sales time and money), skills and capabilities (e.g. sales planning and key account management) are required to sell, where accounts are managed on the basis that they are of strategic importance to the business and are selected accordingly.

How will you develop and improve the skill and capabilities of your salespeople? The assessment of the effectiveness of selling skills and training is provided by a mix of ‘on the job’ and externally provided professional training.

8.???????????Sales management

Sone of the critical areas that the sales strategy needs to address is sales management. How is the sales target set?

Is this top-down, bottom-up or by negotiation? The latter is the best way to ensure front-line staff and management commitment.

However, the sales targets are set, and the company needs to decide and communicate sales targets at both team and individual levels. These should cover precise performance targets and how these are to be achieved.

How is the sales performance reviewed?

This is all about measuring. It is essential to determine what is measured. There are six main measures: sales by period, sales by product, channel (lead source), sales per order, new versus existing customers and sales by previous marketing activity (such as a past search engine marketing campaign).

Also, the company needs to decide and communicate how often sales performance will be reviewed. Typically, sales are tracked daily and checked in detail each week or month. Sales meetings are held for this purpose

?How is coaching provided?

Coaching is essential to ensure continuous improvement and high performance. Coaching should be provided by the sales manager on the job and by external professionals as required for the sales team.

In those companies that employ salespeople, it is essential to incentivise them, so it is necessary to formulate and work with performance incentives. Most commonly, these are in the form of bonus and commission schemes.

For salespeople, who are paid a salary, a most appropriate bonus scheme here are many types of bonus schemes, which all serve to pay out an amount of money to the salesperson who achieves and outperforms their sales target, usually on a sliding scale and subject to other conditions being met.

These then are the critical elements of the sales strategy. The sales strategy is built up much like the business model, using a canvas that illustrates how the building blocks are connected.

How do you build a successful sales strategy?

Steps to building a winning sales strategy.

steps:

1.???????????Engage the customer-facing a team

In preparing your sales strategy, you need to engage all customer-facing. They will all have crucial insights into sensing, serving and satisfying customers. The team under the leadership of the sales manager (director) will develop and launching the sales strategy.

2.???????????Describe the current situation

The next step in developing a sales strategy is to describe the current situation. You must understand the current situation, which means knowing the answers to various questions. These include: “What is selling and what is not?” “How much and how well are you selling?” “How you are prospecting?” “Why do customers buy from you, and why do customers not buy from you?” “Who are your competitors?” and “How do you reach your customers?”

3.???????????Create the sales strategy canvas and define the key aspects

In a group session, working with customer-facing customers, you should next define and record the key elements of the sales strategy on a canvas in much the same way as you would the business model; of course, this is part of the business model.