Six Steps to Boost Sales

Without exception, every business owner I talk to says they want to boost sales.  How well, how often and how profitably – your business makes a sale, determines its success. It follows then, that motivation and performance of the sales team and your sales process are critical.

Having worked with many companies over the past few years on sales, I have found that there are a number of key success factors that business owners overlook that inhibit sales growth and long-term success.

1. Set Sales Targets

While many business owners do set yearly targets, or have something “in mind”, the number of companies that do not have clear written sales targets in place constantly surprises me. It comes down to simply planning for success. Develop sales targets for the following:

• The overall financial sales target for the company for the year
• Quarterly, monthly, weekly as well as daily sales targets
• Sales volumes: Break the sales target down into the number of units and by product category as well. Prioritize those higher margin items.
• Set Sales targets by region as well as by sales representative. Then track actual versus plan on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

2. Sales Implementation Plan

Once you’ve clarified the sales targets, the next step in the process is to develop a very clear but simple implementation plan. This should include the sales call cycle, new business opportunities and every step of how you plan to convert those opportunities into sales – as well as reviewing the progress being made in this regard. Develop a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that would include lead as well as lag indicators to success.

3. Clear Sales Process & Scripts

Many companies do not have a clearly defined sales process. Having a clear process in place means tracking results consistently and creating the ability to optimize results. When a process is no longer delivering results, you’ll know it immediately and can revise. Nothing stays the same forever. A written process will enable you to adjust quickly and easily to changing market conditions.
The company will also be able to track sales conversion rates across various stages (e.g. Lead, Suspect, Prospect, Buyer) of the sales process – and is then able to take corrective action in order to increase conversion rates.

4. Sales Pipeline Tracking

Ensure that you are using one of the many robust CRM systems available to be able to track the progress of each lead in the system. This will ensure that you are keeping track of the very important next steps in the sales process, while also giving you the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with each of your prospects.

5. Identify Your Leads Personality style

It is very important to identify your lead/prospects personality style as early on in the process as possible. This enables you to adapt your sales style to meet their personality style: e.g. highly driven people are bored with all the details, and once they see the value will quickly ask what the next steps are. Alternatively, people who have a high attention to detail will naturally ask for more information, facts and testimonials before making a purchase decision. Use DISC assessment training with your sales staff to enable them to identify their prospects style.

6. Selling is about empowering prospects to make a purchase decision

There are three main parts to any sales process:
1. Build the relationship
2. Develop trust
3. Allow your prospect to make a purchase decision.
This process applies to any type of product, and one needs to ensure that your marketing message and sales process takes a prospect through each of these steps if you want to ensure a good conversion rate.

For more on how to do all of this, come to a complimentary Business Building workshop.