Sales is not a series of fortunate accidents; it is the result of well-planned and executed strategies. A strategy is the plan to get from where you are now to where you want to be. 

Your sales team will need both the company Strategic Plan and the Sales Strategy. It probably doesn’t seem like a strategic plan has much to do with sales, but if the sales team is going to be effective, they need to buy into the vision, values, and mission as much as they need to buy into the goals. When they don’t understand, it is hard for them to sound like true believers.

Your sales strategy is the plan to achieve the goals laid out in the strategic plan.  The Sales Strategy will also include a Lead Generation Strategy to support the Sales Strategy and Account Strategies to penetrate and grow large accounts.

It will help your team to have frameworks associated with the strategies that help them stay in the guide rails. A framework is a set of descriptions and rules that help us understand how things work. Every company should have a sales positioning framework that lays out how your company and product fit into the marketplace. You should also have a sales communication framework to set up guidelines around communicating with prospects and customers. That framework should include a value proposition for each persona to help sellers and marketers understand how to frame messaging that helps prospects see your value.

Salespeople are notorious for being independent, self-motivated, and extroverted.  They tend to disdain processes and systems.  Despite that, they are more effective when they follow systems and processes that support their success. For those reasons, it is difficult to manage salespeople. What you can do instead is manage the processes and hold your salespeople accountable for fulfilling certain expectations. The clearer the expectations and the more consistently they are reinforced, the more likely your salespeople will be to follow them. As soon as you stop managing and reinforcing the processes, they will stop following them.

Establish structure around team meetings, one-to-ones, coaching sessions, and funnel reviews. Set the expectations about what will happen before, during and after.  Don’t veer from the expectations. Once they know what to expect, they will know how to prepare and will be prepared.  If they aren’t prepared, don’t let them off the hook.

Consistency around the right behaviors will improve results every time.  

Your Sales Operating System is unique to your company. It isn’t plug-and-play, and there are no shortcuts. You must match the strategies, systems, and processes to the specific realities of your company.  Once you create your SOS, it is critical that everyone who touches the system understands it. The sales operating system isn’t just for sales. Marketing, operations, accounting, and anyone else who interacts with the process must understand and support it.

Once everyone understands it, set out the expectations about how everyone will interact with the system.  Make sure they understand the rules, the cadences and the outcomes expected.  No one is exempt. Don’t accept excuses. Once you set out the expectations, everyone must use the SOS. That means everyone is working toward the same strategies and goals.  Everyone understands what their role is in achieving those goals.  Everyone is following the process and using the systems.

Reinforcement is a MUST.  If leadership indicates at any time that it is OK to skip steps or ignore the rules, people will.  As a result, the system will fall apart, and the growth will stall, or sales will decline.

The sales operating system represents a cultural change in your organization, and that kind of change is never easy. So, the question for you is, can you do it and is it worth it?

If you want a predictable revenue stream to manage the unmanageable, fewer mistakes, and more sales revenue, it is worth the effort it will take to create, implement, and reinforce your sales operating system.

Good Luck!  If you need help getting started, schedule a no-cost, no-obligation call with a sales strategist.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, a critical element for fostering and nurturing customer relationships in business. CRM software actively keeps track of prospects' contact details and communication timelines, manages customer data and interactions, and monitors potential future needs. It also acts as a hub for managing opportunities and organizing tasks.

CRM technology has evolved from simple paper-based Rolodex systems to complex cloud-based SaaS like Sales Force.  The steps between rolodex and modern CRMs were many.  The simplest tools were things like Excel and ACT.  The next iterations were server-based programs like Siebel and Oracle. The first stand-alone program was Goldmine, then Sales Force put it in the cloud.  Now CRMs can do way more than manage contacts and deals. These tools have gradually transformed how businesses manage sales and customer information. Picking the right tool for your organization is the first step among many.

Modern CRMs enhance sales, support, and channel management. They enable sales teams to track opportunities, manage contacts, document notes, organize tasks and meetings, and maintain key accounts through automation. For support, CRMs offer case management, problem resolution tracking, and client history monitoring. They also streamline channel management with tools for managing funnel activities, channel partner development, and overall channel strategies.

