Business growth is like a long journey. It requires patience and carefully designed sales plan. One of the keys to achieving the desired level of growth is to have a well-thought-out plan. A business that does not have any planning for growth is like a ship that does not have a destination. You know where you want to go but you may never get there as you don’t have a good sales plan. In this article, we look at the five key areas of sales to help guide you on the growth of your business.
1. What you need to know before you start a sales team.
A sales team doesn’t always make sense. Don’t take our word for it. The founder of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, said that he never had a sales team as they didn’t see the need for one. He believes that sales are a function of the product and the marketing. The truth is that the best marketing is a great product that solves a problem for your customers. But if you don’t have a great product or if you do have a great product, but don’t have the resources to market it, you may have no choice but to invest in a sales team. If you do have a great product, make sure that you have the following in place before you start a sales team.
2. What do salespeople do?
Salespeople are responsible for selling products or services to customers. Their main tasks include identifying potential customers, explaining product features and benefits, negotiating prices, and closing deals. In 2024, it’s estimated there are over 15 million sales professionals in the United States alone. The majority, around 60%, work in retail, technology, and healthcare industries. Sales is a high-pressure job, with most reps spending at least 6 hours per day making sales calls, emails, and presentations. Top performers can earn over $100,000 per year through base salaries and commissions. However, the average tenure for a salesperson is only around 2 years due to the demanding nature of the role. Successful salespeople have excellent communication, persuasion, and relationship-building skills.
3. Being smart about sales plan
The first thing about sales is knowing what you’re selling. You need to know your product inside and out, you need to know what a fair price is and you need to know what to expect from the market. It’s not enough to just know your product, it’s also crucial to know how it compares to your competition. Numbers are key to this. You need to know how much people are buying, how much they’re spending, and what they’re spending it on.
4. How do you determine the value of your company?
The value of a company can be determined in various ways. It can be determined by the net income, the cash flow, or the rate of return on equity. And, if you are the one who is doing the valuation, there are several methods that you can use to estimate the value of a company. It will depend upon the type of industry you are in, the amount of information that you have about the company, the growth rate of the company, the amount of debt in the company, and your personal opinion.
5. How does your sales process look?
The sales process is a set of activities that you perform with the goal of sales. It’s the reason behind the questions you ask, the order in which you present information, and how you close the deal. The reason that it’s important to have a sales process in place is that it ensures that you’re covering all of the bases and that you’re making it as easy as possible for your prospects to buy.
Make sure you have a good handle on what your sales process looks like before you start adding people to it. To get the most out of your existing sales team, use the popular sales tracking app and get successful in your B2B business.