Develop a sales strategy that REALLY works in 8 steps

Running a business without developing a sales strategy is like setting off on a journey without a reservation and without a fixed destination: you won't get anywhere.

A sales strategy is essential for building an effective sales organisation, choosing the right sales techniques, building a high-performance sales team and equipping it with the right sales support tools.

But how do you build a coherent, effective sales strategy? Where do you start?

In this article co-authored with Victor Cabrera, founder and CEO of Technique de Vente Édition, find out how to define the most effective sales strategy in 7 steps. In addition to our advice, we have provided a PDF sales strategy template at the end of the article.

Ready to get your business off the ground? Let's get started!

What is a company's sales strategy?

Business strategy: definition

A sales strategy is defined as the course to be followed in order to achieve the company's sales objectives, together with all the resources to be deployed to get there.

It is based on various pillars, in particular :

• the company's vision (what is its ultimate goal?) ;
• the environment in which it operates (the market, the socio-economic context, consumer behaviour, etc.);
• the business plan.

What are the different business strategies?

💡 Every organisation aims to grow its sales. The broad outlines of the sales strategy therefore remain more or less the same. However, the means deployed may differ from one structure to another.

For example, the tactics adopted are often distinguished by the target audience. Key accounts? Mass market? Niche market? Sometimes it's also a question of the priority given to a particular stage in the sales cycle. Are you planning to focus more on prospecting? Or customer loyalty?

Having said that, let's take a closer look at each stage of the sales strategy.

A word from the expert

It is essential to define your company's commercial strategy.

As the saying goes, if you don't know where you're going, you're likely to end up somewhere else. Achieving commercial results never happens by chance. On the contrary, it is often the result of :

1. Clear objectives set by sales management,
2. Efficient sales management by sales managers,
3. Perfect execution of sales actions by the sales force.

So there's no point in trying to reinvent the wheel. Don't improvise, and be demanding when designing your sales strategy. This is the shortest route to predictable, stable and sustainable growth.

Victor Cabrera,

1. Setting objectives

Why is this step essential to maximising your growth results?

Because implementing a strategy without a goal is counter-productive:

• to define "how to get there" (business strategy),
• you already need to know "where you want to go" (objective).

It's the objective that will dictate what actions you take, not the other way round!

If you dream of growth, set yourself precise and measurable objectives. Your objectives must be SMART:

• simple or specific
• measurable
• attainable
• realistic,
• limited in time.

You can be ambitious, it's all a question of dosage and respect for SMART criteria.

They can be quantitative (sales, percentage growth, number of customers, etc.) or qualitative (customer satisfaction, customer typology, etc.).

💡 Here are a few examples of SMART objectives:

• achieve sales of €2 million within 3 years ;
• increase customer satisfaction by 50% by the end of the year;
• maintain double-digit growth over the next 10 months, etc.

💡Our advice: define a main objective and complementary sub-objectives to milestone it, and avoid accumulating too many objectives unnecessarily.

2. Analyse your market

Market research is a fundamental step: any sales strategy must be based on this analysis. It goes without saying (but it's always good to remember) that the companies that succeed are those that know their market best.

So do some research and find out about :

• your competitors: their profile, the details of their commercial offers, their market share ;
• the geographical area you are targeting: its specific features, the importance of your spatial proximity, depending on what you are offering;
• trends: the viability of the market (growth, stagnation, etc.) and your scope of intervention, in the medium and long term, based on this observation.

By gathering as much information as possible about your market, you can define it, sketch it out and see it as it is, so that you can then position yourself as effectively as possible.

A word from the expert

There are different tools, ways and strategies for analysing your market. You can start from the demand side, by carrying out market research, surveys of customers of similar products/services, unsatisfied needs and so on. Or you can start from the supply side and analyse the competition, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor, the characteristics of existing products and services in each market segment, etc.

It all depends on your internal resources and your objectives. But all roads lead to Rome when the work is well done, and we often manage to identify one or more strategic areas of activity to exploit commercially.

Victor Cabrera,

3. Identify your target and ideal customer

The actions of your marketing strategy must be adapted to your target. Because when you want to reach as many people as possible, the risk is that you won't reach any.

It's not easy to attract attention in a competitive environment, so you might as well do your best to address your most promising target directly:

• by talking to them about themselves,
• about their issues,
• using their vocabulary,
• on the communication channels where they are present,
  to maximise your chances of getting your message across.

But do you know beforehand who your ideal customer is? You know, the one who is generally more receptive to your messages, with whom the commercial relationship is fluid and for whom your product or service is great?

💡 O ur advice: try to identify the commonalities among your existing customers to draw up a typical profile known as a buyer persona. If you're just starting out and don't yet have a customer base to draw on, imagine the kind of customer you'd dream of having!

4. Define an appropriate sales offer

Build a sales offer based on :

• the segmentation of your targets or potential customers,
• the choice of your product or service corresponding to this segment of prospects;
• your pricing policy, to be determined on the basis of market rates;
• your areas of differentiation from the competition.

