With 2017 well under way and the financial year over, now is the perfect time to review your sales approach to determine what is and isn’t working for you and your company.
Making sure you take the time to do this will ensure you can make any necessary changes that are needed in order to optimise your sales results.
You can start to revolutionise your sales approach simply by looking closely at how you currently perform. What could you change to increase your sales potential? What do you do that brings in revenue? What isn’t working for you? What could you do instead?
All of the above questions will need to be answered so that you can make a decision for improvement within your business. There are key areas that can be focused on in order to make sure that you making the right changes for your business.
Budget
Take a look at your budget and how it is working for you. In order to meet any targets you set the business for the year, you have to ensure you implement the correct measures. Use the time so far this year to establish whether or not you have met your targets in relation to your budget. Having the right resources available is essential for guaranteeing work is completed. Take a look at your staff and their responsibilities within your company – you can adjust their roles accordingly so the work they do is always bringing something to your business.
Your marketing budget should also be evaluated. This can be effected by the amount that you have to invest, and in the speed that you need to see results. For example, investing in a pay per click campaign for your website could see an immediate return, but investing in websites and search engine optimisation can take a significant amount of time before you start to see a result.
It might be worth looking at what can bring results quickly. If you need to market your business to potential clients face-to-face, investing in corporate hospitality could provide the encouragement they require and secure a sale. For email marketing, distributing emails to your databases through split testing – a way of running and comparing multiple versions of a marketing campaign to determine which converts customers the best, could also be beneficial. If you do have a small budget then focussing on the immediate in marketing will possibly work better for you.
Review your marketing activity
It can’t be denied that marketing is one of the most important aspects of the sales process in any company. Marketing is something that should be looked at in detail when you are reviewing your sales approach.
Make time to review your printed marketing materials, do they need updating? They have to be appropriate for the target audience if you have any hope of success in this area, so make sure the design of your materials is always specific to your product and target audience. If you do make any updates then you have to ensure these are carried out across the board and all staff are sending out the right materials.
After working out your marketing budget, review your website and online marketing strategies. Taking a look at the digital marketing in your company will make sure that you remain up to date and relevant at all times. Never lose focus on the here and now when you are working online, if even the tiniest detail is out of date a visitor to your site will be put off using your product.
Make sure you create a marketing strategy for the remainder of the year and put it on paper. You can do this by creating a calendar that displays any marketing activity. The sales and marketing departments of any company usually work closely together so it’s a good idea that this is a visual though out the company. All of your staff then know exactly what they should be doing as well as what others are doing around them.
Research your ideal customer
You should take the time to recognise your greatest clients, research where they come from and why they have brought from you. This will help to make sure you are targeting the right audience for the product you are selling. If you can establish similarities between your greatest clients and prospects, you are more likely to succeed with any prospects you have gathered.
At this point, it would also be a good idea to make a record of your buyer’s journey. If you can note down every step the buyer takes prior to the closing of a sale, you will know what path to lead a prospect down. Once you have looked at the buyer’s journey you will be able to put a sales process in place that every one of your sales team can follow, making them more likely to succeed.
Routes to market
Take a look at your current routes to market, can you change these or include more so that you are continually creating brand awareness? There many ways you can make sure your target audience know about your product, if you don’t use it already, social media might be worth looking at especially if you are selling a product direct to a customer rather than to a business.
Everything that has been mentioned will go a long way towards making sure that you are able to meet any targets that you have set for the year. Taking the time to revaluate your sales approach will definitely give you and your staff a boost as you work towards your sales targets.
Lucy Abrahams, Director at VIP Event Butler.
