What is best practice for sales?

If there was a simple answer to the above question, then every business would be doing it. The fact is, of course, that ‘sales’, and all that it encompasses, is a shape-shifting, ever-evolving colossus that makes and breaks businesses.

For some businesses their sales pipelines have stalled, while for others they have unprecedented demand so they are not currently focused on selling more.
But there are ways that you can help yourself as a business owner or team leader in this sphere – such as understanding why people buy, how to structure a high-performing sales team, and how to develop your sales processes to get the most beneficial outcome.

Jamie Brock is The Icehouse’s Regional Lead for the Bay of Plenty, programme director for the Business Owner Programme in the same region, and he also facilitates and presents The Icehouse’s Building Sales Structure & Skills workshop.

Jamie possesses more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience – working with large scale sales teams in a variety of industries. ‘There are some fundamentals which make some salespeople and teams ‘better’ than others; businesses that understand their customers – and their challenges – and don’t overcomplicate the sales process, to name but three,’ says Jamie.

Building sales structures

Jamie firmly believes that the best salespeople have a laser-focus on knowing who their ideal customers are and they're proactive in nurturing them. They follow up, do what they say they will, and ask difficult questions.

One of the biggest inhibiters to growth is the sales team which is stagnant and slavishly following outdated techniques. ‘If you’re not being proactive with your customers and sales opportunities, then you’ll be left behind,’ adds Jamie.

A business may have developed a terrific set of products or services but ultimately success hinges on awareness of your offering and persuading customers to make a purchase, on understanding consumer behaviours and why people buy, how to engage and communicate with different personality types, learning to differentiate yourself, your company and your offer in the marketplace in relation to your competitors, managing pipelines, and personalising sales pitches to make an effective impact that builds trust and confidence.

According to Salesforce, 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. Understanding how your customer behaves is the gold in your organisation and you can use that from the top to the bottom – the look of your brand and website, tone of voice, how you communicate to customers and so on.

Then you will fly, because if the consumer likes what you're selling and how you're selling it, they'll come back for more – and they'll tell more and more people about you.

Not all salespeople are the same

And what of your team itself? Who is responsible for sales in your business? Are they trained and equipped to succeed? Have you deeply thought about how to structure it to get the best out of them? What is its strength and weakness?

Not all salespeople are the same, and each will bring different skills to the team based on experience and even personality type.

Take the time to review your sales data. Do you know how many leads you get and what source they come from? Do you know how many quotes you write or what your conversion rate is? Average sales order? Length of sales cycle?

Learning where your business is under performing in sales will help you devise ways to improve your processes and ultimately grow.

Sales-led businesses have good systems, processes, marketing and people to support sales performance! To kick-start your sales momentum you must choose to do some things and not others. The best businesses are clear about who they are targeting, and they choose where to focus their efforts and resources.

‘Too many businesses are reactive – just taking orders, and so on, whereas the uncertainty we face now, and in the future, requires firms to be proactive around selling and finding the right customer,’ says Jamie.

‘The market is choosy about where they spend their dollars and business success is all about building your sales momentum. If you don’t have sales, you don’t have a business.’

Learn to pitch yourself, your business and structure a good sales conversation.

For more business ownership and leadership advice, check out more of our blogs.

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