2 Steps to Clarify Your Sales Campaign with a Defined Strategy
Christopher Tuttle
When determining an inside sales plan, setting up a campaign can be a fun way to increase the effectiveness of your sales reps. While traditionally a marketing tool, a sales campaign helps determine a strategy, a plan of attack, and focuses a team to accomplish a task.
It’s important that your campaign be strongly defined. To help ensure the campaign has the necessary leverage for progress to be made. Below are two necessary steps to get your sales team started on defining a solid strategy and campaign:
Step 1: Know Your Target Companies
When starting to determine your target company, I’ve found that the best method is to do a profile of your existing clients. Note any similarities, specifically size, industry, and profitability. These metrics will give you a pretty good idea of the types of companies your marketing and lead gen teams should be targeting.
Additionally, take a look at where your customers are located geographically. If your audience is high tech, you will probably want to focus on Silicon Valley, Utah, Austin, Boston, New York and Seattle. Other industries are more spread out throughout the metropolitan areas around the United States. Dig into your company data and find any trends that could help narrow down your target.
Step 2: Profile Decision Makers
After narrowing down your target company, it’s important to know who within those companies you should be trying to talk to. Ask yourself who the most valuable decision maker and influencers will be through your sales process.
For example, look first at title level (C-level, VP, Director, Manager) and then title function (administration, sales, marketing, HR, finance, IT, support). Within these titles levels and functions, who can make the most influence to actually buy your product?
Once you answer that question, it’s fairly easy to craft your sales and marketing message specifically to generate interest and address need.
After you’ve narrowed down your strategy, then you can start selecting a campaign strategy. For an indepth discussion on driving leads, appointments and sales, read my eBook, “31 Inside Sales Must Haves.”
What other tips do you have use to define your sales strategy? Let me know in the comment box, below.
Author: Ken Krogue | Google+
Summary of Ken Krogue’s Forbes articles