Introduction 

The end goal of every business is to have tremendous revenue and profit, and the only driving force in achieving this is the number of sales they can make. Trying to use economics hints, one could easily say the higher the sales! The higher the profit! And of course the higher the growth of the business.

Putting a great effort into making your product or services of the best quality is important, but getting your product to your target audience and making profitable sales is most important. A business that would be sustainable is highly dependent on its sales ability.

The best driving force for a successful business sale is the sales strategy applied. With a good sales strategy, you will not only have a well laid out plan for your product but also have an effective result “it’s like having a very clear pathway to follow and a step by step process in achieving an end goal.” 

Like every business, product or service is unique, the same way devising a unique sale strategy that best suits your business goal, product, or service is essential. For instance, Friesland Campina is the producer of peak milk and three crowns milk, but observing both the marketing and sales strategy for each product, one could see a very clear and unique pattern that differs. Therefore, when developing a sales strategy, you have to consider your product and devise a sales strategy that best suits it.

In general, an effective sales strategy must have these six key component

• It must be effective
• It must be measurable
• It must be unique to your product or service
• It must have a clear priority that is easily understandable 
• It must have a defined goal everyone is working toward
• It must have a clear guideline everyone can work with

What is a sales strategy?

A sales strategy is a plan created by a business or a company to sell products or services in order to generate and increase revenue. It outlines how you will position and market your service or product to your customers. 

It enables you to sell your products or services over and again successfully. This strategy is always tested, evaluated, and optimized to achieve the desired results.

Why it is important to have a sales strategy for your business

• An effective sales strategy helps you identify your target market and a clear path to reaching them
• A sales strategy will help you understand your unique selling point
• It highlights your competitors and states clear leverage you have against them
• It helps you identify your best sales channels and approach your target audience in the best-tested method
• It improves your sales
• It helps you scale and improves your business

I know a million questions now: how do I develop a sales strategy and an effective sales strategy for my business. Developing a sales strategy that best suits your business is not rocket science and is easily achievable with the right team. Here we highlight critical steps or processes you can adapt to develop an effective sales strategy for your business.

Identify the right market and persona

knowing your target market and defining your ideal market profile is one of the critical steps to developing an effective sales strategy for your business. You can identify your target market but first looking inward(i.e your current customers, understand who is actually buying your product or service. There is always a clear difference between your defined customer and your actual customers.

So identifying your actual customers will help you create an accurate customers profile and give you a clear part of your target audience. For instance, if your produce baby diapers, your target audience is babies through their mothers, right? Going further to understand the type of mothers is also very important. Do they want simple, light, and comfy diapers or just about anything provided it is affordable.

And if you are a startup and probably don’t have an actual customer yet, don’t worry. Just narrow down your target market to audiences your product best suits.

Highlight risk and opportunities

Using SWOT analyses( Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat). Get an insight into your current sale, how and where you can further expand your business, and the risk involved. This helps you analyze your current business situation, give you a clearer picture of your weakness than your competitors, and highlight your strengths. With a precise SWAT analysis, you can develop a better strategy to work on your weaknesses and build on your strength, business opportunities, and threats to your business and industry.

Set a clear goal

What is an excellent plan without a clear purpose? Stating what your want to achieve at the end is very important. It will not only serve as a driving force or a form of incentive that pushes your team, but it also helps to keep your sales activities aligned to the general business objective. Combining your revenue target and the right market strategy will help you generate realistic sales and revenue goals. Don’t forget your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-sensitive in other to be effective.

Align your marketing and sales strategy

Marketing and sales work hand in hand, therefore ensure both your marketing and sales strategy are on the same page, geared towards the same goal(i.e., customers acquisition and revenue). Once you align both strategy and the teams involved, it drives the power to Smarketing(sales and marketing) to create a powerful value proposition message. And also, identify the best platforms to reach your prospects.

Define your sales process and action

This is one key process of developing a sales strategy. A sales process is a structured set of repeatable steps that sales teams follow to convert target prospects to customers. It covers what your sales team should do at every stage of a sales process and the set of activities the team needs to follow to attain the defined goal. Your sales process and action should include your sales channel(their offline and online, the marketing strategy, follow-up, and deal closing process.

You know what they say, never underestimate the power of people. A good sales strategy is incomplete without the right team. In developing your sales strategy, you need to get the right team on board. Those who understand your goal help you interpret your strategy and get the job done. Creating a list of qualities in your ideal sales team is the first step and using it in your hiring process is an excellent way to identify the best candidates for the role. You also need to provide them with the resources to close deals, such as case study documents, battle cards, and sales email templates. 

Track and measure sales activities

Lastly, a sales strategy is more effective when it is easily tracked and measured to see if it is effective or not. It will help if you put a mechanism in place that enables you to track your sales performance. That way, you would know the effectiveness of your sales strategy and how to improve on it.

Whether you’re starting a new business or struggling to get your sales off the ground, it’s never too late to begin creating a sales strategy. Knowing who you’re selling to and effectively communicating with them is vital to increasing your revenue.