Here's how you can develop and execute a successful sales strategy as a leader.

I believe that setting clear business goals influences motivation and increases performance. Whether you work at a small business, large enterprise company, or as an individual, you are more likely to succeed with strong business goals. This is why many companies set and define an OGSAM (stands for Objective, Goals, Strategy, Action Plan & Measurements) for their business.

I suggest setting up both KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and OKRs (Objective and Key Results). While KPIs help you to track the progress and to ensure that you are on right track; OKRs are more elaborate. OKRs will help you not only to measure the outcome but also the efforts. For example: Sales KPI : FY target of $ 10 million Objective: Add 10 new clients Key result # 1: Identify 5 new application areas Key result # 2: Introduce products to users within newly identified application area Key result # 3: Complete 20 user trials Key result # 4: Convert 10 to customers

Here's how you can develop and execute a winning sales strategy as a leader: Lead with a vision. Clearly define your team's goals and target market. Embrace data-driven decisions. Analyze market trends, customer needs, and competitor strategies to inform your approach. Empower your team. Equip them with clear sales methodologies, ongoing coaching, and the tools they need to succeed. Foster collaboration. Break down silos between sales and marketing, ensuring alignment and a unified message. Track and adapt. Regularly monitor performance metrics and be willing to adjust your strategy based on real-time data. By leading with a clear vision, data-driven decisions, and a collaborative spirit, you'll set your team up for sales success.

Increasing revenue by a certain percentage, and having concrete targets in place is critical for a focused and effective sales strategy. Determine Your Growth Strategy Identify if your organization's growth is driven primarily by sales, product, marketing, or the customer experience. This will shape your go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Gartner's Go-to-Market Strategy Framework outlines different GTM characteristics for each growth model

Super important! In order to build a successful business, it's essential to understand how your market works. By finding out what your customers really want, you can improve your products and services to meet their needs. And by discovering how your competitors operate, you can find ways to outperform them. So, it definitely helps to make better decisions, reduce risks, identify target market, understand customer wants and needs, and sustain a competitive advantage.

While most of the times, the research data are available through multiple sources and those can also be analyzed easily; I feel the most important part of knowing your market is customer immersion. Nothing can replace an in person meeting with an customer to know his needs and wants. It gives you an opportunity to know what he thinks, feels, says and does. You need to listen, watch and observe the customers to understand his pain points. These sometimes may not be formally conveyed to you, but your understanding is the most important.

En mi experiencia como líder de ventas, este punto es muy importante para la elaboración de la estrategia de Marketing. El poder conocer nuestro mercado fijara las pautas a tomarse en cuenta mas adelante en nuestra planificación y nos servirá exclusivamente como una brújula, puesto que ello será el punto de partida para la toma de decisiones y el análisis de las correspondientes estrategias ideales para llegar exactamente a nuestro publico objetivo. Si fallamos en este punto seria catastrófico para nuestra campaña, ya que podríamos trabajar con datos erróneos, esto afectaría el resultado esperado al ejecutar nuestra estrategia y nos imposibilitaría el alcanzar el éxito. Es un punto al que le debemos dar la debida importancia.

Begin with comprehensive market research to understand customer needs, preferences, and pain points. Analyze competitors to identify gaps and opportunities. Leverage data analytics to uncover trends and forecast demand. Build a value proposition that clearly differentiates your product or service. Engage with your sales team to align goals and ensure they are equipped with the necessary tools and training. Establish clear metrics to measure performance and adapt your strategy based on feedback and market changes. Foster strong relationships with customers through personalized engagement. Regularly review and refine your approach to stay ahead in a dynamic market, ensuring sustained growth and success.

In my experience, equipping the team with useful tools, resources and trainings, not only is the best way to achieve short term goals, but also provides a great opportunity to compete with the other players in that field for long term. On the other hand, a trained team with a clear career path, is much more loyal to the company and finds that there are many reasons for staying there, over the salary!

Before equipping your need, try to understand how is your product purchased. Is it a commodity & customer doesn't much time in decision making; or is it a technical product where customer takes much time & research before decision making. If the customer decision making time is less, equip your team with CRMs, brochures, communication platforms. But is your product is technical & decision making time is long, equip your team with through technical knowledge of your products, impart skills for consultative sales, persuasion and negotiation skills.

