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 Workbook 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 interactive tool 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

     

Sales Revenue Growth 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Maloney

Works with clients to improve sales force effectiveness and reduce customer acquisition cost and increase customer lifetime value.
BIO
ALL PEOPLE

Prior to joining SBI, Tom was the Vice President of Sales Operations for the Uniform Services Division at ARAMARK. He was also Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a recycling and waste collection organization and spent over 15 years in the petroleum industry with Atlantic Richfield and Texaco. He brings significant expertise in sales, marketing and operations leadership. Tom also has changed legacy sales organizations, turned around underperforming departments and consistently built high performance teams in both sales and marketing. He develops customer loyalty marketing campaigns that improve customer retention, reduce client turnover costs, and increase year-over-year sales. He has built multi-million dollar strategic partnerships and business building programs with most major US-based consumer products companies

Tom has earned multiple awards, some of which include: Univator Award for innovation, Super Star President’s Award, The Greatest Piece of Marketing Content Award.

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