Determining Sales Strategy for your company

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 1/18/2011

Much easier said than done! Leading companies in their respective industries are constantly analyzing the sales strategies they set for the sales department. Do we have enough sales people on the team, perhaps too many? Are we giving them the tools they need to succeed? Training, equipment, office space, leads, cell phone or car allowances, financial incentive?

All of this and more should be part of strategic planning which includes developing the marketing plan of the company. Despite the fact that more success comes from planning, many companies do things from the seat of their pants and are not making this a regular exercise toward success. If they are in your industry, that is their loss and your gain.

When company strategic planning is being done from June through September of the previous year, the sales department should be doing sales strategy to make sure they can live up to the expectations of the company’s plan. If one strategy is going one way and one is going the other direction, this can be a significant problem.

One major problem I’ve seen with many companies is that they do things the way they do them; because that is the way it has always been done. Often there are no leaders in the company with strategic planning or sales strategy experience. If this is true at your company, my advice is to outsource a company who can guide you through this process. After a year or two you can take over the reins and do this on your own.

Someone who has been through this process repeatedly will see the holes that need to be filled, as well as exponential opportunities for the company to grow. Sometimes when you are on the inside of a company, it is very difficult to see the forest through the trees. That’s why I started out by saying this process is easier said than done. The advantage goes to the objective observer from the outside of the company.

What are your challenges when it comes to determining sales strategy for your company? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time…