It is getting to be that time of year again. It’s the season that flies in with witches, goblins and the super heroes of Halloween, slows to tryptophan-induced lethargy on Thanksgiving Day, zooms into the tunes and thoughts of Christmas and leaves us watching a big ball drop and counting down minutes in Times Square as the pages of the calendar flip from 2015 to 2016. It’s the time of year that we look at personal and professional objectives, set new goals, kick a few things to the curb that seemed important a year ago but based on our activities, clearly weren’t. And for those super special people, the ones that move the needle, the true Heroes of Commerce—the revenue generators—it’s the time of year that quotas, budgets and the like are being formalized in the minds of people as far removed from the customer as possible, the Finance Team! Just kidding, my bean counter friends. Sort of. Countless hours are spent poring over the past, gazing into the future, consulting crystal balls, hypothesizing, making crap up and arriving at the new revenue numbers corporately, for teams and for individuals.
There are plenty of books and articles about sales forecasting and other dark arts so I will leave you to do your own research there. But before you fire up the tried and true forecast/quota model from the previous years, consider taking a step back and creating an overall Sales Strategy, Key #1 to opening the door of sales success in 2016.
Strategy is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as, “A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.” Strategy can be simple or far more elaborate but it always contains specific these components: 1) Plan of action, which is designed to 2) Achieve a specific goal. And to this, I add my own third requirement, 3) Thorough awareness and understanding of 1 and 2 throughout the entire organization. Not just throughout the sales team, ownership, boards, etc., but throughout the enterprise, from the loading dock to the executive suites.
Let’s look at each of the three steps to creating your best sales strategy ever.
Step One: What is your major or overall sales aim? Define your sales goals. What are they? Percentage growth? Dollar growth? New products? New markets? Profit increase? What are the top sales goals that are S.M.A.R.T.? By this I mean Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. If there is no set of specific sales goals, don’t waste your time working on the action plan because it just won’t matter. If you are looking for a great framework, consider creating goals in the following areas (quadrants of revenue): Existing Customers – Existing Products (EE), Existing Customers – New Products (EN), New Customers – Existing Products (NE), and New Customers – New Products (NN). By investing the time to put numbers to each of these quadrants, first by rep and then for the company, you will have a great view of what needs to be done in Step Two below. Sales reps should be encouraged (required) to complete their quadrants of revenue and be prepared to defend/justify with sales management. Sales management, in turn, should help guide this exercise, offer their input and eventually take responsibility for the numbers assigned.
Step Two: Develop the top level plan of action based on the sales goals. Simple enough, right? Allow me to simplify it even further; “Our plan of action is to invest $X in sales compensation, benefits, computers, software, training, hiring, meetings, sales material, phones and other related expenses. This investment provides the necessary resources to fuel our activities of face-to-face meetings, travel, preparation, telephone calls, marketing administration expenses, etc. that will drive $X in revenue and $X in profits in each of the quadrants of revenue.” Now, admittedly, this is a very generic “Sales Strategy” but the majority of the times that I speak with business owners and leaders, they have not even done this. Common practices are to do some type of review and then grab a percentage increase number that “sounds good.” Don’t do that! There is no way that you can remain emotionally committed to a “just felt good number.” If you haven’t viewed the Simon Sinek’s TED talk about the importance of the “why before the what,” now would be a good time to do just that. Review your goals above (quadrants of revenue) to direct your efforts in this stage. Using those quadrants as guidance, you will be able to allocate and assign resources. At this point, you will find yourself incredibly hopeful or horribly depressed. None of us have access to unlimited resources and the application of money or people in one area means they cannot be applied to another. Time to step back. Time to Review and Revise. Is the plan reasonable? I don’t mean is it simple or easy, but is it a plan that is reasonable? Given where you are, the resources you currently have, do you need to reallocate in the quadrants and therefore revise the total numbers up or down? Go back and watch Sinek’s talk again and make sure that this plan is still based on the “why.” Again, revise if necessary.
Step Three: Commit and Communicate. Then communicate some more. About the time you want to puke from sharing the strategy statement and the goals, that’s the signal you are reaching about 15% penetration. There is simply no way that you can over communicate this information. There is simply no way that you can over communicate this information. When you tire of telling it, do it again. There is simply no way…you get the point. Note to self: Hmmm, wonder if I am getting paid by the word. Better check on that as a new strategy seems to be evolving. Oh, sorry. Back to the point.
Key #1 for sales success in 2016? Set the sales strategy!
And Key #2? EXECUTE! Strategy isn’t worth much if there isn’t any execution.
