How to Build a Winning Sales Strategy

Building and developing a successful sales strategy is one of the main activities that companies will have to carry out. Whether focused on B2B, B2C, Inbound, Outbound, SME or large enterprise sales strategy, all of them need a reliable source of income to survive.

But how do you build a coherent and effective sales strategy?

An effective sales strategy paves the way for the success of your business. It is an integral part of the company's overall strategy and often makes all the difference, especially in highly competitive sectors. The sales force needs a guiding principle to achieve the goals set, clear commercial objectives with the appropriate means to achieve them. The sales strategy is therefore part of the business plan, provides a medium-term vision and allows the sales force to have a commercial action plan so that everyone is aligned.

However, there are some pitfalls to avoid, one of the most common mistakes being too much internal focus. Most sales strategies are internally focused, namely on procedures, but they lose sight of what we consider to be essential, the needs of your target audience, current and potential, and the skills to communicate value to that audience. Therefore, taking some time to think about building a sales strategy is essential.

"Doing business without advertising is like blinking in the dark, you know what you're doing, but no one else does." — Steuart Henderson Britt

What is business strategy?

A company's business strategy is an organized plan to maximize sales of a product or service. Business strategy is typically guided by specific, underlying principles that are based on a company's competitive advantages, with the goal of acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.

It typically covers everything from specific tactics, market strategy, processes, target audience, objectives, forecast, budget, and timeline. In addition, plans vary in duration, usually spanning a year or more, with monthly and/or quarterly reviews, where adjustments can (should) be made if there are discrepancies between expected and actual results.

To be truly effective, a company's sales strategy needs to focus on its target audience, the ability to convey value and provide a positive shopping experience, thus standing out from the competition.

With that in mind, here are 8 steps we at True Brands recommend when crafting an effective sales strategy:

“If you’re not taking care of your customers, your competitor will.” - Bob Hooey

1- Identify business objectives.

The company's business objectives provide direction for the entire strategy and serve as targets for the sales team. However, overly ambitious objectives can cause burnout and undermine motivation, while under-ambitious objectives hinder progress.

Existing companies can base themselves on the company's history and market growth, in the case of Startups, only on market growth, to achieve achievable and precise objectives.

At True Brands we recommend using the SMART method to identify business objectives.

Achievable goals are SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Examples of SMART goals might be “increase sales by 25% this year by exploring new markets, or by increasing sales force, or by investing more in marketing, etc.” The key to setting goals is to find a comfortable middle ground where they are both realistic and achievable.

Internally, there is a need to assess the company’s resources. What resources does the sales department have and how can they help or hinder the sales team in achieving its goals? Does the company have enough salespeople to meet its goals? Does the company have the tools, such as a CRM, to quickly move leads through the sales funnel? It is important to make sure that your operations are positioned to meet your goals.

At the sales level, analyze past sales data. It is important to set reasonable goals for the coming year. For example, if a significant number of customers churned last year, then the goal for this year might be to improve retention. Or if the company has a larger sales team and can handle a higher volume of customers, then it might focus on acquiring new customers. This data should be used to determine realistic goals for the sales team, focusing on these two axes, new customer acquisition and/or retention of existing customers using the SMART model.

Once the overall sales goals have been set, work backwards. Set realistic short-term goals for the sales department, monthly and quarterly, that align with the final sales goal. In these shorter periods, you should also define adjustments when the path diverges from the final goal.

To help achieve these goals and to make adjustments over time, measure progress through business KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), as we will see in point 8.

Finally, avoid having too many goals, as this can be counterproductive. and undermine the company's business objectives by introducing complexity. At True Brands we believe that two or three objectives produce greater effectiveness and reduce complexity, always respecting the SMART rules.

“Setting goals is the first step in making the invisible visible.” -Tony Robbins

2- Analyze the market.

