Creating Effective Sales Management Strategies

By Author: Vijay K Shetty
Total Articles: 2542
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Setting general goals

An organization’s success has a lot to do with how the business cycle is closed and sales plays an important part in doing just that. Thanks to its importance in making sure the business goes from strength to strength, one must ensure to have a strategy in place to drive sales and build on it.
The goal will generally include increasing the sales, customer following and eventually reaching an improved ROI in both time and resources. The bottom line of any strategic goal is to be on par with the bottom line.

Creating a time line

Once the goal has been set, it is time to start plotting the strategy by creating a time line. A time line is important to see how feasible is the sales and marketing plan within the expected period demanded by the company. For example, a certain new product will be released in a couple of months and the previous version of that product needs to be sold so that the cost of making the old version will be covered. Making a time line will guide the team as to what they will do within the period of two months, and compare it side by side with competitors.

Setting ...
... up short and long term goals

Within your time line, you are aiming to create goals that are both long term and short term. With the example from above, you are looking at a short term goal strategy. Creating some buzz about the product is necessary and therefore, should be included in your goals. Is the company willing to offer discounts? When should the stores start putting discount tags? It is also necessary to have a particular goal that is set per week or per month. What are the projections for the end of the strategy? If you are aiming to sell 50% of the inventory, you will check previous accounts and see the buying attitudes and how the strategy will help boost the numbers.

Setting up activities

When making sales management strategies, you are not just building plans and ideas. You are creating actual methods that will result to actual gains. Activities will vary depending on what the strategy demands. Activities include preparation, execution and wrap up.

- When preparing, you analyze the current market, check competition and pinpoint areas of improvement. It will help in framing the activities that will be executed.
- When executing the plan, it will normally consist of starting up sales calls. It is necessary that the customer also benefits from the plan while ensuring that the goals are met. Building a relationhip is crucial for a successful business.
- Evaluating the strong and weak points of the strategy is the last leg of the entire process. Before coming up with a new strategy, it is crucial that you identify faults and areas of improvement. This will help in establishing a solid sales plan in the future.

Vijay K Shetty, Platinum Level Author.
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