Make Your Sales Strategy Stronger Than Ever (Step-by-Step)

Sales strategies are always evolving and changing. What worked a few months ago might not work today. As a sales manager or a business owner, you need to be able to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace and keep your team’s sales strategy strong. It might seem challenging, but it’s not really that difficult.

What to know that determines a good sales pipeline and effective sales strategy? Let’s get started.

What is a sales strategy?

A sales strategy is actions that help to maximize sales and find and win new customers. To build the best sales strategy possible, you need to analyze your business context carefully.

But no worries, we’ve got sales tactics that work regardless of what you’re dealing with.

Inbound sales strategy vs. Outbound sales strategy - what’s the difference?

The main difference between inbound and outbound sales strategies is that in inbound sales, the potential customer contacts the company (for example, with the sales department), usually through the website. In outbound sales, the sales team members reach out to prospective customers using marketing services.

Moreover, inbound sales are usually more cost-effective than outbound sales because the company doesn’t have to pay for advertising or lead generation. Inbound sales tend to be more profitable simply because the potential customer is already interested in what the company offers. It’s an excellent opportunity for businesses. However, it is still worth working on both strategies equally.

How to build an effective sales strategy step by step?

Developing a successful sales strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Learn how to build one painlessly, step by step.

01 Identify your goals

Setting goals is the core of your business, whatever you do, and whatever industry you’re involved in. It’s also essential when you build your sales strategy, and there are many reasons why. Firstly, tracking progress and determining whether a sales strategy is adequate is much easier. Secondly, goals keep a sales team motivated and focused on the task they’re working on.

To begin with, you and your sales team need to think about what you want to achieve. Then, be realistic about your goals, and make sure they’re SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Setting goals also involves deciding which markets to target, what product or service to sell, what pricing to use, and what promotional activities are the most effective for your business. You also should decide how these goals will be monitored, whether it’s through a manually updated or AI-powered dashboard or a more advanced goal-tracking tool.

02 Know your buyer persona

Why even bother to know your target audience? Knowing who your customers are, enables you to create an effective marketing strategy. So it includes marketing campaigns, social media content, and even your website and logo design.

There’s a difference between designing a fashion website for teenagers and a site where visitors can buy elegant watches. The buying persona differs in those examples, so let’s align sales and marketing efforts to their liking to close more deals.

If you want to get to know your buyer persona in more detail, ask the right questions. If you use the right qualifying questions, you can categorize your leads and customers more precisely and approach them in the appropriate way.

Your customer will be more likely to visit your website and buy from you when they see ads that resonate with them and aims their preferences, right?

03 Research the market very carefully

When developing a winning sales strategy, it is essential to research the market and competitors. Reach out to as many potential customers as possible and ask all the questions you might have. Check if they have worked with your competitors. Cold emailing can be a great channel for this, just don’t forget to verify the emails before sending, to make sure your message gets delivered. It helps with the following:

• identifying potential customers
• understanding their needs and wants
• determining what strategies your competitors are using

The last option may be highly beneficial for your sales and marketing strategy. By tracking your competitors’ efforts, you are able to catch any pain points they have and use them to your advantage. Providing something your competitors can’t is a smart move.

So take your time, and research the market to stay updated with industry news and information. With all those steps, it is much easier to develop a sales strategy for sales leaders to reach their target market and achieve their sales targets.

04 Create a sales strategy plan

The strategy that a business follows depends on many factors. For example, the products or services offered, the target market, the competition, and the resources available. And the key to effective performance is to plan your action. The next step must always be planned out, when and how, and the reason must always be clear.

05 Always seek improvements

Make seeking improvements a habit! The sales sector is a very dynamic one. There are many trends and innovations to keep up with, and it can be easy to fall behind. That’s why you should look for ways to improve all the time to be sure to stay ahead of the game.

A great way of doing that is by going through the customers’ reviews. Who would know better what to improve than the users? Also, collect feedback every time you interact with your existing customers. Does it sound challenging? No worries. Chat software comes to the rescue!

The secret ingredient to a successful sales strategy - a customer service tool

Smartsupp is a cloud-based customer service tool. With its powerful capabilities and features, increasing sales is a breeze! Learn how Smartsupp empowers sales strategies and offers advantages to your business.

Improved customer experience: Smarstupp chatbot and live chat provide quick and convenient support to new and existing customers, helping them to find the information they need and assisting them with their purchase decisions.

Customer insights: Sales teams can gather valuable sales data about customer preferences and needs that can be used to optimize the sales process and improve targeting.

Lead generation: Smartsupp captures qualified leads and gathers contact information from interested customers who contacted you via live chat or a chatbot. The sales team can then follow up on them later on.

More sales: Webchat can be used to assist users throughout their customer journey, from initial inquiry to final purchase.

After-sales support: How about providing ongoing support to customers after the sale? Sounds great, doesn’t it? It can be easily done with Smartsupp chat. It also contributes to the increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Boosted sales, enhanced customer relationships, sales automation, marketing team performance tracking, and increased customer acquisition - all can be achieved with Smartsupp. It is a great tool used in e-commerce as a key element of a good sales strategy.

