10 Steps to Revamp Your Sales Growth Plan, and Hit Your Sales Goals

 

In our last post, we shared that it is time to Update Your Sales Growth Plan: Stop Beating a Dead Horse! …we discussed how 91% of sales teams will miss their quota. We shared the research-identified common reasons a sales plan is not working.  In this post, we will review the key symptoms to watch for that indicate it’s time to revamp your sales growth plan, and we will outline the steps to take.

Below are the five symptoms to watch for that indicate you need to update your sales growth plan.

1. Declining Sales and Profits 

2. High Employee Turnover 

3. Low Morale and Engagement 

4. Customer Complaints and Churn 

5. Stagnant Market Share 

 

If you identify these symptoms in your organization, it’s time to take action.

Here are 10 strategic steps we recommend to update your sales growth plan for future success:

Conduct Voice of Customer Research

Gather Feedback: Conduct Interviews with your customers to understand their satisfaction levels, identify any unresolved issues or new challenges they face, and assess how their buying process has changed.

Analyze Data: Look for trends and actionable insights in customer feedback to identify areas where your product or service may be lacking or where your sales team needs new skills or tools.

Implement Changes: Utilize customer insights to refine your offerings, pricing, or sales strategy.

 

Reassess Your Target Market

Market Segmentation: Review your target audience and ensure you are addressing the right segments.

Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors to identify gaps in your offering and areas for differentiation.

Trends: What current and emerging trends should we watch and be aware of?

 

Update Your Sales Training Programs

Skills Development: Invest in ongoing training that focuses on modern sales techniques and customer engagement. B2B sales teams must, for example, have the sales skills to have a consultative approach that connects the dots between what they sell and the customer’s desired outcome. To accomplish this, they need to understand business acumen and how to build a business case. Often, we must update our value proposition and train salespeople how to share it with each decision-maker persona we call on. 

Role-Playing Scenarios: Implement practical training sessions that simulate real-world selling situations. We develop realistic customer scenarios and have the sales team practice their skills in simulations that mirror the experiences they will encounter with customers and prospects.

Update sales training design: Focus on the learning curve and not the forgetting curve. Utilize sales training design and best practices to enhance retention and application rates. Feel free to download my white paper on Sales Training Reimagined: 17 Ways to Keep Your Salespeople Motivated and Engaged if you plan to improve your sales training.

 

Set Clear, Achievable Goals For Your New Sales Growth Plan

SMART Goals: Ensure your sales targets are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Help your salespeople develop their territory growth plans and create performance agreements they author.

Regular Check-Ins: Establish a routine for reviewing progress towards these goals and make adjustments as necessary. We often train sales managers in coaching skills to ensure these sessions deliver the desired results.

 

Leverage Technology and Data Analytics

CRM Systems: Utilize Customer Relationship Management tools to track sales activities and customer interactions. Make sure your team understands how to use the CRM and what you expect them to enter.

Data-Driven Decisions: Use analytics to identify trends, forecast sales, and optimize your sales strategy.

 

Foster a Positive Sales Culture

Recognition and Rewards: Implement a system to recognize and reward high-performing salespeople. Far too often, we focus on what is not happening and fail to celebrate our successes. We train sales managers how to coach, celebrate wins, and motivate their teams.

Open Communication: Encourage your sales team to share feedback and ideas to foster a collaborative environment. We often help organizations create the psychological safety necessary to lead in their industry. We must openly discuss matters that matter and adjust our sales strategies when they fall short of the plan.

 

Reevaluate Compensation Structures

Incentive Programs: Review and adjust commission structures to align with desired behaviors and outcomes.

Performance-Based Bonuses: Consider implementing bonuses for achieving sales milestones to motivate your team.

Reward Behaviors and Results you need: Determine how your team is motivated and strategically design your compensation program.

Understand Your Current State of Sales Effectiveness

Assess sales skills: Conduct sales effectiveness and improvement analyses to identify team strengths and skills gaps that hinder your team’s ability to achieve your sales plan. A report by Brandon Hall Group found that 68% of organizations claim they are ineffective in training their sales teams

Prescribe Training: Close sales skills gaps with sales training

Coaching: Train your Sales leaders how to coach

Value Proposition: Update the value proposition for your company and for each decision-maker persona your team speaks with. Often, sales teams have outdated value propositions that limit their success.

Update, Write a Sales Growth Plan

Current customers: Identify sales growth by current customers

New Customers: find the goal required to achieve the sales growth plan with new customers

Develop Ideal Customer profiles: Create your targeted new account list. Our goal is not 10,000 potential new customers (suspects), but 200 that match our ideal customer profile (ICP), and use precision prospecting to secure meetings that turn into revenue.

Win Back Inactive Customers: Identify inactive and lost past customers and develop strategies to win them back

Develop a Sales Growth Plan, Performance Goals, and KPIs

Current customers: Have your salespeople identify sales growth by the current customers they serve

New Customers: Have salespeople find the goal required to achieve the sales plan with new customers and share the behaviors they must hit to achieve the plan

Develop Ideal Customer profiles: Create your targeted new account list by salesperson

Win Back Inactive Customers: Identify inactive and lost past customers and develop strategies to win them back by a salesperson

Have leading and lagging indicators: track results and the sales motions that lead to results

Final Thoughts to Write a Sales Growth Plan

If your sales plan feels like you’re beating a dead horse, it’s critical to take a step back and reassess your strategy. By recognizing the symptoms of a failing sales growth plan and implementing these actionable steps, you can set your organization on a path to explosive growth. Remember, the key to success lies in listening to your customers, adapting to market changes, and fostering a motivated sales team.

Take Action Today!

Don’t let your sales plan stagnate. Initiate a conversation within your organization and take proactive steps to revitalize your sales strategy. Your future success depends on it!

Download this free Sales Effectiveness Self-Assessment to help you determine where you need to focus first to update your sales growth plan.

Let’s schedule a call to revamp your sales plan and ensure you meet this year’s sales goals, setting you up for a healthy sales pipeline next year.

Photo by Eduard Labár on Unsplash