With today’s low unemployment and steadily strong economy, now is the time to shift your focus to growing in sales. Is your sales team maximizing all of their opportunities to clinch the deal? Work smarter (not harder) to reach your sales goals by evaluating and improving your organization’s sales effectiveness.

Sales effectiveness refers to a company’s ability to generate sales. The greater your sales effectiveness is, the more your organization is driving sales performance by winning the right kind of customers that help you further your financial and operational goals. Unfortunately, ACCORDING TO A 2016 STUDY, 43% of salespeople on average do not meet their sales goals each year. Moreover, just 30% of businesses reported sales team where 75% or more of their salespeople were meeting goals.

If you find that your team is routinely not meeting their sales goals, there are a few things to consider:

1. Do you have a clear plan for sales?

Does your sales plan detail your target customer, revenue targets, strategies and tactics, pricing and promotions, actions and timelines? A detailed sales plan should not only set annual and quarterly sales goals for your organization/each member of your sales team, but should also indicate who your potential customer is and how to build relationships with your potential customers in order to gain their business.

We’ve all heard the old sales adage: “People buy from people they like.” When you have a strong relationship with a customer, you tend to have more influence over them. That means the customer respects your experience and advice, and they are more likely to value your contribution to the decision process – there is a greater chance of such customer becoming a “long-term” customer.

2. Do you have a clear sales process?

Is everyone on your sales team following the exact same sales process? A structured sales process is the key to increasing your chance of winning the sale. At its core, a sales process is a proven and documented approach to sales undertaken by your sales representatives. If everyone is following the sales process and a majority of your team is still unable to complete the sale, it may be time to tweak your process to better serve your customers.

Have each of your sales team record at what point in the sales process do they lose customers. Maybe you need to adjust your initial sales pitch or provide a greater amount of information to your customer to further establish their trust. Maybe you need to ask each potential customer better questions to further understand how your product or service can provide value to them. Identify changes you can make to your sales process, and test and measure each change to see if you yield better results.

3. Are you being assertive enough?

Assertive (not aggressive) salespeople win more business than others. Assertiveness is the act of acknowledging your customer’s needs and conveying with confidence the benefits of your product or service. Assertive salespeople are willing to go the extra mile – such as cold calling suspects on the phone, attending activities that lead to getting contacts (such as networking events, speaking engagements, sponsored seminars, etc.), and leading presentations and pitch meetings that help potential customers make decisions.

Is your team assertive enough? Are they getting in front of enough people to statistically meet their sales goals each month? Do they have the go-getter sense of urgency needed to continually find the right prospects? These are questions you should ask yourself when evaluating the efficiency of your sales team.

If your sales team has missed their mark in quarter 1 and 2, there is still time to turn things around. This month, I am offering one complimentary Sales IQ assessment to help you understand areas to improve in your sales development. CONTACT ME TODAY to talk about your sales goals and how to further improve the effectiveness of your sales team.