Most sales managers spend a lot of time thinking about how to set sales goals. This is important, of course — but many don’t consider how their sales process fits into this task. If this sounds like you, here are five reasons you need to work on your sales process:

1. It provides your team with a framework to meet their sales targets

Whilst it’s important to allow your sales team some flexibility, an established framework makes your team more efficient. It gives them repeatable steps to follow — guiding the customer from a prospect to a sale.

2. It quickly integrates new members of staff into the team

A defined sales process minimises the time it takes to get new salespeople on board. They can observe the process in action, and quickly identify how they will fit into the business.

3. It defines how software fits into the equation

Software, like our sales commission software, can improve your sales process. It reduces time spent monitoring, tracking and calculating commission — freeing up more time for your team to focus on revenue-generating tasks. When you have a defined process, it’s easy to identify to see how software can help.

4. It helps identify areas for improvement

Similarly, a defined process helps you identify areas for improvement across the entire team. Are there any sticking points? Where are most prospects leaving the process? How can you tighten it up even further? All of this will help you learn how to set sales goals that actually get results.

5. It uses a proven approach to generate more sales

When you consider how to set sales goals, do you think about how your team will achieve them? A defined sales process gives your staff a proven approach to follow. This increases the likelihood they will hit their targets, giving you scope to improve them year-on-year to focus on what matters — increasing profits.

Crafting a good sales pitch is not an easy task, yet it is probably the most effective tool for closing sales and growing your clientele. That means delivering a good presentation is critical and can make all the difference in achieving your sales goals targets. Successful sales reps consider their technique an art form. To help you match up, here are five essentials of a good sales pitch:

1. Focus on the customer’s interest

Remember to pivot your argument around the customer’s interests. That means selling the experience rather than the product. Describe how your services or products will solve the customer’s needs. The most important thing to your prospect is that their demands are met. 

2. Structure the pitch around clear objectives

From the moment you open with a “hello”, every statement should lead you closer to your objectives. Define a clear list of objectives and work out how to get to each of them organically. Deviations from these objectives could make the pitch unproductive.

3. Share your insights

Share your insights and opinions whenever there is a chance. This makes the pitch feel more like a friendly conversation with an actual human being, rather than a sales presentation. If possible, share a positive story about how your service or product has helped someone.

4. Personalise every pitch

Everyone likes to feel special – your customers are no different. Effective sales presentations should therefore be personalised to your prospect. Learn their name and use it often, and try to find out about them and ask questions. Of course, there’s a fine line between interested and intrusive, so be respectful.

5. Give your customer time to respond

It’s generally said that a sales rep should never take “no” for an answer. However, there’s nothing more offputting than a hard sell. Allocate enough time for your customers to have an input in the conversation. Listen to them and encourage responsiveness by asking questions that give you an opportunity to address their pain points. Finally, if they’re unwilling to commit there and then, make a firm date to follow up with them.

When combined with targetted sales goals and sales commission software, these tips for delivering a good sales pitch will have you primed to enjoy greater success. Speak to us to learn more about our sales commission software that makes commission tracking easy and precise.

So, it’s the beginning of the month and you need to find a way to hit that all-important commission target. 

Read on for four strategies to boost your client retention, ensuring that you have guaranteed business every month *before* you start dialling out on those “BD” calls: a client retention playbook, if you will.

1. Listen

A trait of many sales professionals is the ‘gift of the gab’. When you’re on the phone or in a meeting with a client, carefully listen to what they’re saying and take it on board. Enter into a conversation with them, rather than rushing into a sales pitch, and respond to what they need in a meaningful way. This will help you build strong, positive sales relationships that go the distance. You never know – it could even lead to referrals!

2. Do your research

Make sure that you have thoroughly researched the company you are selling into. Client retention is so much more likely when it is obvious that you have taken the time to find out what matters. As well as a company website, there’s social media, forums, business blogs, press releases, and many more ways to find out about the culture, style, and values of a company. This will give you a strong competitive edge when selling your product or services as you can tailor your USP.

