A sales strategy is a plan of action that outlines the approach and tactics a business will use to achieve its sales goals and sell to prospective clients. It details the steps that a company will take to identify, engage, and convert leads. Quite simply, a successful strategy will help you to sell more of your businesses’ products or services. In this article, I’ll share 11 steps to creating your own killer sales strategy.

Know the market

It can be tempting to dive straight into your strategy without doing the groundwork, but researching your target market will pay dividends. Identify your audience and what sector(s) they sit in, then do your homework. Understand the needs, pain points and preferences of the market and what’s currently impacting them. You can then tailor your strategy to reference these challenges and opportunities, giving your audience valuable solutions. The following graphic has some handy hints on the types of data that you might find useful to collect:

Create an ICP

Creating an image of who you want to sell to can help you to focus on how best to reach them, such as in the example below known as an Ideal Customer Profile - or ICP - this is a fictional business or individual who represents your perfect customer or client. Not only can it help you to target your sales to the ICP, it can also help you to disregard those who aren’t a good fit, ensuring your efforts remain targeted and efficient. Buyer personas fall under the umbrella of the ICP, and our research shows that emails based on buyer personas can gain 18 times more revenue than regular emails.

Align your sales and marketing teams

If you leave it too late to engage your sales team, you can miss a vital stage in the customer buying journey. Setting up regular meetings between your sales and marketing teams is a good way to ensure all efforts are aligned, where you can discuss tactics and goals to ensure everyone is on the same page. This is also a good stage to consider prospecting, which is the process of developing new sales opportunities by finding and contacting potential clients. It’s based on one-to-one outbound marketing activities, such as an email, phone call, or LinkedIn message. Prospecting can build on your inbound marketing results, or it can function as a separate but complementary discipline, such as engaging a list of contacts that fit your buyer personas.

Perfect your pitch

A sales pitch is a vital part of the process, and perfecting it can be done at any time. Whether you pitch over the phone, email, social media or in person, there are some key principles that will help to strengthen your chances of success. Firstly, always start by addressing your prospect’s pain point and offering them a solution. Then, explain how you can add value and provide proof - such as testimonials - where possible. End with a call to action that encourages them to speak to your sales team. There is no such thing as a ‘perfect pitch’ that can be used in every scenario, but the following format is a good place to begin:

Set a rough agenda
Fact-find
Offer an explanation
Discussion around product/service fit
Talk through next steps
Closing
Final questions

Select a sales method

There are a variety of sales methods that generate proven results, so research and select the approach that will work best for your business. This could be account-based selling, which focuses on targeting specific businesses rather than casting a wide net. Alternatively, social selling - where you engage your prospects on social media - can help to build brand awareness so that your product or service is front of mind when they come to make a purchase. From strategic selling to solution selling, a variety of other methods exist, so take some time to research these proven approaches and adopt the best one for your business.

Set your sales process

A sales process is a structured set of repeatable actions that your whole sales team should follow. It details each step of the buyer’s journey and ensures every salesperson knows what’s needed from them at that step. It is not the same as a sales strategy. An efficient approach to achieving sales goals is established by an effective sales strategy, which considers competition, opportunities, and obstacles and provides actionable tasks for all members of the sales function. The sales process comprises a series of activities that salespeople must adhere to to achieve the specified objective. The following graphic outlines the steps to successful sales forecasting:

Look at lead scoring

Lead scoring is the process of ranking and prioritising prospects based on their level of engagement and likelihood to convert. This is a great way to keep your focus in the right place, making your campaigns more efficient and ensuring you aren’t wasting your time on leads that will never convert into a sale. In order to lead score, you will need to assign a numerical value to actions and attributes of your prospects, so there is an element of manual work involved upfront, but it can pay dividends in the long run.

Nurture your leads

When you have completed the previous step, you can start to nurture your leads. This focuses on building relationships with potential customers or leads to move them through the sales funnel and convert them into paying customers. Lead nurturing might involve actions such as hosting webinars, which provides valuable information to your prospects that addresses their needs. Or you could consider forms of content and email marketing, speaking to the various stages of the buying journey so that they come to you when they are at the right point to make a purchase.

Customer retention

A complete sales strategy should include steps on how to keep your customers once you win them. One of the best ways to do this is by providing excellent customer service. This is important because it helps build customer loyalty, creates a positive reputation for the business, and can lead to increased revenue through repeat business.

Encourage referrals

Research shows that buyers trust referrals from people they know. Getting your existing customers to refer their friends and contacts is a proven way to boost your sales. You can achieve this by building a good relationship with your prospects and continuing to do that after the sale. Send follow up emails to check whether they are enjoying the product or service and if there is anything more you can do for them. An open-line of communication is important to make that client feel valued. You could also consider launching a referral program that offers exclusive benefits or discounts to clients who refer you to someone else.

Evaluate and optimise

At this point, you will have all the tools for an effective sales process. Next, be sure to document it and share it across the business, creating a sales funnel that everyone in the team can see and understand. Then, audit your sales pipeline and make regular checks on the funnel. If something isn't working, change it. There is always room for improvement, and regular audits and feedback between sales and marketing teams is vital to creating a process that is as strong as possible.

By implementing these simple steps, you can increase your revenue, build brand loyalty, and ultimately achieve long-term success in the competitive world of sales.