If you don’t want to grow sales in 2015, then please take this advice. It should ensure that nothing of great sales importance happens to you at all next year.
We are all concentrating on closing 2014 well and hitting our end of year targets, some of us (me included) are shifting a bit of our focus towards a well-earned festive break.
In this blog I’ll be looking at some things that many people won’t do this time of year which could have a major impact on your sales performance and growing sales in 2015.
Don’t write an achievable sales plan
A sales plan (or strategy) will help you focus on your goals and define what you need to do to reach and exceed sales targets. Have an honest look at your sales pipeline and figure out how you could actually achieve sales with the products and prospects you have. You may have to revisit your resources in people and marketing lead generation spend to ensure you will be successful. Make sure you have also done an analysis of the content (marketing support materials) your sales people need to help them through the sales process. Your sales plan should be detailed enough to give you clear view of how you will achieve targets.
Don’t do any best practice analysis
Analysing what you do well and putting into practice throughout the sales team will ensure you get the best results from everyone. Get your team together and discuss the current sales process and how you can improve what you do to be even more effective by using best practice at every stage.
Getting your target market strategy wrong
Have you done your target market & customer profiling for next year? Know who your ideal customer is and prioritise and focus sales efforts towards the target clients that will bring the most revenue and profitability. Read my blog “Get better leads: find your ideal customer profile” for how to do this effectively.
Get your CRM analysis & optimising wrong
If you are using a CRM and filing it out well, then you will have a wealth of information ready at your fingertips. Why not use it to measure and analyse how you are doing? What are you conversion rates? Where are your main blockages in the sales process? What business type of customer are you converting the most? Where are your converted clients coming from? These are just a few things that if you know, will help you focus better next year on winning business.
Don’t do a competency analysis of your sales staff
Do an assessment of your sales team on the top 10 sales competencies that are relevant to your industry to find their strengths and weaknesses. This is usually completed by the individual and through 360/manager feedback. Any gaps to the required levels can be addressed by sales coaching and training that focuses on each individuals gaps/needs. This will ensure your team has the best skills and confidence in their abilities to succeed.
To find out how I might be able to help you grow your business, contact me on carlyn@cwsalesconsult.com
