3 + 4 steps to create Sales Function that generate Results
Sales = Income
Sales undoubtedly is one of the core functions for any business, growth of any business is linked to how much revenue generation can be achieved through the sales of the products or services.
Most often sales function appears to be a very simple to implement, hiring the salesperson and sending them to the market to promote the products, meet the customers and close the deals.
If you look closely at the businesses that are doing great you will find out that it’s the sales department that is set up properly with clearly defined goals, sales systems and processes, support material and selection matrix which help them achieve the success.
It becomes very important for each and every business to design and develop their sales function properly to bring about resource optimization and results, as sales function is largely a manpower dependent function, it calls for clearly defined systems to ensure minimal deviations and results.
How to set up your Sales Function:
The key to establishing a strong Sales functions begins with setting up clearly defined Sales Goals. Your sales goals should be in line with your organizational goals and worked out through the SMART goal process.
1. Sales Goals:
Based on the revenue targets set by the organization, it will boil down to clearly deciding how many units of each product or service do you have to sell to achieve your revenue goals? (Monthly, Quarterly, Annually).
2. Sales Model:
Designing the sales model will depend upon what is your core sales strategy to sell your products, so Based on the sales strategies relevant to your business, you can select one of the sales models to sell or you can have higher focus on one and add another one to it.
Direct sales,
Digital Sales,
Dealer Sales
3. Sales System:
Once you have got the clarity with regards to the sales goals, sales model, you need to have a clearly defined sales system in place to achieve your sales targets and your revenue goals.
Designing your sales System:
Your sales system will involve following, each one of these need to be properly thought out based on your sales cycle, your sales system will have
1. Steps — clearly defined steps from the time the customer enquire about the product till the delivery is made, what and what is involved.
2. Scripts — What to say and what not to say, what will you communicate, it should be written clearly, in most cases only the business owner knows it, but you need to create the written script for each step and for each sales strategy relevant to your business. 5–6 different scripts for each channel, different situations.
3. Support material — One mistake which most business make is that they send their salesmen to the customer without supporting them with the required promotion material, this not only impact the communication but also fails at creating impact on the customer and thus impacting sales outcome. Supporting material which should be provided to the salesperson should include, samples, catalogue, brochure, company profile, case studies documents, Testimonial videos, reports, achievements, collaterals — anything that can help salesperson.
4. Skills Matrix — Define the skills matrix, what kind of capabilities salespeople should have, what kind of persona they should have. What kind of network they should have, what kind of communication they should have, what kind of product knowledge and industry knowledge they should have?
A clearly thought-out sales strategy and systems can do wonders for any sales organization, the difference between average and extraordinary is sometimes how the businesses see their sales functions and pay importance to it.
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Also read my other Blogs on Digital Marketing, Sales and Marketing.
