How to Avoid the Dire Consequences of a Missed Sales Target

You’re about to report your numbers to the board. And you know you’ve missed your sales target.

You’ve either over committed and under delivered. Or under committed and over delivered. Either way, the consequences are dire – you’ll lose your customers.

Imagine this…

You weren’t able to close that final deal in time. Now you’ve missed your target by R1 000 000. The company was therefore, unable to procure enough stock to meet orders. One of your customers was left waiting longer for delivery than agreed. As a result, that customer cancelled further deals with you. 

Or this…

You brought a deal forward. And the business wasn’t able to make provision for the stock required to actually deliver on the deal. This ended up with a delay in delivery to the customer. As a result, the customer was unhappy and swore to never use your company again.

Now you’re thinking, “How did this happen?”

Where did things go wrong?

A survey done by Talk Business showed that 70% of Salespeople regularly miss targets.

That’s a scary number, and one that’s probably making you question the effectiveness of your Sales team. But have you really dug into the root of the problem? Let’s look at where things might be going wrong.

1. Lack of alignment with Marketing.

The first hurdle to making your target is getting leads. Right? Wrong! The first hurdle to making your target is getting the RIGHT leads. And those leads come from Marketing.

Does this sound familiar?

Sales:

 ‘I need local leads! But all these leads are from an internet cafe in Bangalore!’

Marketing:

‘But you never said that when you briefed us! You just said you needed 150 leads by Friday. And we delivered!’

2. Salespeople don’t speak the same language

Salespeople are optimistic by nature. Some will walk in after the first meeting with a new client bragging, “that deal is going to close. It’s going to close tomorrow. And it’s going to be huge!” But it never happens like that. Companies don’t spend millions of Rands at the drop of a hat. There are steps that must take place before a customer will spend money with you.

That’s why your sales process is vital to the success of your Sales team. If each sales opportunity is handled differently, the results are hit or miss. And if you’re not making your targets, we’re guessing it’s a miss.

3. Your Salespeople are misleading you

Salespeople are naturally intuitive. That’s what makes them good at their jobs. But it also means they can get away with a lot. It’s not hard for them to buck the system. To move deals in the pipeline, or shift them out. They’ll do whatever it takes to get out of a difficult conversation.

4. You don’t have actionable insights

Actionable insights are crucial to meeting your targets. For example, knowing how fast deals move through the sales pipeline allows you to accurately forecast when it’ll close.

According to CSO Insights, the average sales forecast accuracy is below 50%.

How to make sure this never happens to you again.

1. Align Marketing and Sales Teams

Getting your Sales and Marketing teams working as one unit will ensure you’re handed the RIGHT leads. Giving your Salespeople a better chance at conversion. In our company, we align our Marketing and Sales teams by adopting a specific methodology. We put this into a free eBook that you can download here.

2. Build a structured sales process

You want to ensure all your Salespeople are speaking the same language. So, you need a structured sales process.

Start by creating a step-by-step structure, with defined gates and stages. This will ensure your Salespeople know exactly where their deals are in the sales process. And because it’s so clear, it’s obvious what the next action is and how the deal will progress to the next stage.

Plus, now that everyone is speaking the same language (and entering data the same way) your reporting becomes accurate!

3. Refine your sales process

An important thing to remember is that the sales process isn’t static.

Keep evaluating and refining the process. This will guarantee you always have the most effective way to win new customers.

Many sales leaders fail because they don’t question. Asking simple questions like, “are we missing a stage?” or “do we have too many stages?” or “what else do we need at a certain stage?” gives you the insight needed to keep your sales process working for you.

These kinds of questions also allow you to refine your process. You never want to rush your sales process, but you want to condense it where possible.

For example, a CRM system allows you to send a quote right away. Reducing the time it takes to get the right information to your customer. Allowing them to decide sooner. Condensing the process, helping you reach your targets.

4. Encourage Salespeople to adopt the sales process

It’s your job as the sales leader to get buy-in and prove to your team that the sales process is going to serve them as well as the business.

Ensure your team are clear on each stage of the process and why it’s there. Show them (as simply as possible) how each stage affects their deal.

Try reinforcing the importance of the process. Tie rewards and recognition to implementing the sales process (rather than strictly to wins).