To develop a coherent commercial offer, your value proposition must both meet the needs of your target and enable you to stand out from your competitors. Continue to study your targets and their behaviour in relation to your product or service offering and their means of accessing it. Study existing demand and supply to identify your commercial prospects in this specific context.

💡 How can you stand out from the crowd?

• superior product or service quality
• a competitive price
• advanced expertise,
• an innovative product or service,
• a polished brand image,
• embodied values (environmental, social, etc.).

These differentiating assets will be the cornerstones of your sales pitch.

5. Draw up an action plan

Your objectives are clear: all that remains is to draw up an action plan. This is also known as a roadmap. This stage is the concrete translation of your strategy.

Examples:

• 📈 You decide how many sales you need to reach your turnover target.
• 🤑 You decide to increase your prices to change your positioning: you make fewer sales, but for a higher average basket.

Your action plan doesn't just depend on your objectives: the resources available also come into play. These two factors converge in the planning:

1. you know what action to take ;
2. on what date or over what period ;
3. to achieve your objectives.

Your sales strategy will take shape in the marketing mix. This is the basis of your marketing plan. Its analysis shows how and where to reach your target ( McCarthy's 4 P's matrix ) according to :

• the exact nature of your Product;
• the priceat which you sell it
• the placesor distribution networks you are targeting;
• the means of communication or promotionyou prefer.

Define your angles of attack and consider how your marketing mix should evolve to match your strategy. The variables at your disposal are :

• the characteristics of your offering: range, positioning, etc,
• pricing: freemium, premium, modular offer, etc,
• the means of promotion: inbound or outbound marketing, etc,
• distribution channels: direct or indirect, for example,
• sales processes: methodology, sales cycle by segment, sales typology, etc.

💡 O ur advice: drawing up an action plan is highly strategic. That's why we recommend that you get support in putting it together. Join the Kestio platform to access invaluable advice from certified experts and hundreds of instructive contents on the topic of sales (videos, workshops, webinars, etc.). Enough to give your sales performance a serious boost!

6. Take action by generating qualified leads

This stage consists of identifying leads interested in your solution, in order to qualify them as prospects. To do this, you need to go through three stages.

1. Analyse lead behaviour: on your website, during a face-to-face meeting or in response to an email campaign (open rate, click rate, etc.) to gather information about their profiles. For example, datadrive can help you turn anonymous visitors to your website into customers.
   
   
2. Segment leads: you'll be better able to communicate in a personalised way to arouse interest:
   1. send the right message
   2. to the right person
   3. at the right time,
   4. through the right channel.
      
      
3. Prioritise using lead scoring: by assigning a score to each prospect, you can :
   1. identify those most likely to become customers,
   2. contact them as a priority,
   3. concentrate your efforts where the chances of conversion are greatest.

💡 How can you maximise the success of your sales strategy? By correlating it with a well-crafted CRM strategy.

Don't panic! The two subjects are intimately linked and feed off each other. When defining your business strategy, include the best practices to leverage your CRM tool and try to exceed your sales!

Examples of CRM software 👉

• Axonaut, an ERP with a range of CRM features, enabling prospect scoring and strategic decision-making.
  
  
• Decidento, a B2B sales prospecting support tool that uses filters to automatically detect qualified leads for your business.
  
  
• EFFICY CRM, BtoB software that centralises all essential information and makes it accessible to the company's various departments (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.).
  
  
• monday.com CRM, ultra-easy to configure and use. It helps you centralise and manage all your sales opportunities to boost the productivity of your teams.
  
  
• Salesforce Sales Cloud, a complete solution for managing customer relations across all channels (mail, email, SMS, social networks, blogs, etc.).
  
  
• Yuto, a mobile CRM offering a fluid user experience, on smartphones and tablets, to optimise prospecting with features that are useful for people on the move (link with ERP, calls via the application, automated reporting, etc.).

A word from the expert

Today, potential customers are everywhere!

Qualification is truly the sinews of war in terms of sales performance. It all depends on your sector of activity and the type of customer you have, but generally speaking, the most successful approach is a multi-channel one. If you use emailing, for example, plan a telephone/SMS/ground follow-up campaign targeted at leads that have opened/clicked. Set up a specific advertising retargeting campaign based on the sales stages and page views on your blog/website, etc.

There's no shortage of strategies, but it's often the lack of relevance of commercial contact points that's lacking. So don't hesitate to get training or support to maximise your acquisition and conversions.

Victor Cabrera,

8. Measuring performance

Running a sales strategy without monitoring sales indicators ? Unthinkable!

These enable you to measure your sales strategy to see whether it is working. There's no point maintaining a strategy that won't help you achieve your objectives.

You can then rectify the situation by :

• stopping or changing what isn't working ;
• Allocating more resources to what works;
• learning lessons and finding new ways to improve efficiency.

Here are a few examples of the indicators you can use:

• number of registrations on a landing page
• number of incoming and/or outgoing calls,
• average shopping basket,
• customer retention rate, etc.