Market analysis is, par excellence, the basis of information for launching and sustaining a commercial strategy. It is based on two essential marketing tools:

• SWOT : Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats:

SWOT analysis helps company management gain business insights into the company’s competitiveness, market trends, preferences, and uncertainties. It records overall strengths and weaknesses that influence the company’s performance, thereby mapping out areas that require management action. This analysis also provides a basis for comparative study with the competitor’s SWOT.

• PESTEL: Political - Economic - Social - Technological - Environmental - Legal:

The PESTEL analysis (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Environmental and Legal) is a strategic tool that allows the company to identify and measure the elements likely to impact its activity and development.

This analysis also helps to understand how the market works. By monitoring the opportunities and threats that arise in the company's activity and market, it is able to anticipate changes in the environment and also ensure the continuity of the company's activity.

By gathering as much information about the market as possible through these two tools, the company's management will have a clearer view of itself, its competitors and the environment in which it operates, both now and in the future. It will then be able to define the market, design it and see it as it is in order to position itself as effectively as possible.

"Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand." — Seth Godin

3- Identify the target customer.

Defining your target customer is one of the first steps in creating a marketing strategy and, by extension, a sales strategy. It is just as important as defining objectives, a marketing strategy or a financial plan. The term “target customer” refers to the audience you want to captivate with the help of marketing. Knowing your target audience in order to adapt the entire company strategy, and specifically the sales strategy, is essential, after all, they are the ones most likely to buy your products or services if they became aware of them through marketing actions.

Many different types of data can be used to determine a target audience, including:

• Demographic data (such as age and gender identification)

• Psychographic data (such as ambitions, concerns and values)

• Behavioral data (likely to buy online)

The importance of identifying the target customer:

The effectiveness and success rate of every company's marketing and sales efforts depend on knowing who its target audience is. Target audiences receive special attention because they are the ones most likely to be buyers of the company's products or services.

This improves the company's marketing and advertising efforts because they can utilize resources efficiently and save time and money on broader advertising. Using advertising to target consumers as a marketing technique can help a company identify and reach its ideal customers.

Companies that do not know their market and target audience waste money and time. However, marketing can be a great help here. At True Brands, we use and recommend Inbound Marketing to get to know and captivate your target audience. Among the various techniques, we consider this to be the most effective and economical.

How to identify the target customer?

Businesses need to figure out who their target customer is. So here we will explore some tips and tricks to identify your target customer.

• Talking to customers. Talking to potential customers. Here, the sales team plays a key role, as they are the ones who talk to the customer. Ask customers and/or the sales team about the positive and negative characteristics of the commercial offer and how to resolve or improve them. Look for similarities between the characteristics that a specific audience is looking for and your product or service. The more specific you can be about the target audience, the more accurate you will be in finding the target customer.

• Product popularity. Product/service popularity is one of the most effective methods for identifying your target customer. Analyze sales data and customer feedback to determine what types of items are most popular and how to meet or exceed customer expectations.

• Website visitors through SEO tools. SEO tools on website visits provide crucial information to identify the target customer. Keywords and phrases that the audience uses to find the company website, demographics and location. Another added benefit of SEO tools is the ability to study competitors. Analyze their website, which keywords are most searched for and which pages get the most visitors.

• Use CRM data. If your business already has customers, you should use that CRM information to identify your target audience and learn more about your target market. Identifying your target customer is easier when your business has a wealth of customer data. This data includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more.

• Social Media. One of the great advantages of social media for a company is the feedback from its audience. There is a lot to learn about your company’s audience on social media and forums. You can determine your audience not by demographics but by their requirements, knowledge of needs, objections and pain points.

• Establish typical customer profiles. Creating customer profiles is crucial when defining your target customer. These profiles include important details about your customers, such as their purchasing patterns, age, location, problems, education, income level, lifestyle, and more. Once you have identified customer profiles, you can better understand their characteristics and how your business can meet their needs. As a result, your business can continue to provide relevant information, goods, and services.