When implemented and used properly, CRMs promote effective communication across teams, produce insightful reports across an organization, align organizational goals, facilitate strategic planning, and help manage cash flow.

CRMs are not just repositories for data; they serve as the central nervous system of a business's sales and support network. They give life to the data, making it actionable and informative. For instance, sales teams use CRMs to prioritize and track every stage of the sales pipeline, from prospecting to closing deals. This not only helps them stay organized but also enables them to forecast future sales and tailor their strategies accordingly. The data within CRMs can reveal patterns in customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, allowing for a more personalized and effective sales approach.

On the support side, CRMs are equally transformative. They empower support teams to quickly access complete customer histories, understand past issues, and proactively address potential future problems. This holistic view ensures that customers receive consistent and informed support, which is essential for building trust and loyalty. Moreover, CRMs can automate routine tasks, such as ticket routing and follow-up reminders, allowing support staff to focus on resolving complex issues and enhancing the overall customer experience.

Your funnel maps the progress of leads through the marketing and sales process.  Some companies have separate sales and marketing funnels, and some combine them. For the sake of understanding the progressions, let’s combine them for now. 

It’s important to understand that only a small percentage of leads will make it from the first stage of your funnel to close.  The ratios are important.  You will need to be clear about how many leads are needed at each stage in order to close enough deals to hit your sales goal. 

Let’s say your marketing to sales funnel goes like this:  Engage, Download, Marketing-Qualified, Sales- Qualified, Cultivate and Close. 

Calculate the loss ratio at each stage, and how fast leads typically go through the funnel.  Once you know those ratios, you can calculate how many leads are needed at each stage to hit the sales goal overall, and for each product.  

Let’s run through an example:  For product 1, how many leads need to go in the top of the funnel, for one to come out the bottom?  We can work that backwards.  For one to close, we need at least 4 in Cultivate, 7 in SQL, 10 in MQL, 20 in download and 100 in engage.  Next you can figure out how long leads typically stay in each stage.  The speed from stage to stage is the velocity.  That could speed up or slow down at different stages. 

Some leads don’t come through marketing. Sellers may prospect in existing accounts, get referrals or cold call. These leads will have different close ratios and velocities.  

The first and most important thing to measure is if there are enough leads/opportunities at each stage of the funnel to hit sales goals. If your sales goal is $10,000 per quarter, your average sale value is $2,500, your sales cycle is 12 months, and your sales ratio is 10 prospects to one close, then you can figure out the math from there. 

 At any given time, the funnel needs to look like this:

Second, are things moving through the funnel at the right velocity? The KPI around that might be based on average number of days from sales qualified to closed.  If the average is 12 months, then the average should be around 365 days. 

Those measures may be the most obvious, but there are some other key KPIs that matter.  Many companies measure the number of calls or emails.  While that may matter if you have SDRs or sales reps who are cold calling, that number is less important once a lead is qualified.  

Once a lead is qualified, it is important to track the next actions.  Every lead must have at least one next action planned.  That next action should be very specific.  “Follow up” doesn’t work because if a rep is working on 100 leads, they won’t remember exactly what to follow up about. The next action needs to be a specific action, ask or deliverable. 

Another measure is how many qualified opportunities have the next meeting or phone called scheduled with the client.  If the client hasn’t agreed to a next action, chances are, the next meeting will never get scheduled. 

Before you hire, you will write out the type of salesperson you are looking for and exactly what you expect them to do. If you aren't clear on your sales process, from targeting your customers to closing, onboarding, retaining, and growing, you won't know who to hire. Which part of the sales process do you expect the salesperson to do? All of it? The prospecting only? Do you need someone to manage and grow your existing customers? Once you map out your sales process and determine what parts the salesperson will need to do, you will know what skills and experience you need to hire.  

Getting ready to build a B2B Sales organization? Schedule a FREE Strategy Call. 

Be strategic about targeting. Letting your sales team decide which companies to target is not strategic. In fact, without direction, they will always do what is easiest, not what is strategic. Outline your ideal customer profiles, then give your team a list of targets to pursue.   

Your ideal customer is the kind of company that is the best fit for your product and the way you deliver it. You can define this by size, industry, buying process, current software systems they use, or any number of other things that will determine how easy it will be to sell to them and how effective your solution will be for them. You want to avoid difficult sales and difficult implementations. Focus on the customer that will buy more in the future.  

