While most films and TV shows love to depict the concept of launching a business startup as easy as calling a few friends, hunkering down inside a garage, and brainstorming for the next couple of hours, this sensationalized depiction fails to cover the more technical and detail-oriented aspects of business planning. In reality, mere critical discussion and meetings aren’t enough to assure business success. Processes such as prototyping, raising venture capital, and target consumer analysis are but a fraction of the whole ordeal.
Furthermore, even after laying the groundwork for your core operations, the first five years ahead of you are some of the most grueling, transformative, and crucial periods that will determine if you can establish a foothold in the industry. And sadly, while most aspiring entrepreneurs today have a firm grasp on innovative thinking and social media marketing, only a select few recognize the sheer influence of effective sales performance on business growth.
What Makes Sales So Important for Business Growth?
Although going beyond breakeven and attracting a healthy number for your customer base are excellent accomplishments for any business startup, the most impactful performance indicator and bottom line that makes or breaks your future as an entrepreneur is turning a profit. Therefore, shaping the culture and strategy around your sales teams as early as today creates a long-lasting impact that stretches into the subsequent years that follow.
However, the art of sales and the skill of securing a deal isn’t something people are naturally born with. Given the transformative economic events occurring today alongside a recovering US economy on the upside, most businesses are unsure of where to start.
Nevertheless, it’s a business owner’s responsibility to build a strong enough foundation for their business to thrive and flourish, so while we can’t prepare for every possible scenario in a sales environment, finding the right people and promoting sales productivity should take priority instead.
Everything Starts With Talent Acquisition
When transforming your current sales department into professional salespeople who consistently convert warm leads into paying customers, everything starts with the onboarding process of finding the suitable candidates to make up your sales department. You see, since small businesses and startups can only afford a limited number of people, you want to hire sales employees that will provide the best output possible. That being the case, what you’re looking for in a candidate is an excellent ability to communicate and extreme self-discipline.
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People With the Ability to Communicate:
Sales isn’t just about knowing the ins and outs of the products and services you offer; it’s also about building and sustaining customer relations and satisfying their needs. As a result, you want people with a proven track record of active listening skills, tenacity to interact with different people, and the necessary competencies for closing a deal. When managing a B2B business model, proficient communication and negotiation become all the more important.
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Naturally Self-disciplined and Resilient:
The sales landscape is a cutthroat business that doesn’t hold back or provide special treatment for select individuals; it’s a business craft that’s constantly changing and evolving with trends and emerging demand. And given the nature of the sales environment, you need people who are self-disciplined and resilient enough to adapt accordingly to said changes. It’s a difficult uphill battle for startups to earn their spot in an industry, and you’ll need a resourceful sales team to maintain cash flows.
Restructuring Your Current Sales Environment
Besides finding the right people, most business owners have the capacity to restructure their internal sales environment for the better, the bulk of which don’t understand its influence over promoting sales productivity. And since managing external risks and threats is beyond a startup’s scope, shaping your sales perspective ASAP is an excellent way of bringing out the true potential of your sales department.
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Customer-centered Approach and Strategy:
While most businesses think their goals and approaches are centered around the customer’s needs, often, these objectives lean more towards a product-centric strategy. Of course, there are still objective benefits to this sales method, but customer-centricity builds customer relationships and empowers the target consumers. As such, investing in a professional business culture consultant can help speed up the process of transitioning into a better workplace culture.
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Investing in Sales Management Tools:
Last but not least, your sales department will also need the necessary sales management tools to enable proper database management and analysis of customer data. And while cheap enterprise solutions exist, investing in world-renowned cloud-based management software as early as possible is the recommended way to go because most of these tools are scalable and sustainable.
When Starting From the Bottom, the Only Way Is Up
Sure, launching a successful business startup takes a lot of effort, but the only way available is going up when starting from scratch. So, before you spread your resources thin across different business functions, you must invest in your sales department first.