Are you getting the sales results you want for your company?
It may be time to evaluate what parts of the sales process are right on target with outstanding results and to analyze what needs to be improved to score more sales and close more deals.
As you know, sales are the driving force to business success.
Without:
• increased sales
• consistent sales
it’s a formula for potential disaster and the future of your company.
Here’s a 7 point checklist to improve sales at your company:
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First, ask yourself: Are you getting what you want or need from your salespeople?
If the answer is: No – Then yourself the next question: Are you getting timely and detailed reports from the members of your sales team?
• Is there a specific time each week or each month reports are sent to you?
• Do the reports tell you who they talked to or met with and what the results were?
• You may as the CEO, founder or business owner get push back from requiring such reports but it’s necessary for you to have this critical information. If you don’t know what the salespeople are doing, if they’re not using a CRM tool such as Nimble, if they’re not putting timely important sales information into the CRM or onto the reports submitted to you, how are you going to know what’s happening at your company?
• How do you know what’s happening next in the sales process or who to follow up with?
• How do you really know if each member of the sales team is producing the right prospecting and sales results?
2. Continue to ask yourself more questions about sales at your company, such as:
• Is the sales team providing you with valuable customer feedback?
You need to know what prospects and customers are saying to your sales and customer service team members. You want specifics not excuses from your co-workers. You may want to pick up the phone and talk with the customers yourself to understand better what customer needs are. Find out what more you can do for your customers to keep their business and to build an ongoing sales relationship with them.
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Sales goals: Every sales article or book talks about having goals. It’s essential to sales success. Make sure the sales goals are realistic. It’s easy to say: Just go out and sell today! Or… Sell a million dollars in the next week! But the bottom line is: It’s not realistic (for most businesses). Goals for each sales individual should be set daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Length of experience on the job may factor in as well.
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Sales Plan: It’s important to have sales goals but without a sales plan for the company and for the individuals on the sales team, the goals will most likely not be reached. Consider your company’s sales plan to be an action plan. Think about:
• How many new, on target, prospects are needed?
• How are prospects identified and qualified?
• How many prospects is each salesperson contacting?
• Are they calling on the same prospects over and over again which isn’t resulting in sales?
• What’s the closing ratio?
• How many customers are repeat customers versus new customers?
That’s why sales reports are so vitally important to your business. For example, salespeople will get in the habit of contacting the same people or companies. Without the sales reports it could look like quality potential sales activity but the reality is, it’s not. New sales strategies are necessary in order to produce more sales.
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Prospecting Plan: Your business always needs to be looking for the next opportunity. That includes sales and how salespeople prospect. In addition to an overall sales plan, further define the action plan with a detailed prospecting plan. Why? For many reasons including: companies go out of business, are merged or sold, key contacts retire or change companies, new management takes over, to name a few reasons why prospecting for business should never stop. Your sales team is always looking for the next sale and then the next sale after that – and the next sale after that. Never think your company has too much business.
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Quality Control: Does the sales team at your company work with a sales manager or report directly to you? The answer depends on the size and structure of your company.
• How often do you or other management work with the salespeople during their day?
• Do you attend sales presentations?
• Do you work side-by-side when prospecting?
• Join in on conference calls?
• Attend sales training meetings?
• Know what’s being emailed back and forth?
It’s important to get out from behind your desk and spend time with the company’s salespeople on an individual basis. It will provide sales insight you couldn’t possibly otherwise be aware of.
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No Excuses: Salespeople sell. It’s that simple. That’s what they do. High performing salespeople don’t make excuses. They keep looking for the next customer, the next opportunity, to close the next deal. Don’t let salespeople sell you on why they’re not selling or meeting their goals. Instead, they should be doing whatever it takes to represent the company well and to convince the customer to buy your product or service.
Remember: To improve sales at your company, you need:
• A qualified prospect
• A targeted sales pitch
• A strong sales close
• A mutually beneficial contract or agreement
• Be able to fulfill on what you promised
• Collect the money
• Restart the prospecting and sales cycle
A company must be profitable; otherwise, it won’t be in business. Start today to improve sales at your company!
To your success!