Make a strategic target list of companies that meet your ideal customer profile that you want your sales reps to pursue or grow. Give each sales rep a manageable list for them to pursue. Let them know that these are the priorities.  

Understanding the lead generation process is critical to hitting your goals. How many prospects do you need to have at the top of the funnel to close the number of deals you have at the bottom? What is your lead-to-close ratio? Keep the qualified leads flowing if you want to hit your goals. Coach your team so that the leads keep moving through the funnel. Be sure to continue to prioritize qualified leads that are likely to close.  

Sales reps need qualified leads to close and you need a great plan to get them. Work with marketing to determine the best sources of leads and make sure marketing knows exactly what they are expected to deliver from each activity. For instance, if you are going to a trade show, you need a plan for getting a certain number of qualified leads from the show.  

If you want your sellers to be successful, set them up for success by clearly communicating the company vision, positioning and value proposition. Then provide them a profile of the ideal customers in your target markets and a list of target customers for them to pursue. Make a detailed plan that can be broken down into individual sales plans and quotas and make sure marketing is working to generate qualified leads to pour into their funnel. Everyone will be far more effective when they are clear on who they are selling to and why.  

If you are ready to start your sales strategy read 7 Steps to Build an Effective Sales Strategy or download the Sales Strategy Guide .

Now that you understand the critical pieces of your strategy, it should start becoming clear how strategy acts as a filter for decision-making. If your team doesn’t understand your strategy, they may not be able to make good decisions about resource investment, partnerships, product development or even sales strategy. 

Values become a filter for solving problems every day. Goals become a filter for resource allocation. Ideal Customer Profile helps focus your marketing and sales teams on the clients you want most. Positioning determines the story you are telling and impact decision making from marketing to ops. All of these things affect decision making in every part of your organization, including sales. 

If you are ready to start your sales strategy read 7 Steps to Build an Effective Sales Strategyor download the Sales Strategy Guide .

A revenue goal alone won’t result in the long-term strategic sales you need to sustain growth. But building a great sales strategy will help ensure the success of your team. 

To create a great sales strategy and to effectively execute it, your sales team needs you to answer six big questions: 

1. What’s the bigger picture? 
2. What Ideal Customer Criteria can they use to prioritize prospecting? 
3. What are the top companies we want to reach and sell to successfully? 
4. What is your position in the market? 
5. What value proposition is appropriate for each buyer persona? 
6. What support can sales depend on from every department in the company? 

Here’s how you can answer each question and position your sales team for success. 

Did you know that in some companies as many as 90 percent of leads never receive a follow-up call? Sure, some of those leads may be unqualified or may not be worth your sales team’s efforts—but what about the one that is? 

If your sales team has a glut of mediocre leads and no way to prioritize them, it’s likely they’re missing the opportunity to sell to the right person. To help them prioritize leads, provide sales and marketing Ideal Customer Criteria they can use to measure a potential client. This information will help your reps filter prime opportunities and pursue them in a focused way. 

For your sales reps to effectively sell your company and products, they need to be able to communicate your position in the market. Look at the strength of the market, brand awareness, competition, and outside factors such as technology landscape or economics to clarify your positioning. Once you’ve completed your analysis, provide your team with a summary of your findings and a positioning statement they can use. 

Even with the answers to all of the above questions, your sales team will still be unsuccessful if they do not have buy-in from every department in the company. Many companies have at least one sales prevention department. It could be a production department that can’t fulfill the orders that the reps sell, or legal holding up contracts, or maybe it’s accounting. 

Every member of your company needs to understand the sales team’s goals, how they are expected to achieve those goals, and how they can support the sales team. To get there, make sales a fully integrated part of your company. And ensure that other departments know the value and critical nature of a high performing sales team. 

As I said in the beginning, sales strategy doesn’t start with sales. It ends with sales. If your sales team only receives a revenue goal, they will never be able to understand how to reach that goal in a way that grows your company for the long-run. 

If you want more information about writing a winning sales strategy.  Read 7 Steps to Build an Effective Sales Strategy and download the Sales Strategy Guide.