Implementation of sales strategy doesn’t just happen overnight, most are the result of thoughtful planning and a significant amount of trial and error. In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, no matter how good our company’s products or services are, the biggest contributor to long-term growth and success is the ability to create, implement and execute a successful sales strategy. Also, to read more articles about business organization, you can refer to the articles page.
How to Implement the Strategy?
Implementing a sales strategy is about understanding how the boardroom’s goals are accomplished through individual sales representative action in the field. There’s this idea that top-performing sales reps have an innate talent that can’t be replicated. However, experience tells us that there is often much more science behind implementing successful sales strategy formulas. That’s not to say successful sales teams lack passion, just that they’re driven by data, knowledge, and close alignment with company goals rather than emotion.
Therefore, a 4-step data-driven plan for effective sales strategy implementation includes the following:
•Run all according to a plan
•Setting smart sales goals
•Measuring individual performance
•Coaching for improvement
The First Step of Implementing the Sales Strategy: Executing Everything According to a Plan
Did you know that less than a third of newly implemented sales strategies are successful? Lack of internal communication, misalignment between company and sales goals, and resistance to change usually cause failure. Many executive teams are wary of manipulating the sales process. They believe that sellers should be left alone and make money as they see fit.
Second Step: Smart Sales Goals
The motivation behind goal setting is that it provides sales reps with a reward and incentive to achieve their goals; It also keeps the sales activity in line with the specific goals of the company. The more you can communicate your goals to your salespeople, the more likely they are to achieve them. Smart sales goals in implementing and formulating a sales strategy have features that we will discuss further.
Be Measurable:
What we cannot measure, we cannot improve.
To measure the success of our team’s progress, we need to set quantitative goals for them. If not, how can we tell if they are on the right track? And if so, which areas need the most improvement?
Can be Achieved:
The idea behind sales goals is to motivate our reps to achieve a specific goal. However, we should not be too strict, as it can backfire and demoralize our team. We must try to find a sweet spot between ambition and what is realistic to get the most out of our sales team.
Be Related:
As we discussed earlier, if we want to execute the company’s long-term vision, sales goals must be closely related to the company’s goals. Otherwise, its future success and longevity will be jeopardized. Setting relevant sales goals can be achieved by spending more time face-to-face with customers, discovering deeper customer needs, etc.
Set Time:
The last part of the Smart Sales Goals Principle states that in the best sales strategy, sales goals should have an expiration date. If not, the sense of urgency needed to achieve them will not be created.
Third Step: Measure Progress through Sales Reports
After setting sales goals, the second step in the sales strategy implementation plan is to begin tracking and measuring their progress. We can do this by setting up sales manager reports in our CRM (customer management system). This allows us to collect enough data to apply to the next step, our sales coaching. However, before doing so, we need to define what we want to measure and why.
Otherwise, we may suffer from a common problem that affects almost all sales managers during their careers.
The problem is data analytics, which cripples a manager’s ability to extract any real, actionable insights from their reports. We understand that our field agent’s goal is to increase customer loyalty. Therefore, the sales activity we measure in our reports must somehow impact this goal. We should prepare a report according to the performance of our individual sales representative, to find out his/her faults and weaknesses. Let’s take a few minutes to think about all the skills a sales rep needs to achieve our specific goal and some of the obstacles they face along the way.
Some of its forms are:
•Poor time management
•Too much focus on existing customers
•Lack of understanding of primary goals
•The interval between visits is too long
•Poor route planning skills
•Low motivation
Once we’ve completed this exercise and identified a few potential pitfalls, it’s now time to move on to the fourth and final step in the sales strategy implementation program, coaching.
Fourth Stage: Coaching
The final stage of sales strategy execution is of course where we, the sales manager, can step in and provide advice and support to our team by combining our experiences with a targeted, data-driven report. As we know, criticizing the performance of a seller can be very difficult. It starts with organizing a weekly sales meeting, usually lasting between 30 minutes and an hour, to address issues or obstacles that are preventing salespeople from reaching their goals. Before starting any consultation during the meeting, we should ask for feedback from the target sales representative. This is critical in stopping sales reps from immediately going on the defensive.
Up to Sum
Implementation and proper execution of sales strategies is achieved by business leaders, management and sales team. The implementation of the sales strategy properly by a sales leader must be principled and according to the plan, which we discussed in detail in this article. Stay with the specialists of Uprodemy website to get business advice and international trade.