In conclusion, the most important step in developing a marketing and sales strategy is to identify the company’s target customer. This serves as the basis for the overall marketing strategy and will serve as a solid foundation on which the brand develops over time.

"Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions that real people have." — Jonah Sachs

4- Define the commercial offer.

The commercial offer consists of the practice of building the foundations for the commercialization of a product or service, which guarantees commercial success. It should not be confused with the commercial proposal, which is basically a sales negotiation instrument. The commercial proposal is prepared based on the premises of the company's commercial offer. The construction of a coherent commercial offer should be based on:

• Target segmentation , each offer corresponding to a market segment. The offer must correspond to the company's goals and market trends. To do this, the company must have in-depth knowledge of its target audiences to understand their behavior in relation to its offer and the means of access. These answers will help the company determine the commercial action plan and the distribution channels to be prioritized.

• Pricing Policy, there are several strategies that can be applied, in a very (very) succinct way some of the bases for calculating the price: Calculate the costs and add a profit margin; Set a price based on the competition's price; Set a high price and lower it as the market evolves; Set a low price to enter a competitive market and increase it later; Base the price of your product or service on what the target customer considers fair.

• Differentiation from the competition. Companies need to carefully study existing supply and demand to identify business prospects in this specific context. There are 5 strategies to drive brand differentiation: Emotional response , which depends on providing an emotional relief linked to a product or service; Innovation , can be expressed through physical characteristics of products or the way a product or service is delivered; Brand presentation , the way a brand presents itself to the market can be a differentiator; Unique experience , can manifest itself in many ways, such as a brand's physical and/or retail presence, exceptional customer service, ease of use of their website, the innovative environment they create, or simply the experience in many aspects; Price, when handled properly, this can also be an effective approach to differentiation.

These differentiating assets will allow you to improve your offering and build an effective sales pitch.

“When considering pricing, it’s important to realize that it’s not for you, but for your target audience.” Eric Dolansky

5- Develop a Commercial Action Plan.

The commercial action plan is defined as a management tool that articulates the strategic plan and operational implementation. It identifies the objectives of the sales team, the actions and means to be implemented, as well as any obstacles to be overcome. The action plan is relevant to the development and growth of the company over time. It allows us to clearly see whether the annual objectives have been achieved or not. It is prepared after analyzing the results of the previous year or market research for startups (as we saw previously), and can be reassessed during the year, if necessary.

This is where the famous marketing mix (Porter's 4 Ps matrix: product, price, place and promotion ) comes in, which is the basis of the strategic marketing plan. It presents the analysis of your product's positioning, indicating precisely at what price, how and where to distribute your product to reach your target audience: What product?; At what price; How to distribute?; How to communicate?

This is the stage where you should detail the specific actions to be implemented to achieve your goals, such as offering a free trial, introducing a new tool, promotions, etc. to your prospects. At our Agency, for example, we offer sales consultancy when signing up for marketing consultancy for 2023. Internally, we also use a table as support, in which we enter each of the objectives, the actions to be implemented, the sales representatives involved, the deadlines and, finally, the allocated budgets.

"Any strategy that makes a message rise above the clutter is fantastic from an advertiser's point of view. Even if it's not a big secret, it's still a great marketing idea." —Josh Bernoff

6- Organize the sales force.

The organization of the sales force is essential for the success of the company. An organized sales force performs more effectively and is one of the guarantees for a prosperous company. Sales increase, the company is more profitable, people are motivated and customers are enthusiastic enough to remain loyal. However, success rarely happens without effort. It comes with organization, with the necessary resources allocated, with realistic objectives and, of course, with the effort of the sales team. But how to organize the sales force so that it is successful:

• Hiring and people skills: In a company, hiring the right people for the right roles is naturally important. Not all people on the sales team need to perform the same role. Define a sales hiring process and follow it. This should include the roles needed to reach each stage and the characteristics of the people to excel in those roles. There are other benefits to defining a process, the best candidates are often coveted by other companies. While a company is selecting candidates, the candidates are also selecting companies. The way a company handles the process sends important clues about what it will be like to work there.

