Great sales teams are supported by quality systems. Business systems allow a sales team to streamline the tedious day-to-day tasks and focus on what matters the most, SALES! After all, any time that your team is spending on other tasks is time they are not making you money.
Good systems also create consistency and help to elevate all salespeople’s performance. Here are seven systems that every sales team needs.
Marketing – Your marketing systems need to be innovative and experimental, you should always be testing new marketing ideas and refining what does and doesn’t work for your business. Encourage your sales team to feed ideas into this system and be actively involved in it.
Goals – Goals should start at an annual level and be broken down into smaller periods. Your sales team should be able to know at any time what the current goals are and how close you are to achieving them. Your goals system shouldn’t leave any guesswork
Customer retention – Your sales team should deeply understand who your customers are through a detailed customer profile and know the lifetime value of your customers. It is always easier to return and resell to existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.
Prospecting – Also known as business development, this is about creating systems to encourage the cultivation of new business, particularly in new markets or industries. How can your product or service benefit others who you aren’t currently servicing?
Seek referrals – Referrals are a great source of new business. Not only are they good for revenue but they build relationships, partnerships and trust as well. Always present your best self when meeting new clients, don’t be afraid to ask your existing clients for a referral and where possible refer business to your clients as well.
Cultural fit – All your systems will contribute to your culture but it is also important that your recruitment systems result in the right fit employees. Focus on finding people who are passionate about your business and are driven to see it succeed.
Entrepreneur attitude – The more entrepreneurs in your business the better. Entrepreneurs think creatively, actively solve problems and are always looking for opportunities. Entrepreneurial systems encourage people to find mentors, attend industry events, keep learning and focus on growth.
TAKEAWAY: Systemising as much of your business as possible allows your sales team to focus on the creative and human side of selling. Developing systems for these seven business areas is a great place to start.