Your Sales strategy

Effective marketing is crucial to the success of any business. But simply understanding your market is not enough. You need to build on your marketing plans, and turning theory into profits. A.good sales strategy will help you identify and take advantage of the best opportunities.

1 . The right approach

Base your sales strategy on your business and marketing plans.
Understand your market.
Concentrate on generating profitable business.

2 . Your target customers

Business growth depends on creating new, profitable business with different customer types.
Generate business with new prospects.
Develop more business with existing customers.
Build up a mix of customer.

3 . Reaching the customer

Once you have worked out which customers to target, you need to decide which sales channels will be most effective. You can either sell direct or through an intermediary.
Weigh the costs of each channel against the benefits it would bring.
Most businesses sell to customers direct
If you cannot reach your customers directly, use an intermediary.
You may be able to join forces with other businesses to boost your sales effort.
Promote and support your sales channels by communicating with your customers.

4 . Sales planning

Together with your sales employees, prepare your sales forecast.
Prepare your annual sales budget.
Revise your sales forecasts quarterly or annually, using past performance as a guide.
Be aware of sales cycles. The total amount of time it may take to complete a sale can have a critical impact on your cash flow.
Co-ordinate sales with your other business activities. For example, do not plan for sales that your production processes cannot fulfill.

5 . Selling resources