In my opinion the Sales Team which is best equipped to succeed usually has access to case studies in both PDF and Video format. This case study builds trust with the client that you not only know what you are speaking about but you can demonstrate you have provided a solution that really works. It shows new clients why your current customers trust you to deliver their projects on time and in budget

Start by providing comprehensive training programs that cover product knowledge, sales techniques, and customer relationship management. Implement advanced sales technologies, such as CRM systems, to streamline processes and provide valuable insights. Foster a collaborative environment where team members can share best practices and learn from each other. Set clear, achievable goals and provide regular feedback to keep the team motivated and focused. Encourage continuous learning and professional development to keep the team up-to-date with industry trends. Offer support through mentoring and coaching to address individual challenges.

The actual field sales process is the most important - that is where the strategy for each account gets fine tuned, tactics planned, implemented, reviewed in the light of leading or lagging indicators and where necessary course corrections are made. All these encapsulated the selling. While the overall target forms salesman's 'Objective', to realise it, that target will have to be distributed amongst several sales accounts. Since one 'Sales Strategy' will never fit each of them, within the broad framework of the 'Corporate Sales Strategy', individual strategies need to be developed tailored to an account, that should include a tailored set of tactics for an account; different leading and leading indicators for reviewing periodically.

While mostly the sales process is considered from prospecting to closing deals; we miss to incorporate feedback from customer in it. It has to a 360 degree communication. Any sales process is not a one time activity, its a reciprocal process. Hence take the feedback from customer, study it, incorporate if any changes and repeat. That should be the ideal sales process

Establish clear steps for prospecting, qualifying leads, nurturing relationships, and closing deals. Select Relevant Sales Methodologies Implement sales methodologies that complement your GTM strategy and provide structure to your process. Some popular options include: The Challenger Sale SPIN Selling The Sandler Selling System MEDDIC

In my time as a sales leader, I led a team to align our sales process with the buyer’s journey. We started by mapping out the key stages our customers went through, from awareness to decision-making. Realizing the need for alignment, I coached the team to tailor their approach at each stage. During the awareness phase, we shared insightful, educational content. In the consideration phase, we offered personalized solutions, and in the decision phase, we focused on demonstrating value and addressing any lingering concerns. By recognizing buying signals and adapting our approach, we not only built trust but also significantly increased our closing rates. This customer-centric strategy became the cornerstone of our success.

Since we have set up both KPIs and OKRs, lets monitor them. KPIs can be monitored on a long term basis; say quarterly, half-yearly or annually. But OKRs can be reviewed more frequently. A review frequency of once or twice a month will clearly give you an idea about the efforts your team is putting in and knowing if we are on right track.

Monitoring progress/performance is one of the most significant issues in all Sales teams. Some of the essential strategies and tips for evaluating the team’s sales performance are: 1. Define and monitor clear sales performance metrics. 2. Implement regular performance reviews. 3. Integrate a comprehensive dashboard for sales performance to visualize and interpret your team’s data effectively. 4. Encourage feedback! It can uncover insights that traditional performance indicators might not capture.

Understand the Sales Learning Curve Recognize that developing an effective sales process takes time. As explained in The Sales Learning Curve, there are three phases: initiation, transition, and execution. Align your strategy and resources to the appropriate phase. In the initiation phase, hire a small "renaissance" sales team to help learn your product-market fit and refine your positioning This ongoing analysis not only highlights areas of success but also identifies where adjustments may be needed.

By setting clear, measurable goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your overall strategy. Use advanced analytics tools to track sales activities, conversion rates, and revenue targets in real-time. Regularly review these metrics to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement. Conduct frequent check-ins and performance reviews with your sales team to provide feedback and adjust tactics as needed. Foster a culture of transparency and accountability by sharing performance data openly with your team. Encourage self-assessment and peer reviews to promote continuous improvement. Utilize dashboards and reporting tools to visualize progress and make informed decisions.

But don't pivot purley on a whim or on unqualified information. Knee jerk reactions based on emotion will upset the balance within the your team...

Always and specially in sales , the best way to motivate your team is leading by example. An accurate planning the strategy is key but what makes the difference with the execution is a "hands-on attitude" in front of your team. Even sales calls , coaching , the team have to feel that the leader is sharing the field with them. Leading by example will make it happen.