Next year will not be easier than this year, in terms of making sales.
There are uncertainties in the air: with the wars, the high interest rates and the upcoming election.
All this makes it harder to set your budget.
The best you can do is make a forecast, and then revisit those forecasts on a regular basis. Your budget cannot be set in stone.
With that in mind, here are 3 sales strategies to help you think differently and increase your chances of sales success.
Three sales strategies to help you think differently in 2024.
1. Treat Every Lead as Precious
As salespeople we have all gotten lazy, over relying on referrals and non-stop demand. We have forgotten how to sell.
Every company needs to re-focus their sales process. Don’t assume your sales team knows how to sell on value. Dig in and retrain it.
A re-focused sales process starts with treating every new lead as a green light prospect – until you prove otherwise
When a lead reaches out to you – you have less than 60 minutes to respond and make a positive impression.
In the old days it was easier. Now you have a matter of minutes.
Fine tune your process with an emphasis on speed and follow up.
Start with how you staff and operate your upfront process: how you answer your emails, web inquiries and phones, including on the weekends!
“Treat every lead as precious including the ones that come during off hours!”
2. Empower Your Team With Billable Hours.
I have written before on keeping track of how many billable hours you sell and need to produce each month, in order to make your budget.
This is especially true for install work, but all budgets can be built on this.
Use this strategy in 2024 to empower your team and keep their eye on the prize.
If your production team thinks and works in terms of billable hours, they can use their scheduling board to more easily track and drive revenue next year.
“Put the power with the people who control production!”
3. Selling Gross Profit Dollars.
Your sales team #1 job is not making sales.
Rather, their main job is to sell gross profit dollars.
Meaning, they need to sell enough work, with enough margin, such that you have enough “contribution”(gross profit dollars) to pay for overhead and make a good profit.
Review your commission plans to make sure your salespeople are motivated in the right direction: selling gross profit.
Take it a step further and tweak your commissions to pay out on the realized actual gross profit dollars.
This is especially important if your sales team is involved in complex estimating.
“Profit starts at the point of sale!”
Your challenge: Think differently about your 2024 sales plan.
In an uncertain economy, you have to get creative in how you approach sales.
1. Increase sales by doing more with each lead you get, all 7 days of the week.
2. Track your billable hours, so production can help manage revenues.
3. Attach enough contribution (gross profit) to each hour sold, so you have the best chance of achieving your profit targets next year.
Go get em!
Regards, Jeffrey Scott
To learn how your performance (on these three strategies) compares with others, join us for our Financial Master Class™
We will address these benchmarks, and more:
- Sales win ratio
- Growth projections
- Gross profit margins
- Mark ups
- Labor pricing
Get a better handle on your financial strategies. We will help you set better goals and provide you a financial roadmap on how to achieve those goals.
The early bird ends December 1st for this event – so sign up now.
