Let’s not beat around the bush; the main goal of any business is to increase profit. To achieve that, companies have to improve their sales. However, it is not as simple as it sounds. Increasing the sales involves a series of steps ranging from setting sales goals to having an A team for sales. This is why Sales Force Management is crucial for your success. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, it is a meticulous process crafted by companies after analysing the current and past performance of their business, and here are seven steps taken that you can also take to manage your sales.
1. Defining the sales goals
Setting sales goals helps small businesses to have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve and how they plan to achieve it. In an article by Forbes, HR researcher and expert, Josh Bersin stated that “companies that set performance goals quarterly generate 31% greater returns from their performance process than those who do it annually, and those who do it monthly get even better results”.
Sales goals create a sense of accountability within the organisation. When employees know what they are expected to achieve, they are more likely to take ownership of their responsibilities and work harder to reach their targets.
2. Hiring and training your sales team
Sales is all about the people and their relationships. Identifying their problems and providing better solutions are the fundamentals of a good sale. While some people are naturally good at it, sales is still a skill that can be developed by anyone with proper training. Training programs can help the sales team improve their skills in areas such as communication, negotiation, and product knowledge, while giving you insight into the workings of a sales strategy for a startup.
According to Businessnewsdaily.com, Training newly hired staff with new sales strategies have proven to be far more effective than disrupting the structure of the existing sales team. It’s like they say — “you can’t teach an old dog how to learn new tricks”.
Further, the sales team is often the face of the business, and their interactions with customers can impact the company’s brand image. By training the sales team on how to effectively represent the brand, businesses such as yours can ensure that customers have a positive perception of the company.
Image from: Sales Training Programs to Help Your Team Close More Deals
Sales training programs can also provide the sales team with industry-specific knowledge, keeping them up-to-date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. This can help your business stay ahead of the competitors and provide more innovative solutions to your customers.
3. Implementing a sales process
A sales process is a step-by-step guide that outlines the stages of the sales cycle, from lead generation to closing the sale. Here’s a typical sales model from Hubspot.
A great sales process should be focused on the customer, not the company. A customer-centric strategy where you think about what the customer needs instead of what you need to sell will increase the revenue as well as the customer satisfaction. This ensures that customers receive a consistent and positive experience throughout the sales cycle.
A well-defined sales process can help streamline the sales cycle, making it more efficient and effective. It should also be flexible in adjusting to possible scaling ups or downs, which will make it easier to manage and train new sales reps when your business evolves through the months or years. By implementing a sales process, small businesses can ensure that all sales reps are on the same page, regardless of their level of experience.
4. Leveraging technology for sales force management
Today, more than ever people have adopted technology to the fullest capacity imaginable. Every aspect of our lives is influenced by technology. The business field is no exception. But that doesn’t mean you have to employ the latest available technology to your business model. It simply means you have to adopt a technology that works better for your business. Choosing the right tools and software can have a profound impact on your business and revenue.
Implementing a POS system is one way of utilising existing technology to your benefit. It can automate many tasks, such as lead generation, data entry, and customer follow-up. Sales management technologies can help small businesses manage customer data more effectively. This can include storing customer information, tracking customer interactions, and analysing customer behaviour to provide insights that can help improve the sales process.
5. Motivating your sales team
Trust is the foundation of motivation. Building trust amongst your staff not only motivates them to work better, but it will also bring in a sense of loyalty towards the company. Engaging with the team consistently and listening to the staff open-mindedly would help you build trust among the employees. This will create a more positive work environment that boosts morale and motivation among your sales team, encourage a supportive and collaborative culture, celebrate successes, and provide opportunities for team-building activities.
Setting daily, weekly and monthly goals for each member of the sales team will motivate them to stay on track, while you ensure that goals are measurable, realistic, and aligned with the company’s overall objectives. In addition to that, opportunities for career growth and development can motivate sales reps to stay with the company and perform at their best.
Giving out incentives is the most direct way to keep your sales team motivated and happy. These incentives can range from travel vouchers to additional bonuses, depending on the sales made. Here’s what Harvard Business deems as one of the highly motivating incentives in its article “Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works”.
6. Measuring and analysing your sales performance
Measuring and analysing sales performance can be crucial for small businesses to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions. Analysing sales data will provide you information about customer behaviour, sales volume, and revenue growth. This can help you understand which products or services are performing well and which ones need improvement.
By generating sales reports for each team member, you can track how individual sales reps are performing, which can single out your top performers and provide coaching or training to underperformers. This is where a POS system comes handy. An ideal POS system, like SalesPlay, would consist of extensive reporting and analytics features such as general sales report, sales report by product, sales by trend, shop-wise sales report and advance sales report.
Image taken from: SalesPlay, Point of Sale.
By leveraging sales data, small businesses can identify areas for improvement, set realistic goals, and make informed decisions that contribute to their overall success.
Therefore, it is clear that by providing a consistent and structured approach to selling, motivating your sales team, and analysing your sales data you can achieve success in business, and contribute to your company’s growth and success.
