In my previous article, I reviewed the first three key steps to improving the revenue-generating capacity of your business by building your own inside track for sales. To complete your plan for success, here are the remaining 3 steps…
- Create a compelling value proposition
The marketplace has changed. Selling is no longer about just showing features and benefits of a product or service. Customers today want to know right away what kinds of results they can expect by choosing you over your competitors. That means your sales team must make a convincing business case based on measurable outcomes and provide meaningful solutions to the problems that those in the market are struggling with.
The value proposition you develop must align with both marketing and sales. Every department is a profit center for you, but that only happens by choice. Therefore, you need to create the right questions to ask your customer about. Doing so is how you uncover the needs that you can resolve. I agrees with Tony Robbins on this point who says: “the quality of our questions determine the quality of our lives.”
- Set goals and measure meaningful results
True story: I once had a prospect who complained “my team is not hitting their sales goals…what do I do?” When I asked what their sales goals were, the client replied: “we don’t have any goals.”
Efforts are meaningless unless they serve a goal and can be measured.
It’s vital that you get a handle on your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These tell you whether you have a healthy pipeline and a solid inside track for future business.
Don’t make the mistake of just measuring business that’s closing today—that’s a lagging indicator. You need to define and track your leading indicators: those that define where you’re going in the future. Put all of that data in your CRM and start measuring your success in reaching your goals in real time.
- Be consistent
Experts in human behavior tell us that the quality of our outcomes are determined by the quality of our daily habits. My brother’s hockey coach used to say “perfect practice makes perfect! “Achieving accelerated sales is no different. Make a commitment to be consistent in how you approach the challenge of improving the performance of your organization—in terms of structure, talent, strategy and in setting measurable goals. These become habits.
Schedule your activities with your team. Pledge to coach weekly: make time to meet with members individually based on a well-defined calendar of dates spread evenly apart. Just as important, ensure that your coaching sessions have a built-in component to allow for necessary course corrections.
Engage all six of these success-defining activities and you create for yourself that coveted inside track to edge out your competitors. Do this and accelerate faster in less time: making better decisions quickly such that you’re as fast on the curves as on the straightaways.
Colleen Francis has been a successful sales leader for over 20 years. She is the author of Nonstop Sales Boom, and is recognized as a top tier sales consultant. She understands the challenges of selling in today’s market and that business leaders can no longer rely on approaches to sales based on techniques from decades ago. In this blog series she will share her experiences and predictions as she looks towards the evolving sales landscape.
