16 Strategies to increase sales performance – Part II
The strategies were: Understanding the pain and decision-making process of customers; contacting the right people; stakeholder analysis; knowledge of competitive strategies; differentiating yourself and your company; developing an ideal customer profile; creating a qualification system for leads; being adaptable; and coaching.
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In this week’s article , we will explore the last seven of the strategies: developing a personal sales plan; working smarter; prospecting system; closing strategies; basic sales skills; formal sales process; and becoming a trusted advisor.
Strategy #10: Develop a personal sales plan
Successful salespeople know the best way to spend their time and/or the approach they should take to make the most of their sales resources.
Such salespeople enjoy competitive edge in the market place because they do have a plan. Sales people who do not have a personal sales plan are planning to fail, and it will have an impact on corporate sales goals.
To improve sales effectiveness, sales leaders should coach salespeople on how to develop personal sales plans that would ensure that would let them focus on the right activities and tasks.
This way, salespeople will own the content of the sales plans and be held accountable for performance thereafter.
Strategy #11: Work smarter
Average salespeople tend to live in a comfort zone and spend an estimated 80 per cent of their time doing things which simply keep them busy without being productive, and only 20 per cent on productive sales activities.
For successful salespeople, they have identified the activities which make them productive. They don’t get themselves busy just for the sake of it. They take the positive action everyday towards achieving their sales goals by going beyond their comfort zone.
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Strategy #12: Prospecting system
Successful sales organisation or salespeople have a system they employ to generate leads which would impact on the rest of the sales process.
Every sales organisation must analyse and decide on which prospecting methods work for them. It is recommended that a mix of prospecting methods are used to reach the widest possible group of prospects.
Secondly, the prospecting system of successful salespeople and organisations include a set of specific criteria, which is used to evaluate potential business value and create an order of priority for contacting the best prospects.
Thirdly, successful salespeople and organisations develop a prospect nurturing system that keeps them in regular contact with their prospects irrespective of how many “no’s” they encounter. The reason being many people are reassured when they become more familiar with a person or organisation.
Strategy #13: Closing strategy
The ultimate goal of every sales organisation is to generate revenue. Generating revenue requires that salespeople close the sale. Successful salespeople have mastered how to close the sale, while the average ones are unable.
The difference between the two is that, one has a system to close the sale when the timing is right and the other simply doesn’t. They have a repertoire of closing techniques: direct close, assumptive close, alternative close, trial closing etc.
Strategy #14: Hone your basic sales skills
Successful salespeople have invested time and money personal or courtesy of their organisations in acquiring the fundamental selling skills.
Specific skills include understanding customer behaviour, both for organisation and individual; building rapport and relationship with potential customers through excellent communication skills. Unfortunately, salespeople don’t listen and are always “vomiting” on prospective customers, by talking too much, asking no questions to understand their needs.
Every sales person must also acquire the skill of finding, qualifying and disqualifying prospects to prevent time wasting on leads that will never buy. Benefits of a product or service have to be communicated by developing presentation skills. Two other sales skills are the ability of a sales person to use proven techniques to overcome objections and close the sales. Lastly, once the sale is completed, a salesperson must develop a strategy to provide after-sales support and follow up. This is a sales skill which has to be acquired and not left to trial and error.
Strategy #15: A formal sales process
Salespeople and organisations that have deployed a formal sales process improve their sales performance significantly. To define it, “a sales process is a step-by-step process for a sales organisation’s salespeople to follow from identifying target customers, initiating the sales with prospects through to when the prospect buys to become a customer.”
The question is, how have the multinationals in Ghana and elsewhere been successful in their sales? Simply put, they have a formal sales process. For example: The Nestle Way of Selling.
In a recent research conducted by Vantage Point Performance, a leading sales management training and development firm, and the Sales Management Association revealed that, there was an 18 per cent difference in revenue growth between companies that defined a formal sales process and companies that didn’t.
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Strategy #16: Become a trusted advisor
Selling is about helping prospects and customers to solve their problems. This area is rated the highest with respect to sales. Successful salespeople see their interaction with prospects and customers as providing help.
The idea is to become the “trusted advisor” who is relied on for your helpful and unselfish advice whenever the customer needs it. Trusted advisor salespeople are always ahead of their peers, in that, even before the sales opportunity arises, they are the first to be invited to provide solutions.— GB