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Sales Leaders,
Did you achieve this past month’s sales goal? Are you ahead or behind for the new fiscal year?
Too many sales leaders and their sales teams are only focused on achieving monthly targets – this will NOT help you exceed your sales goal for the year. As a sales pro, you know that when customers defer decision-making, it elongates the sales cycle. You have to be focused on the bigger picture and the entire year in order to reap the best results.
The secret ingredient? Proactively identifying your 7-day task to achieve your yearly goal.
Sales Planning is all about alignment: Aligning your territory goals and plan with your company’s goals and plan.
From there, it’s about aligning every customer meeting to ensure it is purposeful in achieving your yearly sales goals and company goals.
The reality is, most sales professionals don’t take the time to analyze and build their territory and sales plan each year. This is critical to your sales success, especially as your goals will continue to increase each year.
In order to get the most out of your sales planning, we have created this Sales Plan Template, as well as this quick list of best practices for creating an actionable territory/sales plan:
> Align your territory goals with your company goals and other KPIs.
> Plan Early – You should begin territory planning at least three to six months before your new fiscal year so that when the year begins, you have a workable plan to put into action. If you have not done this, you can still do so TODAY!
> Analyze your territory – Break it down into A, B, C and even D accounts. How can you turn your B accounts into A accounts and your A accounts into A+ top accounts? Can you delegate your C and D accounts to inside sales or customer service?
> Know your numbers – How many new clients did you secure last year to achieve your goals? What is your average account size? How many accounts are above your average account size? How many accounts are below your average account size?
> Plan to Prospect – How many prospects must you secure in order to hit your sales goal? Which companies in your territory will you approach? Create your target “suspect” list.
> How can you make every call more purposeful to align with your territory plan goals and company goals? Apply the PURPOSE consultative framework. Time is money.
> Managing your territory is like managing your own business. Maximize your products/services, smartly maximize the usage of your time, and you’ll see your territory grow like a profitable business.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
Sales Leaders,
Are you feeling stretched SO thin – more than ever before? We’ve noticed that during the past several months, everyone, especially sales leaders, have been stretched SO thin. Leaders are working more hours, connected to their mobile devices late into the evening and throughout the weekends, and even at family events. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone; being overstretched is a would-be pandemic that is affecting sales leaders everywhere.
The question is:
What kind of impact do you have and how STRONG is that IMPACT?
Being overstretched is a would-be pandemic that is affecting sales leaders everywhere.
If you are working more hours than ever, what is the IMPACT you are having on your:
- Sales team – Are you leading & coaching them to be strategic, proactive, and brave with their customers?
- Your customers – Are you helping them to better understand their business issues and providing recommendations that improve their business performance?
- Your leadership team – How are you influencing them to align with your team’s sales and customer goals?
- Your own boss – Are you coaching up to influence change in your organization?
- Your family – How are you creating a positive impact with your kids and spouse?
Take a moment to consider the above list. What is one area in which you could make a bigger impact? Make time in your hectic day to pause and answer this question. It can seem counterintuitive, but pausing to self reflect can actually allow you to be more productive, and therefore, more impactful, overall.
Our Teneo team has been reflecting, strategizing and even disputing how we can help sales leaders have a significant impact, yet do this simply.
Are you ready to harness the power of your influence, and make real impact in all sectors of your life? Do you crave the knowledge of best practices and the awareness and insight of other sales leaders? The desire for these things motivated Teneo to found the EVOLVE Sales Leaders event – an event designed specifically for driven sales professionals, to allow them to create a strong community together.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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Your objective is to change your typical product or price conversation to a PURPOSE business conversation.
You’ll be amazed at how much more you will learn about your client’s business and the incremental sales opportunities it will generate. It will enable you to be strategic, proactive and brave – exactly what your client or new prospect is looking for.
When we asked buyers & customers, we discovered that they felt that less than 10% of sales professionals were following a sales process or consultative framework during their meetings. How do we change this perception? The answer lies within the PURPOSE Conversation.
Consistently applying the PURPOSE consultative framework in your customer conversations will truly distinguish you as a Top Sales Performer in the marketplace.
The PURPOSE Conversation is a simple framework. It allows you to better focus on your client’s situation and business, thereby uncovering bigger & better opportunities. When you follow these steps in the PURPOSE sequence, you’ll be amazed at how much better your customer conversation will proceed.
Let’s introduce you to PURPOSE:
Too often, we are preparing for a customer meeting in the client’s parking lot! To have a more effective and productive meeting, prepare at least 1-2 days in advance. Even just 10 minutes of preparation will create a better outcome for you- and leave you with a more satisfied customer!
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
We don’t want sales goals to become new year’s resolutions that fizzle within a few weeks of the new year.
To achieve your goals this year, you need to be 100% committed to saying yes, and 110% committed to saying no to the DISTRACTIONS.
What will you say NO to? Here are the Top 7 Distractions to say no to…
1. High Maintenance Customers who take up a lot of your time but give you very little in sales.
To achieve your goals, be proactive and focus your time on your ideal profitable customers.
Download the Ideal Client Analysis to determine your Ideal Profitable Customers.
2. Not having a weekly plan that will help you achieve your 3-year and 1-year goals.
It’s Friday. How many meetings do you have scheduled for the next week and the next two weeks?
Download the Weekly Time Blocking Chart to map out your Ideal Week.
3. Traveling for one client meeting
To maximize your travel time, what can you do to schedule at least 1-2 meetings in the area? I live over an hour outside of the Toronto area and I do my best to schedule multiple meetings when I travel to a city. Clients and prospects are willing to see you when you are traveling from out of town, and are in their area.
4. Giving your best price quote?
Stop – don’t just send a quick quote or price. Schedule a conversation to better understand your clients’ needs and even more so their goals, outcome and business.
This way, you will be able to provide clients with a purposeful conversation and a 3-Option Solutions Proposal. This will turn the conversation away from price and allow you to focus more on their business.
Download the Option Proposal Template to help develop a stronger proposal solution.
5. Monthly Sales Targets
6. Negative Self-Talk
Your internal dialogue and self-talk will affect your planning. It’s easy to think, ‘This customer won’t be buying from me,’ or, ‘My price is too high,’ or, ‘They won’t like my solutions better than my competitors’ solutions.’ Say no to negative self-talk in order to improve your business outcomes.
7. Excuses
There is no shortage of excuses you can make as to why you can’t achieve your goals. The economy, the customer not returning your calls/emails, a competitor having a better price. Identify the obstacles, then create strategies to overcome these obstacles in order to stay on course and achieve this year’s goals.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
Blog
#1 Reason why salespeople don’t achieve their goals: Their Boss!
According to Forbes Inc., the number of salespeople achieving their sales goals is only 57%. How many of your sellers achieved their goals this past year? Is your team above or below the 57% norm?
Here is what you, as their boss, can do:
Stop being their boss and become their coach!
When a sales professional is provided a goal or given an increased percentage to achieve their next year’s goal it doesn’t work. Why? Because it is the boss’ goal and not their goal – they don’t own it and therefore it’s not meaningful to them.
Ask each of your sales team members individually, what goal they want to achieve. Reality check, it will typically be higher than the goal you set for them!
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Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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