Driving Sales Performance

How do you give yourself the best chance of hitting your sales goals? Hitting your sales goals is a function of your message and the tools and process you put in place for you and/or your team. 

You have to put in place the tools to manage your sales efforts. This consists of what is called either a “customer relationship management (CRM) tool” or a “pipeline management tool.” It essentially is a single location that manages all your potential sales opportunities, Your pipeline is the sales process that consists of all the sales steps (called stages) you need to take to turn a person or business into a paying customer. It starts with them being a “lead” or “prospect” (someone who has shown interest in your product or service) and moving them through the sales stages to turn them into a customer.

“The tools, process, and compensation you put in place provide you with the structure to effectively drive sales results.”

You must set up the incentive component of compensation packages to align additional compensation to the specific behaviors or results you want to drive. You can’t expect sales professionals to chase opportunities that don’t have financial rewards. So while you are putting the right tools and process in place, don’t forget that the way you pay your people will likely be the greater driver of results.