Why do you need a sales strategy? Surely success in sales and sales management is all about tactics – individual responses to unique customer needs. No two customers, no two opportunities, and no two sales deals are the same. The only strategy any sales manager can make work is “whatever it takes”. Do whatever is necessary to win the sale, and ask forgiveness after.
When it comes to those final few interchanges “whatever it takes” makes sense. The cost of sale has already been spent. Any deal is better than a loss report.
But that’s only one part of what sales people and sales managers do. Most of their time is spent researching, cold calling, networking, discovering, probing, qualifying – finding out where there are deals and checking those are real opportunities.
For those parts of the job, a well constructed sales strategy makes a big difference. Research is better targeted, cold calls are more productive, sales resources are more cost effective, and sales performance is more predictable.
So what is a sales strategy and how can you decide which is the most likely to work for you?
Before you call in the consultants you might find some of the articles in our blogs helpful. At least they’ll give you a basic understanding and foundations for building your own strategy, to fit your business, in your market.
Here are links to a small selection.
The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics
Sales strategy isn’t something business owners and sales managers put at the top of the priority list. Perhaps because they don’t understand the difference between that strategy and sales tactics, or the importance of either in effective sales operations. Or how to develop an effective strategy. So how is a sales strategy different from sales tactics?
The Role of Your Value Proposition
What role does value proposition play in a sales strategy? Or maybe what is a sales strategy, and what is a value proposition, and why should anybody care? The answer to those questions depends on how much you enjoy kissing frogs.
You’ll remember the Brothers Grimm fairy tale where the princess kissed the frog, and the frog turned into a handsome prince who married her. The happy couple lived together in marital bliss for the rest of their lives.
The Role of Sales Process
Process is an essential element of sales strategy. In fact process is an essential element of any strategy. Do you have one in yours?
Most think of strategy in terms of what they want to do. They might even think of this in terms of value proposition – what they’re going to do for the customer. But, do they think about the how?
What is Your Sales Strategy, How Well Does It Work?
Sales strategy is the fundamental element of any business plan. Most advice on business planning misses it out, focusing on revenue, costs and cash instead. Presumably because the people giving that advice know nothing about selling and wouldn’t recognise a sales strategy if it bit them in the behind. But knowing how we’re going to turn prospects into satisfied customers is more important than anything else. Without that concept built into our operating model the business plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
10 Challenges – A Checklist For Your Strategy
Do you have a sales strategy checklist – a number of questions, or challenges, your strategy needs to address? Writing a strategy for selling, whether for a market, a team, or even an individual deal, can be tricky. There’s a danger of building incorrect assumptions into the thinking. Testing every assumption avoids that danger, or at least highlights any risks. A checklist will help you make sure every angle is covered.
A New Role for Sales People – Customer Experience
Maybe 2012 is all about transitioning the role of revenue generation from sales people to web pages. Maybe the new sales tasks are all about Keywords, Content and Adwords auctions. Who needs the additional costs of sales operations when the customer simply wants the lowest price, and the reps and the managers, add no value.
Sales and Sales Management Tutorials
Want to know all about Sales Management? – Well you’re in the right place for real insight with individual tutorials costing less than cup of coffee and which you can read in the time it takes to drink your chosen brew. And if you want some software designed to help you implement our Sales Probability Process Management method you can get that here too.
