6 Simple Steps To A Solid Sales Strategy

You've seen how you can infuse emotion into sales strategy. You've learned how to do it based on the simple concept of power words. That concept is an excellent example of a solid sales strategy. There are other concepts which you can use to develop your sales strategies, and we're going to explore them as we go.

Read more: What makes a good sales strategy?

You already know that sales are like lifeblood to business. You also understand that you can build a business with excellent sales, but good deals alone are not enough to build the business. There are other things you need to consider which includes financing, recruiting, legal, and accounting, to name a few.

If you consider your business success like a chest of treasure, then a good strategy is the map that takes you from where you are now to that treasure. If you want to choose the most critical area of your business to work with, developing an effective strategy for sales is a good start.

In this post, we're going to look into 6 simple steps you can systematically go through, and when you're done with them, you'll have in your hand a solid sales strategy for your business.

Of course, you can always improve on it. It is not something you set, and forget.

To get you started, let us take a quick look at:

What Is A Strategy?

I've written elsewhere that strategy is the plan of action which...

• You have total control.
• Put the next move to your customer.

If a strategy means you want to have control over the outcomes, then it is NOT a strategy.

And your plan of action needs to consider...

• Your target market
• Your sales process

Put A Face To Your Product

One of the valuable lessons I got from 'copywriting' courses I went to is putting a face to your product. What that essentially means is you come up with customers' profile which suits your product like a glove.

For example, you are targeting General Practitioner for your blockbuster blood pressure lowering drugs--what kind of GP are we looking at? Can you profile them? What are their prescribing habits? Where we can find them? How big is their buying appetite? Who they hang out with?

If you can target a specific group of GP (in this case) for your product, you have better chances of forming a strong sales strategy.

Know Where You Stand In A Sales Process

Let's simplify this--in any given moment, your company is at a particular stage of sales when they enter a market. If the product is new; it probably is in the Prospecting stage.

If it already been in the market for quite some times, it could be in the Qualifying or Getting the Commitment stage. The point is; there must be in a sales process stage. This is important to know because different stage will require a different approach and a different strategy. Seldom a plan works at all phase and stage...

Now we are ready to form our sales strategy.

Steps To Form Strategy For Sales

1. Research your customer--get to know them and create a solid customer profile.
2. Determine the stage of your sales process--this is easy to do since you know your area and the life-cycle of your product. Even if the product has been on the market for a while now, if you are expanding to a new city, then you're back at the beginning stage.
3. Design or plan action correspond to your target market and sales phase. And remember the main criterion of the battle--you must have total control of the execution.
4. Test the strategy and observe the response--get feedback.
5. Fine tune the strategy and test it again
6. Rinse and repeat for all items in your plan of action

Some Important Pointers

• Don't try to do too much--it's better to have one strategy that is well executed than 100 but poorly execute strategy.
• Measure and manage--that means you need to have a 'measuring' process in place. Remember the maxim: Things to be achieved must first be measured.
• Synchronize--work in a group; even though the execution is individualized but the message should be consistent across the board

And the last point before you go back to the drawing board to plan your strategy--forming a sales strategy is a process and not the outcome. By process, it means it's ONGOING. Even though you think you have reached a solid plan on paper, there's no guarantee that it's a good strategy on the field.