Module 6 - Making it Happen
3. Sales
Sales are the lifeblood of a business. They bring revenue and validation to your proposition. Here, we’ll consider a number of aspects in sales including; understanding your customers, your sales strategy, and your approach to sales. This will help you have the best chance of success.
Understanding your customers
We’ve already looked at the importance of understanding your customer in other chapters including product development and marketing. Here, we consider their needs as regards to their approach to purchasing. Key to understanding what their needs are is identifying who they are. Are you focusing on sales to other companies (Business to Business – B2B) or directly to end consumers (Business to Consumer –B2C). Are they likely to be making their decisions emotionally or rationally? Are they buying for themselves or for others?
When will they be buying this type of product or service?
You must also understand what your route to market is. Will they be buying directly from you or indirectly through an intermediary, for example a wholesaler or a retailer? Where selling through an intermediary, you will be doing B2B sales whilst also ensuring that the B2C through your partner is working effectively.
Sales strategy
“A sales strategy is a concrete, step-by-step plan by an individual or a company to sell products or services for the purposes of generating and increasing revenues. It is the plan that enables you to successfully sell your products or service again and again… Done right, a strategy gives your sales team a clear focus and allows you to seize opportunities like a well-oiled machine.”
-(Freshsales Freshworks.com)
Key elements of a sales strategy:
Sales goals: How much do you need to sell in order to achieve your goals? What does this mean in terms of units sold or customers brought on and retained?
Prospects: Target market and sales channels – Who most benefits from your proposition, will be able to buy it and decide quickly? You should consider lead-times of customers and find the right balance. A small shop maybe able to make a quick decision but will do little towards your total sales goal, whereas a supermarket will take a long time to make a decision but could enable you to reach
your target.
Positioning and pricing: In line with the product development and marketing strategy, you need to determine your positioning in the market and price accordingly (see earlier section on pricing strategies). Remember that you are part of your value chain, your suppliers will be adding a margin onto products they sell to you and similarly you will take your cut of things you sell onto others. If you are at the start of a value chain, be mindful of what mark-ups others will put on your product or service and how this might impact the end consumer’s willingness to buy your product or service.
Responsibility: Make sure to have clarity on who is responsible for what in your team and that individuals are aware of the sales strategy and the correct way to approach different customer segments.
Find some sales strategy templates here: http://templatelab.com/sales-plan-templates/