We also recommend employing a method of coaching. It’s easy for Salespeople to fall back into old habits. So, effective sales coaching is an important element of sales success. Evaluate each Salesperson’s needs and set coaching sessions accordingly. And remember to ensure they schedule customer meetings around their coaching sessions.

“You have to ensure that the learning is reinforced so Salespeople don’t forget what they learned.” – Mike Schultz (President of RAIN Group)

“You have to ensure that the learning is reinforced so Salespeople don’t forget what they learned.” – Mike Schultz (President of RAIN Group)

5. Embrace technology and Machine Learning

Technology is all about simplifying our lives. Take CRM systems for example. They’re designed to help you meet your targets. How? By giving you an easy way to track your pipeline, apply your process, and sell more! Yet many companies are still relying on spreadsheets to store important sales data.

Did you know? 82% of top-performing Salespeople said, sales software is “critical” to their ability to close deals.

Machine learning is the evolution of customer experience. Machines are now learning how people interact and communicate. Opening the door for Sales to take advantage of “engagement recommendations”. Enabling them to provide the most relevant information to the customer. Which will help them close deals.

How it works:

Machine learning uses data based on a customer’s preferences and social activity. With this data, Salespeople can get real insights into the best time and channel to call or visit a customer. And get suggestions on the most relevant content or offer to send to a customer.

The best part is, this isn’t some futuristic idea. Recently, Microsoft announced their plan to integrate LinkedIn data into Dynamics 365. According to Microsoft, the upgrade will help Salespeople become more efficient. Using data and insights from LinkedIn’s 500 million professionals.

Remember it’s all about the customer! So, the more you know about what your customer wants and needs, the easier it’ll be to sell to them.

Remember, sale targets influence forecasts. And each team in the business works off your forecast. That means that problems run downhill, and might affect customer experience.

And as the sales leader, YOU’RE the one who loses credibility!

So, look at the reasons why you’re missing your target. Where did things go wrong? The moment your sales process started? Is your process structured enough? Did you have the insights you needed?

Once you’ve unpacked the problem, use the steps discussed in this article to fix them:

• Start by aligning your Sales and Marketing teams.
• Build a structured process and keep refining it.
• Encourage and coach your people to adopt the process.
• And embrace technology and machine learning.

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

Recession Roadmap: Driving Sales in Tough Times

It doesn’t take an economist to see that we’re in a tough spot. The shops are empty. People – and businesses – are under huge pressure.

Will things get better? While they say that time heals all, the fact is that market downturns mean deep economic recalibration – there will be winners and losers at the end of this. It’s scary, but it’s true.

The better news? It’s possible to emerge even stronger on the other side.

So strap in, hold on and commit.

 1 – Work smarter

It may seem counterintuitive, but when times are tough, resist the urge to do more. Instead, get back to basics – focus on your business’s core. Do fewer things, but do them right! Boom times allow for the growth of fluff, while recessions reveal the real revenue drivers. Exploit this opportunity to identify them.

Tough times reveal the products and services that are your business’s bedrock – direct your energy there.

 2 – Get the right mix

New customers? Be crystal clear on your targets for new acquisitions – come one, come all isn’t a strategy to deploy when the market is making life difficult.

 3 – Improve your sales process

By driving efficiencies in this part of your business, you’ll free yourself up to add value elsewhere.

 4 – Improve your sales productivity

Automation can give people the time they need to focus on sales. When back-office processes are taken care of, there’s no need to sit in the office crunching through admin. You can work from anywhere, knowing those aspects of business are taken care of.

 5 – Improve and automate your reporting

Smart software that integrates machine learning techniques can help streamline the process and power intelligent decisions.

Need a report? You should be able to grab one instantly.

 6 – Work on your product offerings

The second? Stop customers from straying. You can do this, for example, by introducing a sub-brand, which customers can cancel their use of later.

 7 – Improve your marketing

Secondly, get social. Go where your customers are and get your customer mix right. Closeness with the right customers has never been more important than right now.

 8 – Focus on your cash flow

With your admin and reporting under control, this becomes far easier. You have both the time and the necessary tools to make revenue generation a top priority.

It’s simple, really

What we can change is how we react.

