Appleton Greene – Sales Strategy
Exponential Sales Increases Don’t Happen by Accident
Appleton Greene Large scale increases in sales and profitability are possible if you’re willing to do what it takes to make it happen. In order to accelerate business growth you need to understand your current situation, where you want to go, and then develop a plan to get there. It often takes an outside perspective that is free of biases that often hamper internal review and analysis. A top-to-bottom analysis with a critical eye toward factors insiders often take for granted can provide insight into quick fixes and long-term improvements that can provide the increases in revenue and profitability upper management demands. Follow that plan up with a plan for implementing change, followed by periodic review and fine tuning, and you have the recipe for creating a dominant force in your industry that has the tools necessary to maintain and increase market share for years to come.
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Create an Agile Sales Organization
Successful sales organizations anticipate change and position themselves for success. It doesn’t happen through luck. It takes preparation, planning, and dedication. Unfortunately, everyday business pressures and hiring restrictions make it difficult to take the time to research and plan accordingly. Successful companies hire consultants to do a thorough analysis of their sales organization and create a model for success, but it doesn’t stop there. They follow through by creating a plan, developing a timetable for implementing tasks and strategies identified during the analysis, and measuring success once the changes have been made. A successful plan will have agility built in, along with mechanisms for regular evaluations, modifications, and improvements that will ensure that they are leading the pack rather than letting circumstances dictate their next move.
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Involve Gatekeepers in the Sales Process
Every organization is aware that gatekeepers can scuttle sales, but few know how to turn them into advocates rather than roadblocks. Your sales people—and often your direct client as well—are not able to contact gatekeepers, but they have an inordinate amount of power over the success or failure of a sale. Understanding their motivations and biases, and structuring your proposals to address them, is an art. Proposal don’t stop at the primary contact’s desk. They’re circulated within the corporation and sometimes externally as well. Depending on your product or service you may be subject to scrutiny by financial analysts, production managers, or outside influencers like peers, and even spouses. All too often sales presentations and RFQ responses focus on the nuts and bolts while neglecting the needs of the client organization as a whole. A benefits-based communication that emphasizes the value the client derives from working with you can result in increased sales, satisfied clients, and long-term client retention.
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Optimize Your Sales Force
Whether you are an early stage company or an established business your sales force structure should be reviewed on a regular basis. Established companies need to be sure their sales teams are properly trained and have the tools they need to succeed in an ever changing environment. Is your field force properly aligned with customers? Should you establish offices in additional markets, or can you eliminate offices without affecting sales? Are those offices properly staffed or over staffed? Do all markets require a brick-and-mortar presence, or should you consider having some sales people work from home. Startups and early stage companies face different issues as they face the problems associated with growth. Can you handle all sales from headquarters, or should you establish satellite offices? Where should they be located? How should they be staffed? How will they be managed, and by whom? Every company has unique needs that require analysis that takes into account the rapidly changing environment, expanding communication opportunities, and global homogenization that characterizes today’s business climate.
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Don’t React to Change, Anticipate It
Today’s business climate is more volatile than ever, and it’s only going to get worse. New technologies or competitors have a habit of sneaking up and biting us while we’re engrossed by day-to-day business issues. No one intends for it to happen, but it does, and it’s crippled some of the biggest and brightest companies in every industry. Hiring freezes compound the problem. Few companies have enough staff to look at issues down the road, and most senior sales executives are too busy to devote time to the endeavor. Even when great ideas bubble up through the sales organization time issues make it difficult to fully develop them. Every sales organization can benefit from an outside consultant that brings years of experience and highly developed analytical skills, yet doesn’t add another full time employee to your roster.
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Avoid Proposal Paralysis
Every company strives to produce proposals and presentations that excite the client and convince them to sign the dotted line. Unfortunately, most organizations settle on a format that works and never modify it. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. Client needs change, new competitors and fresh technologies enter the market, and customers lose sight of the reasons why they started doing business with you in the first place. Chances are your proposals already rate a 9 on a ten point scale. Are you satisfied with a 90% in today’s competitive marketplace? If your answer is no, it may be time to ensure that your proposals are the best they can possibly be.
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Create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
The business graveyard is full of companies that thought that selling the right product at the right price was all it took to succeed. If the best technology always won Sony’s BetaMax would have outsold the VCR, and Microsoft would never have gotten off the ground. Today, Tesla seems to be the hot ticket, but new electric vehicles from Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, and others may attract customers away from the upstart brand. The marketplace is cruel, and you don’t want to be left behind. That’s why it’s important to take a long look at your company, its product offerings, your sales structure and practices, and your communication strategy. Winners make absolutely sure they’re positioned for success. Be prepared, and make absolutely sure you’re strategy and structure are prepared for every eventuality.
