Using trending to boost sales and retain customers for sustainable growth

Achieving and maintaining a steady growthis a huge challenge for any organization in today’s complex and rapid changing business environment. If you could manage to source the ‘skill and will’ in companies, then invariably, growth opportunities do exist. The art and science of selling is undergoing a fundamental shift, due to the rise and rapid increase in sales over digital platforms.

The important message to Sales Orientated Employers isthis: Do not lose your focus on sales; this is a time to reassess and reinvent your focus. The evolution of new technologies makes the world more global and more interconnected, let’s believe in the importance and the need of sales and implement right strategies & services to get better at selling.

Opportunity for SalesGrowth

The ultimate challenge is find new customers first!  Sales organizations have many strategies to achieve their targets with the positive attitude of ‘somehow we will do this”. Toachieve and maintain sales achievements companies could formulate at afewwaysof improving salesgrowth suchas how to monitor and watch coming market developments, further drill down into existing marketsand having a helicopter view of untapped pockets of growth, scour new datasets often and also have insights into customer behavioral trends. Sales Managers tend to be much more focused on the short team target achievements and their ‘somehow will do” attitude mindset needs to be shifted to a long-term thought process where the attitude evolves into to one  of “will adopt sustainable best sales practices “

In order to look ahead, sales achievers monitor mega trend-shifts in environmental changes, regulations and deregulations, technology breakthroughs and demographic shifts. The list of areas that can fall into a merit analysis is long and complicated. However, thesetrends can reveal the path to success if the companies can long term invest in Datasets, Research Teams, IT and Business Development teams.

Act fast on the trends identified into top line impact.

Every sale is an experience. It is not only about selling. In fact, crafting a sales experience that makes customers happy is your obvious win-win. In other words sell the way the customer wants! The Sales Executive often speaks about the product and price offerings which are of course very relevant to the sale. However, what the customer is ultimately looking for needs to be identified, since research shows us that most of the time what customers say does not match with what they do.

Mastering multi-channel sales operationsis obviously an extensive opportunity too, companies which get the right competencies in place will enjoy larger profit margins and revenue growth, The prime example would be in Banking, product penetration and revenue per client can be twice as high with customers that are served across more than four channels, compared to customers that are served only through one channel.

Essential to Equip yourFrontline

Sales operations must find out how much time front line sales people spendselling; these results can invariablybe eye opening as well as revolutionize operations.

Equipping requires equipping reps with right sales tools, as well as spending a quality 10 minutes a day meeting with your sales force around a whiteboard. Discussing and showing interest in  briefs as well as planning sales activities and engaging in discussions will boost a disciplined and enthusiastic sales force aseveryone involved in this process will begin to focus on what is required of them and will cause them to work smarter and more efficiently.

Drive growth from the top

Change programs definitely will achieve targets and sales transformations are compulsory. However, without steady support from the very top, implementation and transformations will not work. A committed leader mustinvite sales managers to sit down share what’s not working, understand what’s been  achieved up to this level of change, what needs to be done to override  internal politics and look at the big picture, regardless to what has been done in the past – even if it has worked!

To win in sales, open up the conversation about need for change and the vision for achieving it. Such conversations will help organizations consider specifics and then address the same in a proactive manner in order to create an impact on the market with the products and services that you are promoting,A robust sustainable advantage in selling practices can transform your company into a star-class sales winner.

The author is the Group Head  Business Development Alliance Finance  Co plc. The Author has experience spanning over 16 years in Business Management  which includes three different industries, namely banking and Financial Services, Energy Sectors (Gas and Electricity) and Retailing.  He also has accumulated a rich experience in diverse markets such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Sri Lanka. He holds a MBA in Business Management from the University of Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom and a BBA in Business Management (UK). He is a member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and also Member of American Marketing Association.