3. Be genuine

People can tell when you’re being insincere, so don’t be. Developing friendly working relationships goes a long way to ensuring client retention because people buy from people they like.

4. Stay in touch

Make sure you respond to messages and feedback promptly and be available to answer queries or concerns. This doesn’t end after the deal closes, either. A key to client retention is making sure you stay in touch afterwards. A good way to do this without being pushy is to follow them on their social media channels, and congratulate them on their successes. That way, you will stay top-of-mind for next time!

Our sales commission dashboard is a one-stop-shop for tracking the data around your commission in real-time, and you can keep an eye on that all-important repeat business from clients you’ve retained using our top tips!

Setting realistic and relatable sales goals can be difficult. Especially since they are key to keeping sales staff motivated. But successful sales goals also keep your business strong, keep investors happy, and make team leaders proud of their team. 

At Commissionly, we know how to create realistic targets and have put together a list of the most common mistakes to avoid.

1. Not understanding what is realistic for your team

If a small proportion of your team misses their goal on a regular basis, then the problem is likely to lie with their techniques. However, if the majority of team members are failing, then it’s likely the problem is with the targets themselves. Start by defining what is realistic for your company and then create sales goals in line with this. Remember, targets should be manageable and achievable.

2. Ignoring market potential

Every market and industry is different so setting the best goals for your business relies on following current market trends. Are you entering a previously untapped market or promoting a new product that fills a gap? Then aggressive sales goals may help you to establish your brand before competitors catch up. 

3. Failing to train team members in sales

You wouldn’t expect someone who hasn’t learned how to drive to be a chauffeur. Thus, you can’t expect new sales staff to exceed their targets immediately. There is an art to selling and anyone who is willing can learn the tricks of the trade. That means it’s important to teach new team members how you do things and impart any tips for success. You can also allow older team members to share their experiences and wisdom, improving communication and team spirit in turn. 

At Commissionly, we pride ourselves on being the first cloud-based sales commission and sales compensation management web app for SMEs. For more information about our product and the benefits it brings, get in touch with us today [https://www.commissionly.io/sales-commission-dashboard/].

No matter the industry, the sales team is one of the hardest working teams within any business. Ask any salesperson what motivates them, and the answer will typically be “money”. Nobody gets into a sales role to achieve a basic salary and commission plays a huge role in ‘the win’.

Sales roles are demanding, and at times can be demotivating. Frequent rejection, the frustration of being passed from pillar to post as you navigate companies to find your buyer, having a customer on the hook and losing them at the 11^thhour. It isn’t hard to understand how many sales reps can find themselves in a slump. Here are just a few tips on how you can improve the general morale of your sales team, and as a result, see a spike in employee performance. 

1. Training

Employee training is important, especially for salespeople. Regardless of their previous background in sales, if an employee does not intimately know what they are selling they are handicapped in the process. Invest in your employees, and ensure they are as knowledgeable as they can be about the products or services being offered and the differentiating factors of the company behind them. 

2. Bonus/commission

A bonus and commission are often the key motivators for people within a sales role, as these are often a big contribution toward the monthly pay an employee will receive. Investing in a sales commission software will take the difficulty out of commission, it will automatically show each individual employee what commission they are earning, as well as show the efforts of the team as a whole. Having a system with real-time updates shows employees exactly where they are at any given time and where their peers are, which is ideal for target setting. 

3. Friendly competition

Within a sales environment, a competitive atmosphere is essential to bring out the best in your sales team. By encouraging friendly competition, whether it be with work targets or a sports sweepstakes, this will encourage the right atmosphere needed to drive up those sales numbers. By being able to track their performance and their commission targets, employees will be able to reflect more easily on what is and isn’t working for them within sales.

4. A happy workplace

Finally, making sure your employees are happy within the workplace and feel as though they are valued and appreciated will do wonders for morale, improve retention levels as well as performance.

Every single business wants to generate profits. The goal of business is to provide a service or product that solves a problem your audience is experiencing and to grow the business so that year on year it can accrue greater financial payback.