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Stop Navel Gazing and Create a Plan for Success
Chances are you’ve done a SWOT Analysis and have a basic understand of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You’ve had sporadic discussions about ways to improve business, become more agile, and create an organization you can be proud of. It’s also likely that you don’t have the manpower or time to make it happen. Instead, you make small modifications, and vow to create a comprehensive plan once things settle down, but they never do. Perhaps it’s time to stop navel gazing and act. A comprehensive analysis of your present situation, complete with recommendations, action steps and timetables will get you on track faster and with less effort than if you try to do it alone.
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Equip Your Sales Team for Success
Sales teams are like muscles, if they aren’t exercised, they atrophy. Sometimes all they require is a refresher course that refines and hones skills they already have. At other times they need to be exposed to new ways of thinking, or updated skills and techniques. A comprehensive analysis of your team’s strengths and weaknesses, and identification of training that can make them the best they can be, is worth the investment. It can have an immediate effect on the bottom line, improve morale, and ensure that you and your team are prepared to do business in today’s cutthroat, ever-changing business environment. Too many companies look for a person with a robust rolodex when hiring salespeople, only to learn that, once those contacts are exhausted, they’re stuck with them. Make sure that all your people are at the top of their game, and have the tools they need to score on every sales call.
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Understand and Promote Your Value Proposition
If you weren’t sure your company provides great value to customers you wouldn’t work there. Now put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Are you absolutely sure they’re as convinced as you are? Does everyone in their organization understand the value you deliver, and the reasons why they should continue doing business with you? If not, perhaps it’s time to bring in a consultant to help identify the advantages of doing business with your company, and ensure that you’re communicating those advantages at every turn. Value comes in many shapes and sizes. It’s both tangible and intangible, and it can mean different things to different people within a client’s organization. Identifying those variables is well worth the effort. You’ll be surprised how intangible assets can create a tangible difference in your bottom line.
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Satisfied Customers May Not Be Loyal Customers
Many industries rely on customer satisfaction scores to measure success, but are they a true measure of success? Satisfied customers don’t necessarily become repeat customers. If the aim of your business is to create long-lasting business relationships, you need to structure your business around understanding and implementing ways to keep customers coming back. Doing so is as much an art as a science. It begins with creating satisfied customers and then doing whatever is necessary to convert them into advocates for your brand. Customers that sing your praises are a tremendous asset. They champion your products and services within their own company and share their experience with peers at companies you’d like to add to your customer list. Don’t fall into the trap of relying on customer satisfaction scores alone. Take the time to do a comprehensive analysis of your sales organization, your products and services, and your communications strategy. Use that information to create a plan than maximizes strengths, eliminates weaknesses, and put your plan into action.
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Create a Success Culture
A culture of success doesn’t just happen. It’s crafted and communicated on a regular basis. Done correctly it permeates your corporation and manifests itself in everything your employees say and do. It begins with understanding who your company is, what it stands for, and how it provides value to its customers. It’s more than a positioning statement or a poster on the wall, its corporate-wide understanding of the value you provide customers, and the proper way to communicate it internally and externally. Successful companies understand and embrace the value and benefits they provide their customers. Expressing that value to customers, suppliers, and stakeholders becomes second nature. Sales happen faster, gross margins can increase, and employee retention is less of a problem. It all begins in the Sales and Marketing departments, the most client-centric areas in the corporation. Understanding tangible and intangible client needs and communicating how your product and services meet and exceed expectations is key to creating a success culture. Everyone, from upper management on down, should be made aware of that value and how each department contributes to it. Sales successes are shared and celebrated, creating better understanding of the contribution each employee makes to that success, resulting in satisfied customers, happy employees, and an aura of success that envelops everything you do.
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Mr Sawyer is an approved Senior Consultant at Appleton Greene and he has experience in marketing, e-business and management. He has achieved a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing. He has industry experience within the following sectors: Technology; Digital; Media & Marketing; Internet and Automotive. He has had commercial experience within the following countries: United States of America, or more specifically within the following cities: Detroit MI; Atlanta GA; Cleveland OH; Columbus OH and Chicago IL. His personal achievements include: increased sales by 250%; increased average sales revenue 400%; initiated and negotiated strategic alliances; created branding & sales strategies and re-positioned a $500 million company. His service skills incorporate: sales strategy; proposal structure; presentation structure; engaging gatekeepers and enterprise sales.
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