Your company has a great product, creative marketers, and top salespeople. Nevertheless, the sales figures are not in the green range. Then you should think about whether your current sales strategy is really convincing.
To inspire your customers for the offers of your company, you need a really well-thought-out sales strategy – according to the motto: “The worm has to taste the fish, not the angler!”
As with many other marketing disciplines, you first need extensive knowledge of the competitive environment for an outstanding sales strategy. You should also think about the unique selling propositions your business can use. Finally, a well-thought-out marketing plan is one of the key points of a good sales strategy.
We will show you which important points you should also work through when planning your sales process to catapult sales figures to unimagined heights.
Sales strategy – what is it actually?
With a good sales strategy, you practically lay the foundation for promoting the sale of products and services in your company. A sales strategy is therefore the master plan for building long-term and lucrative customer relationships.
You also define the appropriate marketing and of course, the tactics of the sales work in the sales strategy. To understand how fundamentally important the orientation of your sales activities is for your company, you should know the origin of the word “strategy”: This ancient Greek term is translated with the words “general art” or “art of warfare”. With a well-thought-out sales strategy, you become a “soldier” who uses his stratagem and his knowledge to gain competitive advantages.
With a watertight sales strategy, you not only determine how to successfully market your offer. Other factors also include
- the pricing of your items or services,
- the definition of your operational core competencies,
- a well-founded competitive analysis,
- determining your target audiences as well
- the decision about which sales channels bring the greatest sales success.
A consistently well-structured sales strategy is therefore the key to success in your entrepreneurial endeavors. By weighing opportunities, minimizing risks, and showing your sales team the right way to deal with target customers, you can achieve long-term success. Without a sales strategy, however, it will be difficult to survive in a competitive situation.
With the right key questions for the optimal sales strategy
To determine a first route, you should ask yourself a few unsparing key questions in advance when developing a suitable sales strategy. If even one sub-discipline remains vague or unanswered, then you have little chance with your envisaged timetable in the competition on the overall market.
It is therefore very important at the beginning that you find honest and blatant concrete answers to these questions:
1. What do we sell?
This question sounds trivial at first. With a look outside the box through competitor analysis, however, the consideration becomes much more exciting. Think carefully about whether your product or service can hold its own in the competitor’s shark tank. Crystallize your USPs (unique selling propositions) and think about whether there is still room for improvement in your offer.
Here it is worthwhile to literally think “outside the box”: Perhaps you can think of a product feature or a service that you can use to outshine your rivals in the fight for first place. Think carefully about what competitive advantages you can use to set yourself apart from the competition in the overall market and what additional customer benefits you could offer. Is it perhaps the unique product quality or a well-thought-out and seamless service? Then you already have an excellent approach to distinguish your service or your range of goods from the offers of other companies.
2. Who do we want to sell our offers to?
This key question is primarily about addressing the appropriate target group. After all, if you know the customer needs and wishes of your target group exactly, it is much easier to work out an effective marketing plan. You can only woo them in a goal-oriented manner if you know your target customers exactly. A tailor-made approach to your customers is existential. This is the only way you can sell your products and services. After all, even the best offer is worthless if potential buyers don’t know about it.
3. Where should we place our offer?
The selection of suitable sales measures and sales channels is of course also one of the considerations that you should address in the distribution policy. Is your offer more suitable for indirect sales – i.e. sales via sales intermediaries – or does it make sense to sell your products and services through your own sales staff?
Keep in mind that there are other types of sales in addition to classic offline and online sales: It may also make sense to set up a franchise system. Or your offer is even suitable for multilevel sales, in which external sellers act as distributors – similar to
- thermomix,
- Avon or
- Tupperware.
When it comes to this question, too, it pays to avoid well-trodden paths and think one step ahead of your competitors. Because if you stand out from the competition, you will enjoy significantly more attention from your target group.
4. What price structure do we use to position ourselves on the market?
A coherent price calculation for your offer is also an extremely important consideration as part of the right sales strategy. Of course, the production and sales costs for your offer play a primary role here, because you want to achieve your sales goals and not sell your goods below their value.
But that’s not all: You should also consider, for example, the conditions under which similar products and services are offered on the overall market. The purchasing power and shopping behavior of your target group also play a role in these considerations.
Ultimately, the price of your product also affects the reputation of your entire company. Very low prices tend to suggest a discounter image to the buyer, while particularly high sales prices stand for luxury and quality. This makes it possible to control the perception of your offer on the market. In combination with a sensational marketing campaign, you can, for example, place your products in the high-price segment and thus increase your margin. On the other hand, if you act with dumping prices and aggressive advertising, then you are more likely to make your profits from the mass of products sold.
Sales strategy – from the actual analysis to a concrete action plan
After you have answered the above questions in detail, it is now time to put your sales strategy on paper. For you to be able to give your team crystal-clear recommendations for their sales work, the entire sales department should be informed about your plans without exception.
The sales strategy must be written in such a way that your
- marketing,
- your sale and
- your product development
are as privy to your plans and sales goals as possible. All departments can only work hand in hand in a goal-oriented manner and efficiently implement your sales strategy if the new orientation for action is communicated openly. Of course, it can also make sense to develop a sales strategy together with several colleagues to obtain the greatest possible benefit potential. This works best with a cross-departmental task force.