• Define roles and responsibilities: List responsibilities, authority, and performance metrics in writing. Communicate clear goals, tools, training, and resources to the sales team to help them succeed as a team and individually.

• Territorial organization: Sales organization by territory in order to concentrate efforts and avoid competition between teams by clearly defining a target area for each member. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the potential of each territory, map potential customers and customer history so that the territorial distribution is as fair as possible.

• Training: Sales are essential to the sustainability of any company, so all participants must be as prepared as possible to achieve success, which is the success of the company. Likewise, a lot is at stake when a salesperson is in front of a prospect or client. To achieve the best sales performance, ongoing training is essential.

• Leadership development: Just as the sales team needs constant training, so do sales leaders. After all, it is over time that a sales leader is formed, through learning and experience. The more you learn and improve, the more effective you will be as a leader.

• Evaluation: This is necessary to assess the performance of each member of the sales team. The progress of each salesperson should be tracked and discussed monthly, quarterly and annually, with weekly follow-up to adjust and ensure performance improvement if necessary. An individual's performance should be evaluated based on the following ratings from 1 to 5: 5 - Excellent performance; 4 - Very good performance; 3 - Satisfactory performance; 2 - Poor performance, improvement needed. 1 - Unsatisfactory performance.

• Compensation: Effective sales commission plans include rewards for activity and results. The compensation plan should be motivating and reward the results the company wants to achieve. It should be linked to previously defined objectives. Compensation plans should be reviewed annually to ensure that it produces the desired sales behavior.

“Approach each customer with the idea of helping them solve a problem or achieve a goal, not selling a product or service.” Brian Tracy

7- Align sales with Marketing.

Aligning sales and marketing is essential in today’s competitive environment. When sales and marketing share a common vision, structure, systems, resources, goals, and KPIs, the entire company benefits. For example, aligning sales and marketing can improve team engagement and increase revenue. But how do you effectively align these two teams?

• Focus on your customer first. Customer satisfaction should be the primary driver behind every action taken by any team. This high-level goal eliminates competition, tension, and keeps the focus on the customer experience. Alignment happens naturally when both teams want to make customers happy at every stage of the buying process. Prioritizing customer needs naturally fosters collaboration between sales and marketing teams.

• Define each stage of the marketing and sales funnels. Each team has different responsibilities within the marketing and sales funnel. Marketing is typically responsible for top-of-the-funnel activities, such as creating a marketing plan, building brand awareness, and generating leads. Sales is responsible for the bottom of the funnel, executing the marketing plan and following up on leads. A funnel with defined stages eliminates confusion and promotes cooperation and accountability.

• Sharing customer knowledge from sales to marketing. To build a powerful pipeline, it is essential that the sales team communicates the insights they gain from interacting with prospects and customers to the marketing team. This allows marketing to have accurate customer knowledge and to be more effective in communicating information about the company’s solutions and the customer’s needs at each stage of the buying process. The company should prioritize sharing this information as frequently and in a disciplined manner as possible, creating efficient mechanisms for this sharing to flow effectively.

• Integrate sales and marketing metrics. Common metrics that track sales and marketing performance, as well as individual results, are essential. This integration ensures that sales and marketing teams share responsibility for achieving sales/revenue goals and improving processes. Teams can find opportunities to focus on lead quality over quantity, improve lead handoff processes, and align marketing content with customer needs.

• Align commissions and recognition. Most companies reward sales teams for closing new deals, while marketing teams receive recognition only for leads. A successful sales and marketing strategy recognizes that both teams add value at every stage of the funnel. Rewarding and recognizing each team member for each sale will emphasize respect for the team’s efforts and naturally align the team to work together.

The benefits for the company are evident with teamwork between sales and marketing, allowing for greater cohesion between sales strategies and marketing strategies, increasing qualified leads and revenue. By effectively using leads, with shared communication and systems, teams can generate, nurture and deliver qualified leads efficiently without losing information in the process. Another benefit is that marketing communication is much more effective and closer to the needs of customers and prospects.

"Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping the clock to save time." - Henry Ford

8- Measure the results.

The sales or distribution team is the link between the company's products or services and its customers. Naturally, it is important to monitor their performance, because the company's success depends on its sales results. But what metrics should be used to measure the sales department's performance? There are several metrics that can be used, and each company has its own specificities and objectives, so we recommend that the metrics used are those that best suit the company's specific reality. Here we will detail 8 generic metrics (not necessarily the ones recommended for your company, but they serve as an example):

• Sales cycle length: how long it takes from lead to closing. This depends a lot on the type of product the company sells. There are short-cycle and long-cycle products. However, the faster the closing, the more effective the sales department is and the more revenue it generates for the company, regardless of the cycles. (After all, usually, the longer the cycle, the more expensive and complex the product is, and obviously it has a higher margin). When analyzing the sales team as a whole, this metric helps to measure the overall effectiveness of the methods used and also the quality of the leads. When looking at individual members of the sales team, it can be used to identify who is closing deals in the shortest time and how this can be replicated across the entire team.

• Proposals sent vs. closed. Number of proposals sent compared to the number of closed deals. This metric is a good indicator of whether your prospect segmentation is accurate. Measured individually within the sales team, it reflects the performance and efficiency of the closing process.

• Total number of opportunities vs. closed. This is a metric that aggregates all identified opportunities and tracks how many of them end in sales. Use this metric to ensure that no qualified lead is overlooked. At an individual level, it shows how efficiently the sales or marketing department distributes leads, how interested the sales department is in following up on the lead, and how effectively the sales department closes the lead .

• Average sales value per sales rep. Tracking average sales value per sales rep is a metric used to track individual sales team members’ performance and/or ability to handle larger clients and/or larger, more critical deals for the company. At a high level, this metric can be compared to your revenue goals and helps you assess the quality of your leads and whether you’re targeting the right audience.

• Sales volume by territory. Does the company sell more in one territory than in another? Multiple factors can explain why some products sell better in certain locations. Knowing the causes is important for the company not only to take corrective measures but also to avoid "burning salespeople". Monitoring sales by territory/market helps the company to discover the suitability of the product and/or communication for the territory, as well as the performance of its sales team in that same territory or market.

• Sales volume by product. This metric simply tracks the different product lines and how they sell. This can also vary by location or sales team and is valuable information for future product development.

• Percentage of sales team members meeting their quotas. This is a high-level metric that looks at the overall percentage of sales team members meeting their quotas each month. By looking at your sales team as a whole, you can identify areas for improvement and see how realistic and achievable your sales quotas are.

• Product performance. Product performance helps you track which products or services are selling the most or where to direct your sales and marketing efforts. When tracking this metric, it’s important to consider activities in other departments within your company that may be impacting it. For example, if your company is putting more marketing efforts into a particular product/service or if seasonal activities may be having an effect.

As always with KPIs, each company is different and these should always be adapted to the reality of the company, the product or service and the markets in which it operates. However, these metrics can be used in any sector, but the actual numbers will vary depending on the overall volume of business and the demand of the target audience. If your sector is long-cycle, it is natural that sales will be high volume or high value, so it is important to adjust the expectations of each of the metrics.

Overall, the performance of the sales team should be assessed on several levels: individually, as a whole, and compared to other companies in the sector. All of these levels give a real idea of how sales are going. Metrics are a great indicator in assessing the performance of the sales team, in identifying efficiency losses in internal processes, in the need to improve communication/marketing and, finally, in improving the offer.

“Nothing is particularly difficult if you break it down into small tasks.” - Henry Ford

At True Brands we recommend that companies spend time building an effective sales strategy, choosing the right strategy: highlighting competitive advantages and target audience needs, the right channels and market specificities, building a high-performance sales team, equipping them with the right support tools and measuring results.