Replicating the Most Effective Sales Strategies of Small Businesses

Are your current sales strategies working? No?

This is undoubtedly a good read if you wish to take a detour and explore a different perspective on sales strategies.

For a small business to grow and thrive, it must earn profits or revenues. And sales strategies hold a big responsibility in driving the business forward.

Strategies, designed and implemented to overcome two critical challenges: Sales of products and services, and the second is the threat from competitors.

Now, the strategy enforced by a growing company is slightly different from what a small business will do.

However, to get an entry for a new product or a new market, you may want to stick to the sales strategy identified by a small business.

But before we directly crash upon the strategies, let’s briefly reflect on what exactly is a sales strategy?

What Exactly Is A Sales Strategy? What Do You Need?

What do you think are common practices in soccer and basketball?

An incredible Game Plan!

A game plan is designed in such a way that accommodates amends during the game.

These game plans are created based on the objective, competitor team, team player’s strengths, and weaknesses, and based on previous performance.

Once all charts and details are in front, the managers and coach devise a plan that the team needs to stick to and reach the end goal.

Remember the movie Moneyball?

A sales strategy is an organization's game plan to align its product or service with its target market. A sales strategy is a plan for achieving a company's sales and revenue objectives.

That may sound simple enough, but it has some nuances to consider.

• It identifies the goals, actions, and processes for the entire sales team and individual reps.

• The strategy acts as a guide for the whole business sales plan.

• A sales strategy also comprises a step where you make the target customer aware of your product - by making it relevant for them.

Now, we can jump on the sales strategies that struggling businesses and new businesses can adopt.

10 Simple Sales Strategies That Work for Small Businesses

1. Do a thorough opportunity research

A game plan formed without research is as good as a glass hammer.

Initial search and market survey support managers to build a full proof plan that’s stable and reliable but at the same time flexible to accommodate crisis and dynamic situations.

1. Build a surplus qualified lead pipeline

Start working on a solid pipeline.

A sales pipeline not only makes business flow but also impacts branding and motivation.

A fast-growing pipeline psychologically calms the sales rep to work smartly under less pressure.

On the other hand, a poor and empty pipeline makes reps nervous and inefficient.

1. Start with the existing customers and network

Any company that’s planning to launch a new product category or see a poor acquisition in the present market must always look within existing customers.

Surprisingly, existing customers may not show any indication of a product. Still, they may have been looking for the product with other vendors. Due to the absence of information, they were unaware of your product category.

1. Use lead qualification to chase prospects

Chasing and prioritizing the wrong prospect is a big mistake often committed by enterprise companies.

Running behind unqualified prospects wastes time and money, in some cases the rep’s job.

You may hit the wall too soon unless you have an excellent lead qualification process. So, avoid doing so and create a specific lead qualification process.

NOTE: Don’t try to over qualify your audience

1. Follow-up frequently

Prospects, intentionally or unintentionally, want to forget you.

It’s not the prospect’s duty to keep you in memory, but the salesperson’s responsibility to not let the product escape their mind.

Even though the prospect doesn’t show initial interest, as per good sales strategy practice, 5-8 follow-ups are always needed before closing the deal.

1. Make tremendous use of social selling

Traditional sales strategies never advocated social selling.

But today, a sales plan without social selling is as good as a lost deal.

Chances of a rep staying relevant on Linkedin is higher than a rep cold calling and showing no social presence.

If not a wholesome process, there should be guidelines and help in the sales plan on how to win prospects through platforms like social selling.

Would you like to know how to leverage social selling?- Try now

1. Build a personal brand

Small businesses can’t rely on the company’s brand.

An unknown brand that’s just taken birth can hardly sell by itself.

In such cases, the most valued person, executives, or sales employee brands take the lead.

Building a company and product brand with the help of a personal brand is a more straightforward and smart way to grow an audience.

1. Invest time in template and script creation

Small businesses usually start a sales strategy with many experiments and hits & trials.

Some of the trials show excellent results and need immediate attention as best practices.

These emails, phone calls, sales pitches, and product presentations must be recorded as templates and scripts.

1. Start building a sales playbook

In case you were wondering in the earlier section, how exactly do we create a repository of the best practices, then this is what you need to build- A digital sales playbook.

Remember to invest time in a playbook that can store and categorize sales calls that stand out. Because winning calls can also be shared with new members or poor performers.

1. Keep a winning mindset

It takes a sales strategy to start the race, but it takes a winning mindset to finish it.

A sales strategy, by default, has to reflect on a winning and strong mindset that’s determined to fight because the deal is already a part of its existence.

The article may feel like a contradiction or a new beginning to your sales chapter. Still, a sales strategy adopted by small businesses is a course correction to the existing strategy.

You must maximize the time and optimize resources to close more deals by developing the right sales strategies.

So without further ado, start reflecting the sales strategies of small businesses. Need a tool for storing the most suitable sales practices?- Try this.

Angela Ash is an expert content writer, editor and marketer, who focuses on topics related to remote work, freelancing, entrepreneurship and more.