SALES OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES TO REACH THEM – PART I

By Nathalia Parra
Head of Operations & Strategy at Sharko Group

It is not news to anyone that increasing sales is one of the most important objectives for a business. Even if it is about a non-for profit organization, attracting clients, users or purchasers is also a common point to ensure a business sustainability regardless of its nature. However, when you look at it in detail, these objectives are not trivial and they are very wide and generic statements unless they get well defined.

There are several variations to the sales objectives. There are also dependences on a number of factors that are unique to the business such as the nature of the offer (e.g. Goods, services, both), the type of products (e.g. volume, production complexity, mass consumption, or industrial), or the distribution channels (e.g. direct, indirect, agency); corporate objectives, amongst many others.

This article is one of a series of three that attempts to summarize some of these more detailed objectives that could constitute, individually or collectively, part of the business commercial strategy. It also proposes actions that are recommended to reach such goals. This is by no means an exhaustive list; however, we believe that it covers a good number of fundamental topics to take the first step into the analysis through what we call the SHARKO ROUTE:

1- Increasing the sales value

We could initially think that the sales value means an increase in the number of clients or the sales price. But is this really true? No. The sales value is proportional to the quantity of clients, the quantity of sales and the “value per client”. Meaning, that you could generate a variation of solutions to this equation without having to increase the number of clientes, or the price of your products, for example.

Thus, to determine what road to take, you could start by exploring the following points:

• Do you understand how your audience adopt a decision over another?
• Can you anticipate emerging patterns in your customers’ behaviour that allow you to have relevant relationships with them?
• Do you know and can you quantify your clients’ interests?
• What actions do you take to retain the clients that you already have?
• How do you evolve your offer so that you continue generating value for your clients that already know you?

This is how, before storming out of your office looking for new clients, or increasing the prices of your products, you could analyse the value of your clients base and be creative about using available resources to maximize it.

2- Generate Brand Awareness

Now, once you have realized the best effort to maximize the captured value from your existing client base, you then aim to attract new ones: be it to increase your base or to replace the deserters. Then, this is the moment to ask ourselves: how does the market perceive our brand, our products, our value proposition?

A crucial factor to attract new clients is “Visibility”. If they don’t know you, they won’t buy from you. That simple. It is not sufficient to wait to be found, it is important and vital, that you make an effort to make your brand and your products visible.

Revise then, how are you facilitating the public to know of your existence and the existence of your products; validate your assumptions and understand what is perceived as strengths and weaknesses about your brand and your offer. It is possible that you may be mistaken and because of this, that you be losing opportunities.

3- Grow your Market Share

The participation in the market is the portion of “accessible” sales for your products and services. Out of this 100% possible sales, how much is your company capturing? This measurement is relative to a geography, an industry, a demographic group, for example. Determining your position gives you a way to identify the potential of your business.

What we are proposing here is that you evaluate “who” is purchasing your products and services. And when we say “who” we refer to identifying the profile of those who are willing to close a deal with your company. Think about the demography, their location, the channels that they use to access your products. Why do they buy; what motivates them to choose your product (or not) over others that are also available. Ask what are the products that you clients like the most, and more frequently.

Consequently, check your competition and analyze if there is a segment in the market that your products are not reaching. Would you be interested in this segment? What are the attributes of your product, your brand, your offer, that are most valued by the clients in the segment that you would like to explore?

4- Release new products or services

This is a tricky point. Interesting, exciting and also, worrisome. Especially, when you consider that the cost and the risks of developing a new product into the market are high. Many things could happen.
However, we are not talking about implementing a brilliant idea that could solve problems that no one else has solved; from the point of view of sustainability, and keeping your clients interested, when you see it is time to reevaluate your value proposition, you might think “NEW”.

As a consequence, we invite you to observe the results of your sales, analyze the market and your clients behaviour, understand the features in the solutions that the competition are offering; check if economy or political changes might affect the way you sale or people buy.

Keeping an eye on these factors, you will understand the weaknesses and strengths of your offer and you will anticipate if you need to modify or adapt it accordingly. In any case, you need to develop a strategy that is both efficient and effective in bringing your offer the market adequately.

These four points conform what we see as pillars in the analysis of a commercial strategy. In other blogs we will continue our discussion about intrinsic elements within the organization and our view on how to better address them.