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Article by Ian Segail
Continuing with the Three Strategies Sales Leaders Must Employ to Get Sales Firing Again in this article we look at sale strategy number 2.
Strategy # 2
Look for sales closest to the “bulls-eye!”
Imagine standing front on and facing the circles of a target. Imagine the “bulls-eye!” in the middle is where the money is. The circle just out side the bulls-eye represents your existing customers, let call them A’s. They are the ones closest to the money. The next circle represents those customers that have bought from you occasionally, let call them B’s. The circle just beyond the B’s are your C’s and they represent those prospective companies you have targeted but have yet to buy from you. Then outside of your C’s we have the D’s. These are prospects we have yet to consider.
Once again, as simple as this practice may seem, it is often neglected. When we need more sales, where do we go looking? Out there in D, E, F, and G land. Start looking for business closest to where the money is. Your sales opportunity is to expand your influence within your A and B customer’s organizations and earn a higher percentage of their business. According to the 2008 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Report only 33.6% of C.S.O’s interviewed were able to farm additional revenues from their existing customer base, and that was last year during a comparatively good market!
Your role as sales manager is to help your salespeople identify where you have previously left money on the table. What are the opportunities with your A, B and C companies? Go work there! Let your Marketing department figure out how to bring the D, E, F, and G prospects in to where the C’s, B’s and A’s reside. If your salespeople can’t answer the questions in Strategy 1 with your A’s B’s and C customers, you have work to do. Have your people renew old relationships. Have them beat the bushes for new opportunities you have yet to capture with your A’s, B’s and C customers. They live closest to where the money lives. Go get em’!
Look out for strategy n#3 coming soon.
About the Author
Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying sales, selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question “How come some people can sell and most can’t?”
Download his latest white paper on “Why sales training doesn’t work” from http://www.salestutor.com.au/Content_Common/pg-tools-and-resources.seo
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