I got cornered the other day at a holiday party by several business owners who heard I was a business consultant. It seems sometimes being a consultant is like being a doctor in these settings as complete strangers will walk up and start sharing their business ailments. One of the owners, listening intensely to advice I was dispensing to another, asked for all to hear, "What ONE thing would I advise a business owner to do immediately that would improve sales performance?" My answer was emphatically, "Select and institutionalize a formal sales process."

Now I firmly believe this act alone will have an impact, but given my 18 years experience consulting with private business owners I will tell you - it is not enough. Real dramatic change in sales performance and company growth can come if you do these TWO big things in 2020:

Have a written strategic plan.

Select and institutionalize a defined sales process.

Here is why I so passionately believe this to be true.

Having a written strategic plan - a painting of what you want your company to look like in 2 or 3 years - will ensure everyone knows where you are driving the company. This is especially important for the folks in marketing and sales as they are the lead dogs, if you will, pulling the sleigh. It is critical they know unequivocally the specific (narrowly defined) customer demographic you feel you can best serve with your products/services. It is the strategic plan that answers both "who" ... are we selling to and "why" our product/service is the BEST solution for this customer over all other solutions.

Related article: The Inextricable Link Between Sales Success and Company Strategy

Having a defined, replicable, and teachable sales process - will ensure sales are pursued in a processed manner - not by "gut instinct", "feel", "intuition" or other loosely, ill defined manner salespeople typically say when asked "how do you sell?" And having everyone in the leadership team trained in this sales process ensures all are speaking a common language about where a customer is in the sales cycle and what next actions, strategies and support should be deployed to keep the sale moving forward.

Related article: "Bob" is NOT a Sales Process

Don't know how to craft a strategic plan? Need sales process training? Allegro can help.

Good luck in 2020 and happy holidays.