Top-producing heads of sales master the playing field to reach their number.
Your sales strategy sets direction with an operational plan to achieve revenue growth objectives. It also determines which sales programs you will invest in to accelerate sales efforts, and which programs you will forgo. To assess whether your sales strategy is a problem, leverage the How to Make Your Number in 2018 
to answer the questions on page 342.
If you are not exceeding your revenue growth goals every year, there’s a good chance your sales strategy needs some retooling. The following questions help determine whether you’re setting your team up to make, or miss, its number next year:
- Competitive standing: Are your competitors or your industry growing faster than you?
- Prospecting: Are you lacking enough opportunities in the pipeline?
- Sales process: Are your deal sizes stagnant, and sales cycles lengthy?
If you are contending with any or all of the preceding issues, begin by framing the situation correctly. Challenge your current assumptions. And compare yourself to sales leaders who achieve aggressive revenue growth goals without fail. What are they doing differently? Contemplate breaking your large sales strategy problem down into smaller, easier-to-solve chunks. Last but not least, get an outsider’s opinion. You may be too close to the situation to be objective.
Have expectations gone up and left you wondering if you can make your number? Here is an 
that will help you understand if you have a chance at success. Take the Revenue Growth Diagnostic test and rate yourself against SBI’s sales and marketing strategy to find out if:
- Your revenue goal is realistic
- You will earn your bonus
- You are setting yourself up for success in 2018
