Will You Make it Through the Current Economic Turmoil? Part 3

<h1>Will You Make it Through the Current Economic Turmoil? Part 3 - Explaining Sales Strategy</h1>Author: <a title="Ian Segail" href="http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/ian-segail/122756.htm">Ian Segail</a> So What Exactly is a Sales Strategy?
Whilst there are a number of well documented methodologies for developing a sales strategy, simply stated, a sales strategy answers the question, "How do you attract new customers to your business?" and "How do retain and grow your existing customer revenues?" Depending on how complex you want to make the sales strategy planning process there are a number of well documented models and approaches one can use towards developing a targeted and relevant sales strategy. However to keep the process simple, here are five sales strategy boxes that make up the selling strategy puzzle which you need to examine. To really get the most from this article, you will need to turn your thoughts into action. So as we review each of these strategy boxes in detail, I will be posing some key questions to prompt you to consider how each of these strategies impacts your business. As you ponder these questions, your thinking will be provoked and insights and ideas for action will form. Jot down these inspirations and actions for execution later. The five sales strategy boxes that make up the selling strategy puzzle are:
<ol>
 <li>market </li>
 <li>customer </li>
 <li>capability </li>
 <li>competition </li>
 <li>new market space </li>
</ol>
Reviewing each of these in depth you need to:
1. Understand your market
<ul>
 <li>Is your current market still appropriate? </li>
 <li>Is demand for your product or service growing or shrinking? How do you know? </li>
 <li>Which of the market segments you currently serve are growing or shrinking? </li>
 <li>What's the most effective method of reaching your market? How do you know? </li>
</ul>
Action: What actions are required?
2. Understand your customer
<ul>
 <li>Do you have a "profile "of what an ideal customer looks like? </li>
 <li>Who is actually buying the product/service? </li>
 <li>Who could potentially buy our product/service? - Why? </li>
 <li>Why will they want to purchase from you? </li>
 <li>Are your key customers shrinking or growing? </li>
 <li>How much of their wallet share do you currently have? </li>
 <li>Is your key customer wallet- share shrinking or growing? </li>
</ul>
Action: What actions are required?
3. Understand the value of your capability
<ul>
 <li>Specifically how do your customers and prospects benefit from the products or services that you are offering? </li>
 <li>What are your core capabilities? </li>
 <li>What are you really good at? </li>
 <li>What problems do you solve? </li>
 <li>What are the needs, pains, and desires of your target market? </li>
 <li>Are the above needs still relevant? </li>
 <li>Who else has those or similar problems? </li>
 <li>What if any modifications are required to make both your product and marketing collateral relevant to current market conditions? </li>
</ul>
Action: What actions are required?
4. Understand the Competition
<ul>
 <li>How significant is your unique selling proposition/value statement (Unique selling proposition (USP) defines your competitive advantage. It clearly identifies what makes you different from your competitors and emphasize these advantages in your marketing and selling efforts). </li>
 <li>What are all the competitive influences (external/internal) you face? </li>
 <li>Do you have a competition strategy in play that deals with ALL competitive influences? </li>
 <li>How do you clearly differentiate from your competition? </li>
 <li>Who are those potential competitors that "play" in the space either above our limits (our limits being determined by price and performance) or below our limits? </li>
 <li>Is there an opportunity to compete there? </li>
</ul>
Action: What actions are required?
Answering the above questions will confirm whether or not your cheese has moved. They should also open up discussions as to where "new cheese" opportunities could be found. If you have discovered that your cheese has moved, often just a slight shuffle three - five degrees to the left or right of where you currently operate can open up a whole raft of fresh market prospects.
5. Understand new market space
In their Harvard Business Review paper "Creating new market space" and book "Blue Ocean Strategy", W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne present 6 strategies, for companies to develop new markets.
In my next article, I will examine the 6 strategies in detail.
 
 About the Author: As one of Australia’s leading authorities and coaches in sales management, Ian Segail has been involved in the coaching, training and development of sales managers and salespeople for over two decades. Drawing on 25 years of experience in sales, sales management and leading an HR and training team, Ian brings a strong dose of fiscal reality and practicality to his works as a Sales Performance Coach. Engaging directly with business owners and both novice and experienced sales managers alike, across a wide variety of industries and selling disciplines, the focus of Ian’s work is to transform sales results for companies by improving sales management practices. Ian is the author of “Bulletproof Your Sales Team ‐ The 5 Keys To Turbo‐Boosting Your Sales Team’s Results” and a number of business articles, business reports and white papers including “The fish stinks from the head!” and “Why Sales Training Doesn't Work.” Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question “How come some people can sell and most can’t?” He can be reached at isegail at 
<a href="http://www.mckpeople.com.au"><a href="http://www.mckpeople.com.au" target="_blank">www.mckpeople.com.au</a></a>
 Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/">ArticlesBase.com</a> - <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/will-you-make-it-through-the-current-economic-turmoil-part-3-explaining-sales-strategy-875469.html" title="Will You Make it Through the Current Economic Turmoil? Part 3 - Explaining Sales Strategy">Will You Make it Through the Current Economic Turmoil? Part 3 - Explaining Sales Strategy</a>

So What Exactly is a Sales Strategy?

