How to Choose a Sales Strategy

A sales strategy empowers you to accomplish two important objectives: Translate company goals into sales and align your sales team’s day-to-day actions with the company’s priorities.

However, developing a sales strategy can be confusing and frustrating, especially since there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Use this template to create a custom, scalable sales strategy.

Develop S.M.A.R.T. Goals

A successful sales strategy begins with solid goals. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (i.e. deadline-based).

Bad goal: “To grow sales.”

Good goal: “Hit $100k in revenue by the end of the 1st quarter.”

• Write your organization’s or team’s goals down.
• Each goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

Create an Ideal Customer Profile

An ideal customer profile describes an organization which receives value from your solution and provides value to your company.

Study the Competition and Create a Value Proposition

How does your product create value for customers, especially compared to your competitors’ products

Create Your Minimum Viable Sales Documentation

establishing and improving upon a sales strategy means documenting your process. These documents aren’t meant to be perfect; they’re meant to get your team selling ASAP. Gather your entire sales team and spend an hour at max on writing.

Hire, Onboard, and Organize Salespeople

Invest in hiring and training the right people. Establish hiring criteria for sales reps. Onboard sales reps: A structured onboarding process is the difference between a successful and unsuccessful sales team.

Organize sales reps: There’s no right or wrong way to organize teams. What works best depends on the nature of your product, team, and sales process.

Make sure to create a motivation plan for them.

Establish Benchmarks

Ensure the company, sales team, and individual sales reps are aligned. Company-level: Determine how much revenue the company needs in the form of: New business, Upselling customers, Cross-selling customers.

Team-level: Determine how much revenue the sales team must bring in each month, quarter, and year to meet the company-level benchmark, broken down by: New business, Upselling customers, Cross-selling customers.

Individual-level: Determine how much revenue each rep must bring in each month, quarter, and year to meet the team-level benchmark, broken down by: New business, Upselling customers, Cross-selling customers.

Create a Compensation Structure for Sales Reps

A good compensation structure aligns sales reps’ interests and activities with the company’s goals.

Research compensation for salespeople in your industry. ☐ Establish a base salary (if applicable). Establish how much input salespeople will have over developing a commission structure. Create a commission structure. Select the factor(s) salespeople will be rewarded on.

Decide upon A Lead Generation Method/s

Invest in hiring and training the right people. How do they prefer to be communicated with? What are your available resources? Use these questions to decide whether to use outbound lead generation, inbound lead generation, or a combination of both.

Qualify leads

Qualifying is the difference between selling to the right customers or wasting time on the wrong ones. At the end of a qualifying conversation, reps should know the following about prospects