What is an Effective Sales Strategy? – Inflection Point

An Inflection Point is where a company has grown to where their organization, operations and technology infrastructure is showing signs of strain. Companies at an Inflection Point do no not grow because they do not have an Effective Sales Strategy. Now, you might ask, what is an Effective Sales Strategy? And more importantly, how can your company establish and implement it to increase sales and boost market share? Let’s start with the basics by defining “Effective Sales Strategy”:

Definition

To maximize your growth your Effective Sales Strategy should be…

…a well-articulated, SMART-goal focused, clearly communicated plan that positions your products and services uniquely in the minds of your targeted markets, while also providing actionable direction for your sales organization.

Key Elements

Let’s drill down into that definition to clarify all the key components:

Well-articulated

The most scalable and successful companies value the importance of defining and documenting all their plans and processes, including their sales strategy. Your Effective Sales Strategy must be clearly in line with overall company strategy, containing key information like overall sales and goals, key metrics, sales organization and roles, team structure and customer coverage model, compensation plans, sales processes, go to market plans, competitive analysis, buyer personas and value proposition, and specific selling methodologies.

SMART-Goal focused

Your Sales Strategy should also include SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals to measure overall success and market leadership.

Clearly Communicated

To be Effective your Sales Strategy must be clearly communicated to and understood by your internal (employees) and external stakeholders (customer, prospects and targeted markets more in general). Clear communication requires consistent and repeated messaging so the strategy is in line with what your audience actually reads, hears, perceives, believes and executes.

Value Proposition

The ability to understand your target markets needs and your competitors as well as the ability to articulate and communicated your value proposition will allow you to differentiate and will enable your sales team to be successful.

Actionable

Finally, a successful Sales Strategy must be actionable – that is, translatable into effective sales processes, tools and people that turn plans into results.

Creating Your Effective Sales Strategy

To build an Effective Sales Strategy, one designed to reach clients and close sales, you’ll need to recognize and respect your overall company strategy.  

And an Effective Sales Strategy is not a one-and-done task. As your market, customers, products and services, people, sales tools processes change, so must your Sales Strategy. Revisit it regularly to make sure it accurately represents where you are and where you want to go.

At Inflection Point Masters, we have put together a group of functional subject matter experts who know how to work with leaders to address all of these issues and to work with the leadership team to successfully execute the company’s strategies.  

You can read more about an inflection point here.

If you believe your company is at an inflection point and want to validate that or discuss our services, feel free to give us a call at (310)-503-9775, drop us a line at eparodi@salesxceleration.com or request more information here.

About the Author:  Enrico Parodi is the President of SVP Sales, an Inflection Point Masters member. He is also member of the Sales Xceleration network. Enrico is best known for optimizing sales results and for his ability to set up and grow new revenue streams. He leverages his 30+ years of corporate experience to serve middle market companies and to help them move through an inflection point.