performance improvement

Last month we addressed marketing, one of the Five Business Dangers. Now that you have a solid marketing plan and effort underway, we will turn our attention to Sales.

As a business owner/leader, are you frustrated that you’re not hitting your sales goals and know something needs to change? Business leaders and owners often know that change is needed on the sales front, but they often are not sure exactly where to start, or how to drive positive change to improve sales results.

Let’s face it, Sales and a Company’s Sales Function form some of the most important success elements through the life cycles of any business that begins as a start-up, advances through early-stage growth, second stage growth, on to maturity, sustainability, and beyond.

If you are like many of the businesses we have worked with, you may have experienced the following:

  • frustration with not reaching your sales targets
  • sales cycles that are longer than expected
  • a pipeline that is too weak to make up the difference on too-slow-to-close opportunities
  • unsure if you have a good or the right sales process in place
  • as a business owner/leader, overwhelmed with both running the business and managing the sales function and/or sales team
  • struggling to find the right sales manager
  • as a sales manager, overwhelmed by too many responsibilities
  • as a sales manager, pressure to find an efficient process to lead and coach a sales team
  • as a sales manager, feeling conflicted about having to grow and lead your sales team while also trying to achieve your own sales targets

This is not an exhaustive list. Which items above might be true for you?

What other factors are you experiencing that lead you to be less than satisfied with your sales efforts and performance?

Based on our experience, we have found that the importance of a solid foundation can’t be understated. If the foundation of your home had a large crack, you would be rightfully worried and call a professional to get it taken care of as soon as possible. Why look at business any differently?

We believe in a four-pronged approach to creating a Sales-Focused Organization:

  • Sales fundamentals such as an effective sales process, your power statements with strong messaging, and powerful conversations that combine these fundamentals, to build upon and drive success for you and your team.
  • Effective sales management, meaning the sales leader/manager should squarely be focused on the development of strong performing sales team members and working closely with them to refine skills and abilities that result in enhanced performance and therefore better results.
  • A high-performance sales team where salespeople are highly focused on their goals that align strategically with the organization, and where the sales manager is effective in leading, coaching, and growing sales team members and their performance, celebrating wins and goal achievement on a regular basis.
  • A sales-focused organization with a well-established culture that is resilient, focused on new and repeat business, and successful in achieving its revenue and profit goals.

Building or enhancing your revenue performance will depend on how well you develop your sales foundations. These will be critical to your sales success. For the specifics of your business, its sales efforts, and their success we’ll need to rely on your candid assessment. So, don’t wait, take stock today and figure out where success or the lack of it is coming from.

In future months we will examine, separately and in depth, Sales Foundations, and each of the other Five Business Dangers. We will also provide a free assessment tool that will highlight specific gaps within the Five Business Dangers.

Your Gateway to Performance Improvement and Business Success

If you’re feeling some pressure to address the success of your business, don’t wait – it doesn’t take more than a brief phone call…

David is an accomplished and experienced business professional who brings over 40 years of insight to the table. As a business coach, he specializes in helping business owners prioritize their needs. He can help you examine the health of your business and find critical areas which once addressed will result in performance improvement for your business.

It all starts with a single, free conversation. Call 734-726-5208 today for a free coaching session or contact David. Your success is waiting!