During the lockdown, your business is more than likely one of those suffering in these unprecedented times. You may be the only person in your business working having furloughed your staff. Now is the time to start thinking about what your sales process is going to look like on the other side of the coronavirus.
The opportunity to review and change your sales process is now. You have probably been sitting in your office for a long time wondering what is not working, but you haven’t found or made the time to analyse, devise and make the changes that need to be made. The first thing you should do is check the basics are right, ask yourself;
- Is your SWOT analysis up to date, when was the last time you did one?
It is one of the most important procedures for any business, identifying your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats will help you plan your sales process.
2. When was the last time you took a look at your competition and what they are doing?
Who are they? Identify the key competitors and watch them, what can you do to be a step or two ahead of them, be proactive and not reactive.
3. Do your sales team have up to date training and have they got all the tools they need?
Are they ALL aware of the USP’s? continuous training is paramount, knowledge is power, they may think they know it all. How do they prospect? What does their pipeline look like? How are they qualifying their prospects? What does a lead look like, what does your ideal customer look like?
4. When did you last categorise your customer base by completing an A B C D customer list?
Analyse your customer base, what makes them an ABC or D customer. What are the different group’s criteria? How do you turn a D customer into a C or a C to B and a B to A, how do you turn all your customers into A’s?
5. Do your customers know what your business is doing during the lockdown?
You must keep in touch with your customers at all times, especially now. Have you communicated your Covid-19 policy, do they all know what the plan is going forward, what do your stock levels look like?
6. Do your staff know what your business is doing during the lockdown?
Communicating with your staff is as important as doing so with your customers. If you are closed down completely, they need to know that you care and are still working to save the business and move forward.
7. Are your KPI’s in place and are they correct?
Review your KPI’s, are they still relevant? Do they measure the sales process efficiently and improve performance? So many businesses set KPI’s that do not do the job they were intended to. Now is the ideal time to take a deep dive into this and make improvements.
8. Is your bonus scheme simple, concise and fit for purpose?
Too many bonus schemes are complicated and demotivate rather than motivate. A good bonus scheme will motivate your team, it needs to be easy for them and you to calculate, progress should be communicated weekly, monthly, quarterly.
9. How comprehensive is your reporting procedure, does it give you the information you need?
Implement a weekly trading meeting between you and your sales managers to discuss how the last week has performed and how you expect the next week to shape up. What sales reports are important to the business, do you know what your top 10 selling products are and how they make up your sales revenue by customer?
10. Have you written, published and communicated your core values?
Your core values tell your customers and your staff about your business, your staff should have the same values as the business, if they have bought into it then your customers will too. Likeminded people succeed. You need these to be on your website, take a look at our Core Values.
List your tasks from the 10 points above as you read through this again and prioritise them. You know which need attention, now is the time to give them that attention. Discuss your proposed changes with your senior management team, come to an agreement and IMPLEMENT !