1. Research your target audience

If you don’t know who you are appealing to, how can you hope to target your service or product to the people that will benefit most from it? You need to understand who your ideal customer is, what you can do to reach them, and define how your offering can be refined to meet their needs

2. Stick to what you know (at least at the start)

When trying to grow a business or create sales goals, it can be very tempting to try and diversify so that you can reach as many people as possible. But being all things to all people can backfire and leave you meaning not much to anyone. Focus on your core offering, what differentiates your business and make it the best it can be.

3. Figure out what sets you apart

Why should a customer choose you over a rival organisation? What do you do that other businesses can’t? If you are able to define this, you will be able to build your communications around this and grow your reputation to engage your key audience.

4. Utilise a variety of marketing channels

When it comes to marketing, you need to ensure that you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and ensure the channels you choose are reaching your core audience. There are so many channels to consider from social media, email marketing, your website, thought leadership blogs, events, direct marketing, networking, webinars and a variety of other marketing methods to ensure you reach the right people at the right time. The more effective your marketing becomes, the greater the engagement you will have with your customer and the easier it will be to increase sales over time.

5. Showcase your expertise 

Whether it’s through your website, infographics, videos, blogs, podcasts, webinars and physical demonstrations you need to create content to show that you are an expert in your particular field. If people are going to trust you, then you should be able to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Working with clients and customers to help grow your content repository can help to further bolster engagement and your reputation.

However, it is absolutely essential to grow a business in a way that is sustainable. Slow and steady wins the race, after all. So, with that in mind, here are five simple tips to ensure that your business grows steadily and in a manner that doesn’t put it at unnecessary risk.

…is the next one! Sounds obvious, but this flies in the face of an old sales adage: you’re only as good as your last call. Not so! While that previous call might have established or continued a positive customer relationship, this really offers no more than an ‘in’ for the next time.

Why that next call should be different

If a salesperson is making regular calls to established customers, then another saying should be front of mind. And it’s this: familiarity breeds contempt. However, this can be a bit harsh, so perhaps it should be adapted to: familiarity can breed indifference.

More of the same-old, same-old

There are many salespeople who are satisfied with a call to such a customer where the previous order is repeated. They measure this as a success – and it’s fair to say that, on occasions, this might be the best outcome that can be achieved. However, that isn’t the same as being in a comfort zone where this is simply the salesperson’s expectation.

Adding something new to a call

In the scenario just described, there can be a comfortable relationship between buyer and seller. Until, that is, another salesperson arrives on the scene behaving pro-actively. This individual is offering something new or different. This might be no more than paying proper attention to the client and their needs, rather than taking them for granted. 

So, what might the something new be? It could be a product or service, or an improvement on what’s currently on offer. However, it might be no more than taking time to ask questions of the customer, to find out how their business – and therefore their needs – might have changed or be changing.

Changing expectations and outcomes

By the simple showing of interest, rather than just taking them for granted, a salesperson can move their relationship up a notch with regular, or infrequent, customers. Even for a first-time call, the level of genuine interest shown can be a game-changer! Author Maya Angelou said it well when she suggested that “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

The Commissionly cloud-based sales commission software app can offer evidence to managers of where the same-old is being accepted or an improvement is being striven for. To find out more about keeping a close eye on performance and more…

One of the primary reasons a business experiences failure or a loss of profit is because they set sales targets that didn’t come in to fruition.

The most common mistake companies and business owners are making is using data from a previous year to simply estimate future growth. This method of prediction not only fails to include any potential variables that may pop up throughout the year, but it can also put unnecessary pressure on staff to achieve large and unrealistic goals. 

There are various guides on how to set sales goals and quotas, but the best way to consider setting future targets is to consider the below:

1. Economic factors

A company needs to delve into their industry and do a little research before setting sales goals and quotas. They need to determine if they are operating in a volatile industry and what their competitors are up to that may impact their results.

2. Current business situation

Every business runs slightly differently, and it is important to consider things that impact revenue. It may be a seasonal operation, or it may be a company that relies solely on referral. Upcoming marketing and advertising plans also play a large part in setting future sales targets and quotas. 

