Have you ever gotten something new and it was so awesome that you wondered how you ever lived without it?
That feeling is pretty awesome. And honestly, most salespeople are trying to find solutions every single day that will help others have that feeling.
That's really what sales is all about: selling a product to someone that's going to make a positive impact on them, whether it's small or large. Knowing that your product or service made someone's day or helped them solve a problem makes selling worthwhile and is a key factor in sales motivation.
First, you have to believe in the product or service that you're selling. If you don't, then it's much harder to genuinely convince someone else that they should buy-in.
From there, it's just a matter of getting that product or service in front of the right people —your target audience or the people you know will really benefit from buying.
That's where a sales strategy comes into play. Let's take a closer look.
A sales strategy is a living document that guides the sales process.
In other words, a sales strategy is like a sales and marketing roadmap that shows the entire route at once but highlights important stops along the way that need to be visited in order to reach your destination.
The thought process behind a sales strategy is to provide context behind how all the different components of your organization's sales expectations, research, and processes come together to influence how a product or service should be positioned to customers.
You can get your sales team all the fancy tools like mobile VoIP or phone tracking software, but they still need a sales strategy to guide them.
Usually, a sales strategy is reviewed and optimized every month, where you and your sales team can look at cold hard data to quickly identify potential problems or opportunities and address them.
So while you're creating a sales strategy that will be used now and in the future, it's important to remember that it's a living document and informed changes can and should be made over time.
Let's take a closer look at the steps you'll need to follow to create an effective sales strategy.
An effective sales strategy is going to look different for each organization, but sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start, especially when you're creating one for the first time.
Here are some examples of what you need to create an effective growth-focused sales strategy:
Let's take a look at each of these points in greater detail:
An analysis of what makes your product or service unique in the market it serves will help give focus to your sales strategy. In the world of marketing, this is typically called a Unique Selling Position (USP) or sell strategy.
In other words, what makes your product or service stand out from others in a target market? What sets it apart from the competition? Why should a customer buy from you over your direct competitor?
Just like it's not a good idea to jump headfirst into a pool of water with an unknown depth, diving into a target market without knowing how your offering stands out is a huge risk.
A good strategy is trying to find a sweet spot within a market —the small but mighty area of the market where your business fits perfectly, like the last piece of a puzzle.
You can get started with finding that sweet spot or niche by answering the following questions:
You may be able to answer some of these questions immediately, while others might require a bit of digging into the existing sales and marketing data you already have.
But taking the time to fully answer each question should put you on the right track to getting your company and your sales team in the perfect position to sell to the right customers and ace sales follow ups.
Do you know where your customers hang out? If you're not effectively reaching your customers where they are, you're missing out on a big opportunity to show your audience that your company belongs in the same spaces as them.
But how can you reach your target audience? Let's break down three rock-solid techniques:
If you start reaching out to your target customers in effective ways from the beginning, it shows your audience that you know what you're doing and are a true thought leader in your space. This will help solidify customer trust in your business — something that can't be bought.
A value proposition is essentially a promise that your company presents to your target audience. It shows how your product or service will solve your customer's pain points, and why your offering is the best choice when compared to your competitors.
Here are some tips for writing a value proposition that captures your audience's attention:
Catching your audience's eye isn't always easy, but a value proposition can work to communicate your company's message in a quick and clear way, encouraging your customers to learn more.
As your company grows, you'll quickly find that having a sales team full of generalists — that is, salespeople who are jacks of all trades — just isn't getting customers through the sales process in an effective way.
Here's an example of an assembly line structure for a sales team:
The quicker you structure your sales team by specialty, the quicker your reps become experts in specific areas. Sales training is a great way to prepare your team by ensuring everyone has the knowledge they need to be successful in their role. You can structure your team by product, industry, or target market, but the structure that works best for your company or team depends on your business goals.
If you've spent any time in sales or marketing, chances are you've heard of SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound — as a guideline on how to approach goal setting.
With this model in mind, a sales manager may set various sales goals with the aim to keep their sales team motivated to sell. These goals can include:
With clear sales goals in mind, reps can stay motivated and have a clear understanding of your company's selling expectations.
We've gone through some steps you can follow for creating your own sales strategy, but there are actually different thought processes behind selling that you can apply when you're creating your sales strategy.
These methodologies are meant to help give you the right perspective to shape how your sales reps' approach to selling, whether it's outbound sales or inside sales.
There are around 12 different methodologies that you can use to influence how your team sells:
The first three, SPIN Selling, N.E.A.T. Selling, and Conceptual Selling, are mainly focused on gathering information from prospects, digging deep into the challenges the prospects face, and positioning your product or service as the ultimate solution that will save them time, money, and frustration.
The SNAP, Challenger, and Sandler sales methodologies are more focused on the sales reps themselves and how they communicate with prospects, giving different tips on what type of communication works best for different situations.
MEDDIC, Solution Selling, and Inbound Selling are more high-level methods focused on how a sale should be approached, and what information a sales rep needs to consider before jumping into a sale.
Target Account Selling, Command of the Sale, and Gap Selling focus on being mindful of where prospects are in the sales process, and when the right time is to engage them.
While most of these sales methodologies are written like instructions on how to sell, there's nothing stopping you from taking aspects that work for your business from a few of them or all of them to create your own tailored sales methodology.
Sales are competitive, so you need to make sure your sales strategy is giving your reps the best chance to seal the deal.
Here are some main do's and don'ts that you should remember when creating your own sales strategy:
While a sales strategy outlines how to sell, a sales forecast acts as a way to estimate what future sales revenue should look like.
In other words, sales forecasting takes data, whether that be industry averages or your own sales data, and uses it to forecast future sales — like you would forecast the weather.
And while the weather forecast might seem arbitrary at times, your sales forecast should be anything but. Here are some sales forecasting techniques that you can use to create your forecast:
Your sales process consists of the actions and steps your reps take to close deals. Having a clear process written down and in a place where reps can refer to it easily helps ensure a clear standard of selling.
Your sales team, as well as individual sales reps, need sales goals and quotas so that they are aware of your selling expectations. When setting them, use industry-specific data or previous company sales data.
Sales metrics help you determine what goes into making a sale. For instance:
There you have it, sales strategies in a nutshell. We could go on and on about sales strategies and the different techniques involved in creating them, but this post should provide a good baseline so you can feel confident in making your own.
Creating a sales strategy might seem overwhelming at first because there are so many different considerations, but it's worth the effort to provide accurate guidance for your sales team, marketing department, customer support, and any other department of your company that would benefit from sales guidance.
As long as you remember to keep your customer at the top of your mind when selling, and be sure to listen to them so you completely understand their pain points, then applying your sales strategy should be a breeze.
Need more tools to help you build out your sales strategy? Ringy is a comprehensive sales CRM with features like a sales pipeline to help keep your sales on track. Request a demo today and we'll walk you through our software.