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The Sales Improvement Plan – Improving Your Sales Performance

Published on March 5, 2021

Sales are the lifeblood of any company. They’re what makes it possible to get anything done. Yet, for entrepreneurs, this can be some of their most difficult work. You have a great product or service and you know how to market it – but if you don’t understand how to sell it, then your business won’t last long term.

And that’s where sales improvement plans come in! A plan just steps one: figuring out what needs improvement and how your strategy going forward will take care of that need. This should help fix those pesky problems with marketing or selling so that when you put yourself on the line again for something new, everything goes smoothly!

Possible Causes of Unsatisfactory Revenue Performance

Before we get into earnings improvement, it is reasonable to analyze the situation and try to identify what’s preventing you from making more sales.

It may be helpful to Check out the most popular causes of disappointing sales performance:

#1 Health Issues

Health problems may cause low energy, lack of attention, and depressive moods.

You may want to examine your lifestyle:

Are you getting enough sleep?
Are you eating healthy food?
Are you exercising regularly?

You should also look into your daily habits.

By way of instance, drinking three cups of coffee might not look like a big deal, but it might be interfering with your ability to think clearly, concentrate, and get restful sleep.

You will need to ask yourself what actions that you take daily may be contributing to suboptimal sales performance.

#2 Personal Issues

You can not be capable of selling if you are constantly preoccupied with something else.

While some ups and downs are unavoidable, you may want to see whether it is possible to make your personal life more balanced.

For example, if there are people in your life who are a constant source of stress, worry, and battle, you may want to consider setting better bounds together or even cutting them off entirely.

#3 Not Enough Outreach

Reaching out to potential customers can be scary.

So it’s no wonder that salespeople often subconsciously avoid making as many cold calls or sending out as many chilly mails as they could. After all, no one likes rejection.

But you will need to get over this fear of rejection if you would like to attain your full potential as a salesperson.

#4 Not Knowing the Product

You can’t be capable of selling a particular product if you don’t know this item.

Take the time to learn everything there is to know about the product that you sell so that you could better communicate its benefits to potential customers.

#5 Not Believing in the Product

You also can’t be effective at selling a specific product if you don’t believe in that product. And that’s a fantastic thing. It shows that you have a conscience and a strong sense of integrity.

So it is best to prevent selling products you don’t believe in because you are inevitably going to self-sabotage.

#6 Lack of Sales Skills

It goes without saying that if you struggle with sales, then the odds are that you could benefit from additional sales training.

#7 Limiting Beliefs

Occasionally people self-sabotage when it comes to their sales performance since they have limiting beliefs about sales.

The most common of these limiting beliefs is this:

So in the event that you believe that this is what selling is all about, of course, you’re likely to subconsciously avoid getting good at it.

It’s important to examine how you think about earnings if you would like to improve your sales performance.

Revenue Improvement Strategies & Approaches

Alright, so now you know the most frequent pitfalls that you need to avoid.

However, what is specific strategies and techniques which you can implement to enhance your sales performance?

#1 Conduct Extensive Customer Research

The best salespeople are those that understand their customers the best.

So it is logical to start your earnings improvement process with extensive customer research.

Ask yourself:

How do they perceive themselves?
How do they want to be perceived by others?

You can do all this by detecting the relevant conversations online in addition to talking to people in your target audience one on you to understand them better.

#2 Establish Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Outreach Targets

You can’t control how many sales you make monthly.

But you can control how many cold emails you send and the number of cold calls you make. That’s why you should set daily, weekly, and monthly outreach targets each month.

Needless to say, if you are not making enough sales at the moment, then it makes sense to aim to do more outreach than you are presently doing.

You’ll be able to create a spreadsheet with Excel or Google Sheets to record your outreach numbers and make certain you stay on track throughout the month.

#3 Implement a Sales Qualification Framework

It is important to decrease the amount of time you waste by speaking to people that are never going to buy.

They may not have the authority to make the decision, they might not have the funds required to buy your goods, they might not need your product to start with. You will need to avoid these sales dead-ends as much as possible.

You can do this by implementing a revenue qualification framework that allows you to quickly figure out whether the person you’re speaking to is indeed a possible customer.

Here are the three most popular sales qualification frameworks that you should look into:

BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

You ask questions that allow you to quickly establish if the person you are talking to:

Gets the budget to buy your product.
Has the ability to make that choice.
Needs this product.
Is prepared and able to make the purchase in a timeline that works for you.

ANUM (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money)

You ask questions that allow you to quickly establish whether the person you are talking to:

Gets the ability to make the purchase.
Needs your merchandise.
Feels a sense of urgency.
Has enough money.

FAINT (Fund, Authority, Interest, Need, Timing)

You ask questions that allow you to quickly establish whether the person you are talking to:

Gets the necessary funds.
Gets the ability to make the decision.
Needs your merchandise.
Is able and willing to buy within a timeframe that works for you.

Everyone has their favorite sales qualification framework, so there’s a great deal of”Here’s why my frame is better than yours” discussions going on in the world.

Any sales eligibility framework is far better than no sales qualification framework.

So pick one that appeals to you the most and begins implementing it into your sales process.

#4 Practice Your Sales Pitch Using a Colleague

You may want to practice your sales pitch to better prepare yourself for interacting with potential customers.

The idea is simple:

You present your sales pitch to a colleague who pretends to be a possible client.
They respond with common questions and objections.

It’s helpful if the colleague has experience selling the exact same product. That way they’ll be able to give more realistic responses.

#5 Record and Review Your Sales Pitch Practice

You may want to consider documenting those practice sessions:

Audio makes sense if you’re practicing for cold calls.
The video makes sense if you’re practicing for sales meetings.

Warning: you will almost certainly cringe when you play the recording. Everyone does. Steel yourself.

That being said, being able to observe yourself as you make your sales pitch can be eye-opening, since it allows you to capture things like awkward body language, weird verbal ticks, the odd cadence of speech, etc..

More Sales Improvement Ideas

Research Worker. Reading up on psychology can help you with this.
Invest in sales training. As you may get better at sales solely through trial and error, there is no need to waste time reinventing the wheel. Investing in sales books, courses, and seminars will permit you to make progress much faster than you could by yourself.
Hire a sales trainer. Working with an experienced sales coach can help you take your sales skills to the next level. This can be expensive, but it is well worth the purchase price.

Making Your Personal Improvement Plan (PIP)

Now it’s time to create your individual improvement plan (PIP).

Sales PIPs are a way to improve the performance of a salesperson who isn’t reaching their targets. It normally involves a collaboration between that person, their staff, and their supervisor.

However, as an entrepreneur, you could also benefit from this concept by creating your own revenue PIP.

Here’s how you can do this:

Select a timeframe. Say, 3 months.
Set your targets. Decide how many cold calls you are going to make each day, week, and month, how many sales books you are going to read monthly, how many sales training sessions you may invest in, etc..
Create daily/weekly/monthly schedules. For instance, if you decided that you will read one sales book per week for the next 3 months, then determine how many pages you will need to read every day to achieve that and then block out enough time for reading.

Note that the more specific you are with your timeframe, goals, and schedule, the more likely you’ll be to follow through with your PIP and enhance your sales performance.