Tips and tricks for a great sales strategy

Here are a few sales tactics for your business to make your sales strategy even stronger.

01 Keep tracking key sales metrics

Keeping an eye on sales metrics is a must to ensure everything goes as it should. Monitoring them frequently helps to catch trends and align sales as well. For example, when some products sell well before the winter season, maybe it’s worth offering a discount if bought together.

Not sure what metrics to follow? Let’s have a look at the list:

• total sales revenue
• conversion rates
• year-over-year growth
• cost per lead (CPL)
• customer retention
• return on investment (ROI)
• customer lifetime value
• annual revenue
• average sales cycle length

These are only the basic ones. The metrics you should track depend on your goals and the type of business you run.

02 Test new sales strategies

Don’t be afraid to test new strategies! If you see potential in some marketing activities, give it a go. Opening for new ideas and opportunities broadens your horizons and shows you what works and what doesn’t.

Even if something doesn’t work out the way you want it to, you will at least have gained some valuable experience. And who knows, you may even stumble upon the next big thing. So, test, test, test!

03 Evaluate your sales strategy regularly

There’re many reasons why sales leaders should evaluate a company’s sales strategy regularly. By regularly evaluating their current sales strategy, businesses can assess their effectiveness, catch any weak spots and fix them along the way.

Also, regular reviews help businesses keep up with changing market trends and customer needs. By doing so, adjusting sales efforts and meeting the target audience’s expectations gets easier and hence creating more leads.

To stay competitive in your industry, ensure that your sales strategy is up-to-date and aligned with the latest best practices.

So, look what’s behind you, both the successes and failures. Analyze them, and take a moment to see what can be done to make your sales strategy even more effective.

04 Leverage social media potential

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool for boosting sales and increasing brand awareness. Many people use social media daily - they take out their phones dozens of times a day to check the news, entertain themselves, or pass the time. And they use social media for this purpose.

Being active on social media allows you to reach out to new audiences and promote your products or services. For instance, consistent Instagram posting can help your brand stand out, and it can be automated with the help of an Instagram scheduler. Similarly, for this and other platforms, you can publish content by following a social media calendar. Building a customer connection there is a great thing - you can directly communicate with customers and prospects. But to use all of social media potential, you need to create a strategy and post appealing content. Use storytelling, trends, video, be where your customers are, and post what your customers are looking for.

05 Listen to your audience and react

Addressing customer needs is a crucial aspect of successful sales. It helps businesses build trust and establish a positive reputation with their customers. By listening to your customers and responding accordingly, they are more likely to make a purchase and continue shopping at your store.

Alternatively, if a business doesn’t meet the needs of customers, they might start looking around for a competitor who does. But, be careful, sales industry is enormous. And that is why you need to know your target audience’s preferences and be able to tailor your sales approach to them. So, to stay on top of listening to your audience, gather feedback from your customers and go through their reviews on a regular basis.

06 Take care of your sales team

Taking care of customers is incredibly important, but it also applies to employees’ feedback. Providing the sales team with the necessary knowledge (what about sales training?) and tools may encourage them to be more productive and efficient, resulting in increased sales. Additionally, investing in the development and well-being of the sales team increases motivation and retention, helping to build a stronger and more cohesive team. Of course, to do this, you must possess a set of leadership principlesand qualities such as communication, empathy and honesty.

It may be easier to handle sales and marketing tasks with live chat or chatbot software. Using this tool, communicating with customers is a breeze, and what’s the best part of it - you may have direct contact with them. It means that information about target customers’ pain points, preferences, struggles, likes, and dislikes is coming firsthand.

08 A personal touch is always welcome

Personalization is the process of tailoring products, services, or marketing messages to the specific needs, and characteristics of an individual customer. And it’s also w a great way of strengthening your sales strategies!

Businesses can improve customer relationships and increase sales by personalizing their sales process.

But how to add a personal touch?

There are many ways of doing it, for example, segment customers based on their characteristics and tailoring marketing messages specifically to them. Share a digital business card with them at the end of every meeting so that they can keep it handy for whenever they need to contact you. Customers will love personalized product recommendations and personalized customer service.

09 Automate mundane tasks to streamline the sales process

Automating tasks frees up sales reps and gives them more space for activities that really requires their expertise and attention. If your sales team doesn’t use any marketing automation tool, it’s time to get one and implement it in your marketing sales strategy. You can provide an automated shopping assistance solution with a few simple steps. And some good news here - no IT experience is needed. Not just marketing automation, you can automate several sales tasks with the right CRM tool.

Customer service tools help reach customers under the conditions you set, recommend customers great products, or answer frequently asked questions.

Enhance your sales strategy today

By following all the steps and tips, sales managers will improve their sales strategy and drive long-term success for a company, no matter the business model. And the cherry on top is Smartsupp - a great customer support tool for sales teams (and not only!) that makes it easier to achieve sales goals, streamlines buying process, betters your sales pitch, and helps you to reach your target customers.

Are you ready to make your sales strategy even stronger? Sign up for free and try it out!