Driving Profitable Sales

The ability to consistently drive strong sales results is the foundation of a successful business. As the saying goes “No sales, no business.” Driving profitable sales results keeps the cash flowing, month in, and month out. This takes the pressure off when running a business, where decision-making becomes more strategic operating in growth mode, instead of reactive survival mode with the daily grind of trying to make ends meet. Sales are the blood of every business, and the secret lies in creating a system where you and your team proactively generate good leads and achieve consistent sales results.

To achieve this, focus on three key areas:

1. Sales Strategy: Having a solid strategy aligned with marketing activity that drives lead generation.
2. Sales Leadership: You need to lead by example knowing the importance of sales leadership. If there is no leadership in driving sales accountability, then this could be holding your company back from reaching its full potential. A motivated team that believes in your products or services and follows your systems and processes to generate more and more sales is essential.
3. Sales Culture: Where everyone in your company is committed to delivering exceptional outcomes for your customers, which in return generates repeat business, client referrals, and new opportunities.

A lack of motivation, commitment and accountability often holds businesses back from generating profitable sales results. If sales staff do not understand the importance of proactive daily sales activity, then how will your company grow?  How many times do we as consumers, get disappointed when we are let down by staff with inadequate product knowledge, poor communication, or lack of enthusiasm, when the sales experience is more transactional and not interactive? This can be very damaging to your brand and drive customers elsewhere.

The Power of a Sales Strategy

Every company should ensure having a well-defined sales strategy, and it’s more than just a directive to “sell more”. It’s a detailed plan that answers critical questions:

• What is the role of your website and social media in attracting new opportunities?
• What does your company need to do to attract new business opportunities whilst keeping and growing your existing clientele?
• What is the process to ensure your staff maximise every opportunity following a step-by-step sales process?

Even talented salespeople need structure and accountability. It’s your responsibility as a leader to ensure they remain committed to generating sales activity and work towards a sales game plan to win business.

We all know that referrals are often the best source of leads, but are your sales consultants consistently asking for them? Are you measuring success in lead generation, sales pipeline and closed business? What is the success rate of new business versus repeat business?

A strong sales strategy measures every part of the sales process because, as the saying goes, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”.

Understanding Sales Leadership

As a leader, it’s important to understand that motivation and achieving results comes from your leadership. Your leadership approach sets the tone for the team. When things don’t go as expected you must avoid demotivating your team. Research shows that if you are well-organised and stick to a thought-out plan, your motivation to do the job is sustained keeping the team proactive.  On the other hand, if you are reactive and this is reflected through your frustration and behaviour, then it is hard for you and your team to sustain self-motivation. When anger or frustration replaces your motivation, even the best efforts to inspire self-motivation can fall flat leading to reactive behaviour from your sales, and customer service team.

It is important to have a Company Sales Plan or Client Strategy in place that holds you and everyone involved accountable. When the team trusts the process and works with energy and focus, self-motivation will follow. Having the right sales model in place enables your team to operate with confidence, working proactively to succeed in winning business and achieve goals following the game plan of your Sales Strategy.

Building a Sales Culture

As a leader, you must know how to coach, manage and mentor your staff to get the best out of your team. Leading by example and having a proactive approach will ensure that you will create a strong sales culture within your company. Sales culture is about consistent action toward achieving the sales targets – individually and as a team. A strong team will help each other with product knowledge, systems and processes, and support each other to win more business that benefits the team and company.

Sales leaders must excel at facilitating team meetings and training sessions that empower their staff to do their best. Leaders must ensure that every employee understands the company products and services, systems and processes as this drives and delivers results.

For underperforming staff, identify the issue. Is it skill capability, poor attitude or other contributing factors? Address these challenges through coaching and support. Having a positive attitude will help them succeed if they are supported. If there is no improvement, you may need to move them on to protect the morale and performance of others within your company.

Sales culture is about winning and achieving, so you must build a team that believes in your strategy, monitor their progress, to consistency exceed sales budgets, and targets and drive long-term success.

At Key Business Advisors, we have an incredible team committed to delivering results that align with our mission, vision, purpose, and values.  We develop tailored strategies designed to take our clients’ businesses from good to great. With a proven model and over 16 years of experience, we have consistently built strong, lasting client relationships across Australia.

To learn more about our company and access FREE resources to help your business with better sales strategies to grow and get to the next level:

• KBA Professional Sales Training – Click Here
• How to Build a Great Sales Engine – Click Here  
• 12 Step B2B Sales Process – Click Here  
• 11 Step B2C Sales Process – Click Here  
• 9 Steps to Successful Prospecting and Selling Over the Phone – Click Here  
• 7 Steps to Retail Sales Process – Click Here  
• 10 Steps to Excellent Customer Service – Click Here  
• Enrol in our next FREE Webinar – Driving Profitable Sales In 2025 – Click here to Register

At KBA, we are passionate about taking businesses from good to great. If you need assistance in enhancing performance through a strong sales culture, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!

If you would like to explore our services further or require assistance, please reach out to Key Business Advisors on 1300 4 ADVICE