There's more to sales than just "sales". Behind every successful sale is a strategy carefully drawn after a thorough analysis of the ground realities and aspirations. Such strategies equip sales professionals to focus their energies on closing deals.
There are many things to consider when drawing and implementing your sales strategy. Here are some pointers for formulating the best strategy suited to your team and company.
7 tips that will help you define your sales planning strategy
1. Define your sales compensation plans
If you want your salespeople to give their best, motivate them by precisely stating how much they can earn and the type of benefits they will get. The more information you have about these aspects the better prepared you will be when setting up an effective compensation plan for your team.
2. Determine your sales team structure
When you are looking to align your sales teams with the organization, it is crucial to consider the difference between a sales team and a sales department. A team can include multiple people working on a specific project or goal, whereas a department usually refers to an entire unit in which all employees report directly to one leader.
When deciding how much control over goals you should set for each member of the team, consider what type of role they play within their respective departments.
3. Understand your audience
The first step to refining your sales planning strategy is understanding your clients. How does their buying process work? What are their preferred communication channels, payment methods, and geographic locations? What languages do they speak?
These questions will help you create a more effective plan for reaching out to them at the right time with the right message.
4. Use data to finetune your sales plan
Data can help you gauge how well your sales team is doing, and what they need to improve. Data can also help analyze the competitors -- their strategies and plans -- and compare your methods against theirs to determine where gaps exist and find their remedies.
5. Make automation a critical aspect
Automation can help with efficiency, accuracy, consistency, transparency, accountability, and scalability. In fact, Automation makes the entire sales process move swiftly and without the risk of human errors.
Automation of standard tasks is one of the megatrends that shape the global economy. Cross-functional research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) indicates that approximately a third of sales and sales operations tasks can be easily automated with today’s technology.
Bringing automation into your sales strategy ensures your sales team and the company are future-ready.
6. Revise commission payouts to align with new goals and quotas
The first step to revising your commission payouts is to review the goals and quotas you’ve set for each salesperson. When it comes to payouts, the goal is always balance: make sure everyone gets paid fairly, while accounting for important aspects like experience, seasonality, collaboration, etc.
7. Consider different payouts for different time periods, territories, etc.
You can also consider different payouts for different time periods, territories, etc. If you have a lot of data to work with and want to be thorough, consider the following:
- How do you want your sales team to operate? Is it important that they stay in their territory or try new things? What's the most effective way for them to sell products or services within their area of expertise?
- What kind of compensation does each salesperson get based on their performance (e.g., commission rate) versus how much more they make if they exceed goals set by management (e.g., bonus)?
Understanding the impact of refining a sales planning strategy
A comprehensive sales plan is essential to building a successful organization. It gives your team a clear roadmap. The more clearly defined the strategy is, the better the sales professionals can focus on their goals.
A strong strategy provides consistency across multiple locations and functions within your sales department.
There you have it — a step-by-step approach for creating your own effective sales plan. This is a great first step in making sure that everyone knows where you’re going and why so that they can be an integral part of the team.
Keep in mind that long-term growth and success depend on your company’s ability to create, implement, and execute successful sales strategies.
Conclusion
The most successful sales teams keep themselves accountable to drive more business for their organizations. Once you implement your sales strategies, manage, monitor, adjust, and revise them to grow your business’s bottom line and generate positive revenue.
Would you like to learn more about how to refine your sales strategies, build high-performing sales teams, and how to drive better sales performance?
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