💡 O ur advice: record them in a dashboard to measure the achievement of your actions. You'll be able to see whether your objectives have been achieved or, conversely, you'll be alerted to any delays. We also recommend that you use your CRM to accurately measure your performance. With Sellsy, you can generate reports that are updated in real time, enabling you to monitor your sales performance (conversion rate and time, breakdown of opportunities by stage in the pipeline, etc.), as well as your sales forecasts. And for a more detailed analysis, get detailed reports, by sector of activity for example.

As you move forward with your sales action plan, don't hesitate to revise your strategy and refine your objectives so that they reflect the reality on the ground. It's better to have objectives that are up to date, but achievable: it's also a question of motivating your sales team!

Download a sample sales strategy PDF

Each company will have its own type of sales strategy, depending on the priorities it sets itself.

For example: are you looking to position yourself on your business expertise? An aggressive pricing policy is certainly not your strategic priority. On the other hand, highlight the differentiating advantages that generate value for your customers (quality of service, advice, etc.).

To help you define your own approach, Appvizer offers you a step-by-step method for building the framework of your sales strategy:

How do you get your sales team to adopt your strategy?

Defining the most effective sales strategy after an in-depth strategic analysis is only the first step. Now you need to do everything you can to get your sales people to buy into it and apply the plan in their business. Here are the steps to take to achieve this goal:

• Communicate transparently: this phase consists of explaining the communication policy and strategy clearly and simply. Emphasise the concrete business objectives and practical benefits for the team.

• Offer specific company training on sales methods and techniques: provide resources and practical tools to meet the need for sales people to master the implementation of the marketing and sales plan. 🤓

• leave room for salespeople to get involved: give them a real place and impact to develop a sales strategy that they will more easily buy into. If their ideas are listened to, they'll be more motivated!

• set up monitoring and feedback: regular monitoring with a dashboard will enable you to improve your prospecting strategy as you go along, and to optimise it according to the precise feedback you receive from your sales people in the field.

• Don't neglect recognition and rewards: to encourage your teams to apply the strategy, why not assess and reward the efforts of your sales staff in line with the targets set in the timetable?

The development of a strategic plan, however ambitious, has no chance of success if it is not applied directly in the field.

How do you align sales and marketing strategy?

Implementing an effective sales strategy without a marketing strategy is like going blindly forward. For sales development to be successful, you need to synchronise the two! And here's how:

• Define a shared vision between departments: the marketing and sales departments need to work together with the same objectives and an aligned strategic plan.

• Harmonise messages aimed at partners and new customers: marketing campaigns for the various distribution channels need to reflect the brand image and added value conveyed by sales. This is essential, especially when launching a new product.

• Use the right tools: as we mentioned earlier, with a shared CRM, all the data is accessible on demand and customer relations are facilitated.

• Develop qualified leads: the objective of the sales strategy is to achieve a higher conversion rate! But it's marketing that attracts leads. Check that the contacts entered into the programmes are relevant to sales prospecting. ☝️

• Measure and adjust: studying and analysing marketing and sales performance indicators enables you to assess the potential of your actions. To do this, use a precise dashboard and an ongoing competitive analysis. Thanks to these reports, you can adapt actions if necessary and achieve better results.

An effective relationship between the marketing strategy and the sales strategy guarantees an increase in the number of customers and greater customer loyalty over time. Two complementary forces that will help you increase acquisitions and boost your business in the long term.

FAQs on sales strategy

What are the key elements of a successful sales strategy?

A good sales strategy is based on :

• SMART sales objectives: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

• in-depth market research to identify opportunities, analyse competitors and monitor a suitable market segment.

• A strategic diagnosis to analyse the company's weaknesses and strengths in its target market.

• Implementation of a marketing plan and promotional campaigns tailored to the customer base.

• a dashboard to monitor sales, analyse conversion rates, evaluate the cost of actions and adjust sales performance.

How do you define a value proposition in a sales strategy?

The added value of your product or service must answer three key questions:

• what problem can you solve for your target market?

• What differentiation can you offer to strengthen your competitive advantage?

• Why should your customers choose your offer, your product or your service rather than that of a competitor?

With the right communication strategy around this value (on social networks and every relevant channel), you'll capture attention and establish a strong competitive position. 💥

What's the difference between sales strategy and marketing strategy?

Sales strategy relies on marketing strategy to maximise sales development:

• the aim of marketing is to attract prospects through targeted campaigns. It optimises prospecting.

• The sales that follow build customer loyalty and generate more turnover.

By aligning these two dimensions and adapting your business model, you have a better chance of achieving your objectives and increasing your company's market share.

What should we remember about commercial strategy?

Adopting a consumer-centric approach is essential, but in practice it is impossible to manage without suitable CRM software. More than just a sales tool, it helps you deliver the best possible customer experience and, ultimately, build customer loyalty.

Your ultimate aim should not just be to win customers, but to keep them over the long term: acquisition and loyalty must be worked on together!