Whilst there are a number of well documented methodologies for developing a sales strategy, simply stated, a sales strategy answers the question, "How do you attract new customers to your business?" and "How do retain and grow your existing customer revenues?" Depending on how complex you want to make the sales strategy planning process there are a number of well documented models and approaches one can use towards developing a targeted and relevant sales strategy. However to keep the process simple, here are five sales strategy boxes that make up the selling strategy puzzle which you need to examine. To really get the most from this article, you will need to turn your thoughts into action. So as we review each of these strategy boxes in detail, I will be posing some key questions to prompt you to consider how each of these strategies impacts your business. As you ponder these questions, your thinking will be provoked and insights and ideas for action will form. Jot down these inspirations and actions for execution later. The five sales strategy boxes that make up the selling strategy puzzle are:

market
customer
capability
competition
new market space

Reviewing each of these in depth you need to:

1. Understand your market

Is your current market still appropriate?
Is demand for your product or service growing or shrinking? How do you know?
Which of the market segments you currently serve are growing or shrinking?
What's the most effective method of reaching your market? How do you know?

Action: What actions are required?

2. Understand your customer

Do you have a "profile "of what an ideal customer looks like?
Who is actually buying the product/service?
Who could potentially buy our product/service? - Why?
Why will they want to purchase from you?
Are your key customers shrinking or growing?
How much of their wallet share do you currently have?
Is your key customer wallet- share shrinking or growing?

Action: What actions are required?

3. Understand the value of your capability

Specifically how do your customers and prospects benefit from the products or services that you are offering?
What are your core capabilities?
What are you really good at?
What problems do you solve?
What are the needs, pains, and desires of your target market?
Are the above needs still relevant?
Who else has those or similar problems?
What if any modifications are required to make both your product and marketing collateral relevant to current market conditions?

Action: What actions are required?

4. Understand the Competition

How significant is your unique selling proposition/value statement (Unique selling proposition (USP) defines your competitive advantage. It clearly identifies what makes you different from your competitors and emphasize these advantages in your marketing and selling efforts).
What are all the competitive influences (external/internal) you face?
Do you have a competition strategy in play that deals with ALL competitive influences?
How do you clearly differentiate from your competition?
Who are those potential competitors that "play" in the space either above our limits (our limits being determined by price and performance) or below our limits?
Is there an opportunity to compete there?

Action: What actions are required?

Answering the above questions will confirm whether or not your cheese has moved. They should also open up discussions as to where "new cheese" opportunities could be found. If you have discovered that your cheese has moved, often just a slight shuffle three - five degrees to the left or right of where you currently operate can open up a whole raft of fresh market prospects.

5. Understand new market space

In their Harvard Business Review paper "Creating new market space" and book "Blue Ocean Strategy", W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne present 6 strategies, for companies to develop new markets.

In my next article, I will examine the 6 strategies in detail.

As one of Australia’s leading authorities and coaches in sales management, Ian Segail has been involved in the coaching, training and development of sales managers and salespeople for over two decades. Drawing on 25 years of experience in sales, sales management and leading an HR and training team, Ian brings a strong dose of fiscal reality and practicality to his works as a Sales Performance Coach. Engaging directly with business owners and both novice and experienced sales managers alike, across a wide variety of industries and selling disciplines, the focus of Ian’s work is to transform sales results for companies by improving sales management practices. Ian is the author of “Bulletproof Your Sales Team ‐ The 5 Keys To Turbo‐Boosting Your Sales Team’s Results” and a number of business articles, business reports and white papers including “The fish stinks from the head!” and “Why Sales Training Doesn't Work.” Ian has an insatiable hunger for studying selling and people management and has passionately pursued answers to the question “How come some people can sell and most can’t?” He can be reached at isegail at

www.mckpeople.com.au

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Article Tags: Sales Training, Sales Coach, Sales Coaching, Sales Manager Coaching, Coaching For Sales, Professional Sales Coaching, Sales Performance Management, Ian Segail, Mckenzie Salestutor, Mckenzie Consulting

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