The summer holiday season is over and now is the time to make the most of the renewed energy. Here are 7 actions you can implement now to positively affect your sales results:
- Hold a kick-off meeting. This is often needed to quickly get your team back into the selling mind-set of selling and out of the ‘summer slowdown’ holiday mode, which can at times continue a long time after the holidays have ended. To avoid this, hold a motivational kick off meeting where you explain current position and detail the plan for hitting the sales budget. Encourage team involvement and, importantly, commitment.
- Get busy. It’s important to get the sales team active as soon as possible, as we know sales activity will deliver the results. Make sure you know the average duration of your sales cycle for your products/services and communicate this clearly to the team. If it is over four months from the first meeting to the signed order, then much of what you do from September onwards will go towards next year’s target. Scary?
- Get training. Honestly, this is a no brainer. If you have members of your team who would benefit from skills development then do it now. Don’t continue to put them in front of potential buyers and see targets missed. Give them the training, coaching and support they need. Invest in your people as soon as possible to give them an increased chance of achieving their numbers.
- Bring out your key account plans and analyse your revenue or potential revenue streams. This is where you can drive new and incremental revenue as quickly as possible whilst obtaining repeat business from your key accounts. If you don’t have formalised and robust key account plans, now is the time to do this.
- Generate leads – tons of them! How? Work with your marketing team – they are, or should be, the sales person’s best friend. Talk with them; let them know your challenges and goals. Explain what your ideal client looks like. Help them to help you. Don’t be the sales person or team that work against marketing. Working together is how to unlock the leads. However, remember, it’s not just down to marketing, it’s up to you to network, build an online social presence, build a great pool of contacts and follow up on all opportunities.
- Referrals – get them! You’ve done a great job for your customers haven’t you? So why not ask them for a referral? You’d be surprised how many customers are willing and happy to do this, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Write down a list of your top 10 or 20 customers and make it a point to pick up the phone and ask them for a referral. How much easier would it be to obtain a warm introduction to someone than to have to start the process cold?
- Fix your attitude (and your team’s). Yes, it’s tough out there. Yes, there is market uncertainty. Yes, many buyers are taking their time to make a decision (if at all). But, this cannot influence your mind-set; this should not dictate your attitude, or that of your team. Many sales professionals continue to flourish in this environment, so why not you? Build resilience, adjust your attitude, be a positive rather than negative force. Become unstoppable in your quest to succeed.
If you want to find out more about the B2B Sales - Help Customers Buy from You open course or you want to register for it, call us at 0726 847 000 or send us a message.
