Having problems with your sales?
Having problems with your sales?
Having problems with your sales?
During the majority of meetings I hold the same argument seems to crop up; sales. Company managers and directors are more and more concerned about the levels of their sales, in many cases diminishing levels of sales.
Everybody wants to increase their sales, not only to satisfy the desire to grow and expand, but also to meet up the ever increasing expenses. It has been normal practice to plan an increase in sales on a yearly basis, until the itching in global and local economies remodelled the scenarios.
My argument on sales is usually three pronged. (a) Do you have the systems in place through which you are maximising you sales potential, (b) Is your sales staff aggressive enough in their sales approach, and finally (c) Is it more sales that you are actually looking for or an increase in profitability?
Lets take look at all three in some greater depth. The first thing to look into is if you actually have your systems in place. Without getting your organisation into a bureaucracy you definitely need some systems. On the flip side, you might actually have systems that need to be flushed down the drainage system or re-hashed for a new market reality. What are these systems. They can be operational methods, on delivery, on service, on ordering, on selling, on customer care, basically on how you trade and operate. Ask yourself, when was the last time you looked at your whole system from an analytical manner (preferably from a customer's perspective)?
Having the correct systems can assist sales in other manners. CRM, customer relationship management systems are key to any business from micro to large. Do you know how many times your sales people have spoken to a client, what the feedback was, whether you gave that feedback, when you were due to call back, and more and more. CRM is not just a software, it is just a tool to offer a better service and help you maximise sales.
The problem is that many organisations centre around an accounting package. It is true that the financial aspect of the business is what we are really after, yet the sales must also be central for the business to survive and flourish. Ask yourself these questions; do you manage to give your sales people workable data on their clients and how their can expand a client through sales analysis? Can you analyse trends of a product or service and provide it as a roadmap for you sales people to follow in other industries? When was the last time you discussed all this in a sales meeting?
All this leads us to the second point; is your sales staff aggressive enough in their sales approach? Sales aggression needs to be two fold organisation based and individually based. From an organisational perspective having the systems discussed earlier would ensure the correct framework, and would also give the tools and motivate your sales people to be more aggressive. One should state here that aggression dos not necessarily mean hard selling. Developing a client and thus increasing sales is aggression as well. It means that rather than being happy with whatever comes along your way, one patiently develops a client relationship and maximises the potential sales.
There though needs to be a motive and drive for all this, which normally boils down to a financial aspect. What percentage of the earnings of your sales people is based directly on the sales they generate? Is it less than 50%, is it less 25%? Sales people can never be left in a comfort zone. Why are property negotiators (or whatever they are called nowadays) so sales motivated probably because they depend on a commission based package. Minimal commission structures are a farce as they make no difference in the individual's motivation and do not contribute to an increase in sales.
Training too is key element in developing your sales staff. This too though should be done as part of more holistic approach towards your sales, and when possible it should be objective focused, like increasing customer relationships.
Finally there is the third issue to discuss, whether what you want is more sales or more profitability. These two objectives are not necessarily on the same path. An organisation would need to look into whether an increase in sales would actually generate greater profit or if it would lead the organisation to additional costs that would erode these. Furthermore one should dive into what the company is selling, whether you are selling more of those products or services that leave a lower margin to the company, and if one should actually stop in selling or promoting this range. Such an analysis should lead management to take some strategic decisions on your services and products and what you actually want to be selling, or rather should be selling.
All this should be part of a comprehensive exercise that an organisation should undertake if it wishes to look at its sales and improve on its overall performance. It would not answer all the questions you have but could be a start.
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