The most essential purpose of every business is to drive the sales of their products to a level higher than they already are. Brands strive to improve the sales of their business to increase profit and make their brand known to many customers.

To do this, it is necessary to draw out plans and how to achieve them. Your business needs a strategy and initiatives to realize your goals. If you have been thinking of implementing the best sales strategy for your business then this article is meant for you.

What is a sales strategy?

A sales strategy is a set of plans to place and sell your brand’s product or service to your buyers which should set you aside from your competitors. A strategy is a long-term plan to attain your sales goals. A sales strategy provides a guide on how the selling activities of your brand are going to be implemented. It includes the different processes and activities that your business will take to promote the sales of the brand’s product or service.

Types of sales strategy

  1. Social media: We’re in a world where information has become easier and faster to disseminate and reach the audience. Businesses have grown to use social media’s opportunity to display their brand and drive their sales. This way, your business gets to a wider and larger audience, increasing your online sales.
  1. Define the benefits of your product to your consumers: Translate your features into benefits for your customers. You can offer a demonstration of the product, explaining what the product would do for them if they made the sales purchase. Provide them with how your business will add value to them. 
  1. Use CRM for cold calling: Do not push aside cold leads. Make cold calls to reach out to potential customers who have not shown previous interest in your product. Don’t underestimate your cold leads, they can turn into converts for your business. 
  1. Make proper research and qualify prospects: Don’t target the wrong audience. Get proper details of who your right customer is and set your goals according to who they are. Targeting the wrong audience will lead to no growth in your sales plan. Conduct proper research for your correct potential customers.
  1. Prioritise inbound sales calls as hot leads: Inbound sales leads are your warm leads because they’ve shown active interest in your business. Place these leads above your outbound sales leads because they already showed an interest in your product and wanting to convert them is easier than your outbound leads.

Building a sales strategy plan

In creating a sales strategy plan for your business, there is a need to analyse the challenges and benefits of the business. Know your brand competitors, and consumers so that you can develop your sales plan.

  1. Set your business goals: Have what sales goals you want your business to achieve. You cannot build a sales strategy plan if you don’t know what goals you are strategizing for. Using the SMART tool, your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. In planning your sales strategy, you need to ensure they are in line with achieving your goals. Different strategies are used to realize different goals.
  1. Create a buyer persona: Design an ideal customer profile for your brand. This profile will contain the target customer’s psychographics, demographics, and other preferences. Outline the features and benefits of your brand to your target customer through the buyer persona. The features and benefits of your brand should align with the buyer persona created. With the customer profile, you will be able to set strategies on how to attract your customers.
  1. Examine the SWOT of your business: Analyse the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. In developing a sales strategy, examine your previous sales strategy if it’s an old business, and get the performance of your business with your previous sales strategies. The strength and opportunities explain the resources and favourable situations available for your business. With this analysis, you are able to build a good sales strategy.
  1. Create a plan to draw in customers: when planning the strategy, one step is to include how your business will attract more customers. The whole essence of planning a strategy is to get more leads that will turn into customers. With this, you are to create a sales strategy that would specify how the sales for the business will increase. You need to develop a clear positioning plan that will help in determining how your products, and brand will be placed to reach your customers effectively. Communicate your positioning plan to all team members, ensuring they are all aware of how your business will achieve its growth.
  1.  Measure your success: Evaluate the success and failures of the sales strategy adopted and determine what you can do to improve the performance of your sales team.

Inbound vs. outbound sales

One difference between inbound and outbound sales is how the lead is obtained. Under inbound sales, the customer reaches out to the business to find out about the brand’s product or service. In outbound sales, the business reaches out to potential customers who have shown no interest in the business product or service.

Not all inbound sales leads, however, will become converts at that point. Some may only show interest in your business because they want to make inquiries for future or exploratory purposes.

Outbound sales is a technique that businesses use to push it to their prospective customers. It can be through cold calling, email marketing, social selling and others. Your business is exposed to prospects that can buy your products. Inbound sales leads are easier to convert than outbound sales leads.

Sales initiatives

Sales initiatives are schemes that your business uses to improve sales more efficiently and effectively. They are actions taken to increase the growth of the workers which at large, increases affects the sales of the business. Initiatives are made to attract customers, generate more leads, increase sales, and so on.

Here are five sales initiatives your business can take;

  1. Update your buyer personas regularly: Your buyer personas may become out-of-date, therefore you need to frequently update the customer’s profile. The taste and preference of your target customer can change, making it necessary that you keep track of the changes and consider them in your profile.
  1. Actively align sales and marketing: Create an active relationship between your sales and marketing team such that both work hand-in-hand when necessary to increase conversions and leads for your business.
  1. Communicate your value: It is important as a brand to communicate your value to your customers. Imagine yourself as the customer and how valuable your product would be to you. Consistently communicate your value to your customer and how it would be of benefit to them.
  1. Listen to your prospects: Consider how valuable is your product or service to your customer, and create trust between you and your customers.
  1. Invest in sales development and team building: Organize your team, create a platform whereby your team members can build their strength and capacity in the workplace. This way, they would contribute better to the business.

Every business can benefit from constructing a sales strategy plan and planning initiatives to achieve its sales goal. Getting the right sales strategy for your business upscales it.

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