3. The lack of a rolling forecast

Many annuals sales and quota predictions fall short because a company has not implemented a rolling forecast. Rolling forecasts provide detail into specific sales and quotas throughout the year and can be measured against the current business situation and economic factors in those times.

The implementation of a rolling forecast is great for staff morale as it shifts focus from a large sales goal to a more supportive and motivational model. 

When it comes to being realistic about future results, it is always best to call in an objective review or service such as Commissionly. As the first cloud-based sales commission and sales compensations app, Commissionly uses high-tech data analysis tools that can provide results and predictions in mere minutes. 

The easy to use sales commission management software is user-friendly and accessible to all stakeholders and business owners in real time, from wherever they may be located.

When it comes to defining sales performance goals, you might wonder what time period to set them at. Every company has different time-frames they like to set goals for, whether it is daily, weekly, monthly or yearly targets.

There are advantages for all of these time-frames, but what is the right way? Here are some thoughts on each of those time periods :

1. Daily targets

Daily targets are probably the most demanding on the morale of a sales team. People who make daily targets can feel motivated to come into work the next day to meet the next target. However, those that don’t make their target for two or three days can quickly become disengaged and this can really affect their performance.

Also, if your company has a high-ticket product/service or a long sales process, daily targets are hard to manage.

2. Weekly targets

These are great for places where prospects are calling into the company on a regular basis and there is a small sales process that can be completed in one phone call. Weekly targets are very motivating and at the end of the week, people can go home feeling satisfied that they’ve had a good week.

Weekly targets can also be great if you’ve got seasonal selling periods. You can define sales performance goals based on the expectations of the market and the call volumes that are coming in.

3. Monthly targets

Monthly targets are the norm for many businesses. It helps with commission calculations as all the sales earned in the month can be calculated in one goal. Monthly targets are less work to manage as you don’t need to recalculate targets every week.

Monthly targets are the perfect solution if you’re looking at a long or complicated sales process. It is also a great solution if you’re working with high-ticket products like cars.

4. Annual targets

Annual targets aren’t used a lot in sales, though some businesses with very-high value products might use it where they are expected to sell only a handful of products a year. 

Annual targets can struggle to motivate sales staff in the long term and so should be used only if monthly targets are going to be too hard to achieve. In addition, it might be best to split annual targets into quarterly targets.

What’s the first thought when it comes to establishing sales targets? Your first instinct is probably to say ‘I want to increase sales’. Well, who doesn’t?

But having such a vague goal is more likely to achieve the opposite. Without a clear, well-defined target, there is no way to make measured progress. And without assessing your progress, you can’t tell if your strategy is working.

This can cause your sales team to lose momentum and engagement, resulting in an eventual decline in sales. It’s essential to set clear sales performance goals that give your team tangible targets to shoot for.

Following the SMART system

The SMART system is a simple way to summarise every element of your performance goals. By spelling it out this way, your sales team will find it much easier to get the results you need. Here is what SMART means:

S – Specific

A goal can only be achieved if it is precisely nailed down. A goal to ‘increase sales’ doesn’t even say by how much. You need to set a clear number to give your team something specific to shoot for – for example, ‘we need to increase sales by 20%’.

M – Measurable

Making your targets measurable means having a quantifiable outcome. What level of revenue do you aim to bring in each month and year? Making this measurable allows you to track your progress and assess whether you are on target.

A – Attainable

A goal is attainable when you possess the capacity to achieve it. You’ll need to consider factors like skills, staff numbers and motivation. Plan how all these factors will impact your potential, and optimise them for best results.

R – Realistic

This step focuses on the practical ability of an organisation to achieve a goal. Setting unrealistic targets doesn’t motivate people; in fact, it can be demoralising. Make sure your targets are achievable, or your staff will wonder why they should even bother at all.

T – Timely

You can’t have open-ended goals, or you’ll never know when they have been achieved. Designate a specific timeframe for every goal, accommodating intervals to check progress and redefine targets along the way.

An example of a SMART goal could be: ‘In 12 months, we will have increased our sales volume by 30%, reaching a 15% increase over the next 6 months.’ You get tangible results by focusing on achievable things, so create sales goals that fit the bill.