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team

How to Enable an Extended Sales Team

Sounds like strange advice in the current market, doesn’t it? It shouldn’t. When times get tough, many make the mistake of losing confidence. They focus inwardly, looking to consolidate what they have, rather than outwardly: on what could be. This is unnecessary self-sabotage!

Rather: vision, guts and a little ingenuity can make all the difference, separating the winners from the losers.

A major opportunity every business should be exploiting is this: Creating extended sales teams. By viewing everyone in your business – yes, everyone – as a salesperson, you immediately increase your sales potential.

Trust beats smooth talk

Selling is no longer about the gift of the gab – it’s about building trust. And that means that everyone in your business can – and should – sell.

In fact, those people who already work for you are actually in the best position to do so. For example, who better to up-sell a deal than a service technician who is always on the front-line delivering to customers?

It’s true – not everyone understands the world of sales. So, sales managers may need to step in to provide guidance at first – showing those new to the process how to identify opportunities. Putting incentive structures in place is key too, as it will change the behaviour people have in seeking out new sales avenues.

Sell with service

The first step? Focus on your service people. Service teams interact with clients every day, throughout every stage of the post-sales cycle. That interaction equates to trust – trust that’s been built up over time. Here are a few ideas on how to leverage their abilities:

Create referrals – Referral leads convert at a higher rate than typical leads. Not only that, but referred customers tend to spend more. If you’re not exploring this avenue with your service people, you may be losing out.

Ask for customer feedback – Develop a culture of gathering (and sharing!) feedback. Use that information to learn and grow. Ask your marketing team to develop a set of key questions, then get your service people involved deployment. Use the feedback gathered to help improve both your product development and sales processes. Your service people are on the ground – they can access insights others simply can’t. Change what needs to be changed on the basis of what you discover and, if need be, rethink your approach. Also, share the changes you made with customers who gave you the feedback in the first place. They will feel appreciated and are more likely to give you more feedback in the future.

Cross-sell, up-sell and even down-sell – Have a client with a basic plan or product? Get your service teams to ask well thought through, quality questions; they understand customer needs and pain points better than anyone else. This means they’re best positioned to make recommendations about how customers can access better services. Don’t discount down-selling either: if a client is wavering, a basic plan can be a way of retaining their business, with the potential for growth in future.

Capitalise on online chat – The market has changed. Digitisation, fluidity and instant communication are the order of the day. Customers have come to expect fast responses and real-time interactions. The right person providing the right information online can both improve customer experience and shorten the sales cycle.

Make it about marketing

There was a time when marketing teams simply handed over leads to sales. Those days are gone. Now, marketing is operating ever further into the entire sales cycle, taking customers ever deeper into the journey.

This means that your marketing teams are increasingly important to the sales process. It also means that they need to be more knowledgeable about sales (and how your business runs) than ever. Here are a few tips:

1. Integrate and educate. Enable your marketing teams to close deals – and then, help them to close more. Part of this means taking a tactical and strategic approach to your marketing activities.
2. Identify and attract prospects that are easier to sell to. An easier sale frees up the time and resources you need to drive other areas of your business forward.
3. Generate the right leads – Use your marketing team to help generate the leads you need to support the sales team. Having the right leads that are more likely to convert is better than generating tons of the wrong leads.
4. Increase your close rates. Market more intelligently to attract the right people with the right message. Then, make sure that every touch point you have with them is consistent and equipped to drive maximum value.

Closing with customers

Here’s the key: customers are not only the people you sell to. They’re also the people who can help you sell.

Customers can be a great source of new sales leads. Leverage your customers’ networks to explore new opportunities and open new doors. If you’ve worked well with a customer and developed rapport, you’re well positioned to ask for references into other business units or departments in their company.

Existing customers can also be extremely effective last-inning closers too. If there’s a deal in the pipeline or a lead who’s on the verge of buying – but who is not yet quite convinced – ask an existing customer to help close the deal. ‘My experience with the company was great’ is often just that little bit more effective as a sales tool than ‘Your experience with our company will be great’.

So, here’s the deal: don’t be afraid to go big

Sales is no longer about smooth talking – it’s about building trust and long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with customers. With a little guidance and the right incentive structures in place, you can empower anyone in your business to build and grow the kind of connections every successful business needs.

Don’t miss more articles by The CRM Team