Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Hit Their Sales Goals?

Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Hit Their Sales Goals?

Sales goals are essential in business, but evaluation and adjustment are equally as important. The end of Q1 is a great time to adjust if the sales numbers are not on track.

Many sales plans heavily weight closed deals in Q1 because these sales will generate revenue for the remaining nine months of the year while closes in the other quarters have less impact on year end totals.

But how do you make the adjustments that will get your team back on track?

Here are four steps to take:

1. Reevaluate Your Sales Process

Is your sales process a documented and defined process that identifies the steps a lead progresses through to become a client? It should look something like this (most products have a unique sales process determined by the market, customer and service or product being sold):

Once the sales process is defined and documented, it can be measured. Establish ratios like these:

• How many leads are needed to get a demo?
• How many demos are needed to get an opportunity?
• How many opportunities are needed to get a new client?

2. Manage Activity

Once the key ratios are established, determine the amount of activity needed to hit the annual goal. By managing activity, the results are driven rather waiting for the results and hoping the sales team is doing the right activities to generate them.

3. Coach for Better Execution

More importantly, look for ways in which ratios can be improved through additional training or improved execution. If the team has multiple sales reps, identify who is best at each stage of the sales process and have them share what they do. By continuously improving the execution of the sales process, sales growth will occur by both getting more leads and having a higher close rate.

4. Use Technology

A customized CRM can help you develop good sales ratios, key metrics and KPIs. These will focus the sales team on the right activities to generate the sales results you need to hit your goals.

Want to learn more about sales consulting and sales strategy? Read about various sales topics in our sales consulting blog.

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