In addition to answering the key strategic questions, the actual analysis also includes a few classic figures. Try to work out the following information as part of your sales control:
1. Sales Goals
As part of the control of your sales, draw up a list of which products or services have performed particularly well in recent years. Take a look at the product groups with which you have already achieved your sales and distribution goals. Perhaps you can already see that there were particularly strong sales or high margins for certain product groups, while other items are or were rather slow sellers. With this information, you can strategically realign your range and unleash the market potential of your offer.
2. Customer Behavior
A look back at previous customers and purchasing behavior can provide important conclusions about which adjustment screws your previous sales activities need to be changed.
If, for example, you find in your target customer analysis that only a few leads have been generated in the past, then you should strengthen your sales activities in dialogue marketing. With a personal and constant approach to promising leads, many more potential customers can be converted into new customers.
Of course, it is also worth taking a look at the existing customer business. Are there e.g. B. Customers who have only bought from you once before? Then start looking for reasons immediately!
Good sales work also includes intensifying and expanding relationships with regular customers. For example, bring your offer to attend with a well-thought-out mailing campaign, a sophisticated telephone acquisition, or a competition. Existing customers can be addressed in a targeted manner by your employees. In contrast to the acquisition of new customers, the effort is rather low.
3. Development of the market
Does your company already have data showing the dynamic development of the markets or the current market potential? If not, then you should definitely tackle this topic and integrate it into your sales concept. After all, several factors can positively or negatively influence market potential.
What about technical developments, for example? Is your product or service still competitive and up-to-date? Are there current trends or sales channels that your company could use to win new customers? If a customer needs or purchasing behavior change, e.g. B. due to legal requirements, support measures, rising energy prices, or other factors?
Past or future market developments play an important role in your sales strategy for your company’s customer acquisition. So keep an eye on any changes and adapt your sales activities to the current developments.
Tipp
You can easily research data about the evolution of the markets relevant to you on the Internet. Either use tools like Google Trends, Ubersuggest, or the Searchmetrics Research Cloud. Alternatively, you can also access relevant information via numerous statistical portals ( Destatis, Statista, Federal Statistical Offices, etc.)
After this step, many recommendations for action for your sales strategy should have become clear to you. In the last step, you have to anchor clearly defined measures in your strategy paper in addition to the previous information and analyses.
This is how you formulate important goals of your sales strategy
Much like creating an effective marketing strategy, realistic milestones should be part of your sales strategy. Based on the knowledge gained so far, you can, for example, formulate sales targets for certain product groups that you want to achieve with your team in period X.
| Psychological goals | Economic goals |
|---|---|
| notoriety | unit volume |
| image factors | sales volume |
| customer satisfaction | contribution margin |
| customer retention | profitability |
| brand loyalty | market share |
| buyer penetration | profit |
| purchase intensity | price level |
These goals are the core of your market strategy because you have to measure yourself and your sales skills against these specifications. Vague formulations allow too much room for interpretation and are therefore out of place.
It is better to use the well-known SMART formula to formulate the sales strategy in a specific, measurable, activating, realistic and timely manner. In this way, you ensure binding work instructions that your team can use to implement the specifications of the sales strategy.
The targets are also ideal for documenting the sales successes of your area of responsibility for the management. But what exactly does a smart formulation of goals for the sales strategy look like? Here are three examples:
Example 1: “By December 31, we will sell product XY with a special offer because it no longer fits into our sales portfolio. We will immediately lower the sales price by 50 percent. The offer is communicated to our customers in an e-mail newsletter, for which Ms. XY is responsible.”
Example 2: “From October 1st, we will focus the marketing activities for article XY on online customers between the ages of 20 and 30. Mr. XY will develop a suitable content marketing strategy for our company’s target group by September 1.”
Example 3: “By June 30, we’ll gain 5 percent market share for product XY. We are providing agency XY with an advertising budget of EUR 50,000 and are commissioning a landing page and a SEA campaign that will go live on January 1st.”
Good sales strategies are always dynamic and agile
A promising sales strategy must above all be flexible. Without regular adjustments to the conditions of the overall market and the sales channels, your considerations and formulation of goals are not worth much. So you should question the content of your tactics from time to time together with the sales staff. This is the only way you can adapt your sales strategy to the current competitive market situation and thus create advantages for you and your company.
Also, because creating a complex sales strategy takes a lot of work, start with the most important areas and then expand your tactics to less relevant areas later. It is hardly possible to redefine the sales channels, revise the product range and expand the marketing team at the same time.
The same applies here: Define smart goals for your sales process and, after successful implementation, venture on to the next project. By delegating certain tasks to working groups in the team or by working together on the sales strategy, even complex and large tasks can be mastered well.
Finally, it is of course also important to check the implementation of your sales plan. Relevant key figures for sales control are, for example
- the number of sales in period XY,
- the complaint rate,
- the development of the contribution margin or
- the profitability of the sales channels and sales processes.
By keeping an eye on these and other key figures, you can check exactly whether your sales efforts are working or not. And if you identify the potential for improvement for your sales success, then implement this as quickly and agilely as possible. It is far better to learn from wrong decisions than to insist on them.
Conclusion: No commercial success without a well-thought-out sales strategy
Good planning is half the battle – this also applies to the topic of sales strategy. If you take the time to ask fundamentally important questions about customers, products, and sales processes, then you can also achieve financial success with this knowledge. The more structured, thoughtful, and complex your sales skills are, the more promising the results of your planned considerations will be.
You should therefore leave nothing to chance and communicate your sales strategy transparently and adjust it occasionally. With a flexible tactic, you remain competitive with your products or services in the future. We wish you every success!