You have to measure your sales success. It sounds easy, but in reality, measuring successes in sales can be difficult. Although the job is to close sales, measuring the progress can’t come down to the number of sales and looking at profit margins.
You must consider things like the demand for your product (growing or shrinking), the efforts being made by your sales team, the progress over the year, etc. You can’t assume that a slow month means your team members aren’t doing their jobs.
That’s why it helps to think of sales in the same way you think of operations. As Business Coach Garret Norris said in his book, Build a Healthy Business which is available on the Business Coaches Sydney website, you can’t “lose sight of what’s important.”
In that article, Garret describes a client who was a long-time, successful sales person but his performance seemed to continue to decline. After working with Garret, the client discovered that the problem wasn’t with the sales– it was his focus – and the replacement of non-related sales tasks that he was doing to be successful.
Treating your sales department the same way you treat operations comes down to three things – quality control, oversight and metrics. Here are a few ways to get started:
Consistent sales content: Your salespeople are having conversations with prospective clients. They are talking about your product or service, describing why your business is different and making a case for why your product or service is something they should add to their lives.
But what are they saying? Make sure your salespeople are relaying the same information to all prospective clients by approving all the sales copy and the marketing process. You should be able to control the message being sent by your salespeople – they are representing your company to the public.
Don’t ignore the data: Sometimes data doesn’t tell us what we want to hear. If ever your data shows you that your product or service needs replacement or that you’re no longer meeting the needs of your prospective clients, figure out what needs to change. No one benefits if you wait until it’s too late.
For more tips, read Garret’s full book for free on https://businesscoachessydney.com.au/
Garret Norris
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