10 May Sales Strategy.
A sales strategy is the process of matching the business mission with a sales plan, then putting in place metrics and sales tactics. The sales strategy will also map out courses of action and allocating resources to achieve the selected goals.
Before a sales strategy addresses how the sales team will sell, it must first address how customers are buying. Today customers are seizing the balance of power in the buyer-supplier relationship, more and more aspects of the sales process is being played out via networking and online, so companies need to structure the sales plans and resources for this new reality.
“57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls a supplier.”
“67% of the buyer’s journey is now done via networking or digitally.”
Today’s selling reality.
Sales and marketing are now one team, “that functions to target and acquire customers. Understanding customers buying behavior define the product offerings. Sales teams need to be specialized, social enabled and multi-channel savvy. Sales reps have to work at adding value in the sales process rather than just quote features and benefits. Sales complexity and the sales process needs to be minimized to ensure selling costs are controlled in a tighter margin environment.
The key Sales Strategy Questions.
- Does the business have a market development lead strategy (selling more of same product to same/new customers) or a product development strategy (selling new products to same/new customers)?
- Who is the business selling to? Does it know which market segments have the best growth rates?
- What is the most effective means of reaching target customers and what is the cost in taking this route?
- How does marketing and sales share the workload and collaborate?
- How does the business equip the sellers with the right content, expertise and skills to navigate the customers’ buying journey and then differentiate the business value proposition?
- Does the business collect and analyse data to forecast which products customers are likely to buy or trends developing?
- What is the most effective sales and distribution model?
“To compete with a larger firm there’s got to have something meaningfully different.
Sales Strategy Selection.
The sales strategy selection should cover what is the customer sweet spot.
1. What are you offering them focused in on this space?
A business needs to flow- chart out the sales cycle. Marketing is about generating leads. Sales is about converting these leads into sales.
Play to the two Rs via MATCHING.
- Link between clients “sweet-spot” and you’re offering.
- Not FEATURES.
Pricing Strategy
Closing Techniques
As buyers change how they buy, vendors need to change how they sell. The way it is or was it not going to cut it in the future. Now is the time to revisit and revise the sales strategy.