Tweet

Sales Strategy: Hit Sales Targets by Targeting Your Sales and Marketing

Guest post by: Danita Bye

Article Overview: In an age of seemingly dwindling opportunities and seemingly endless competition, picking up every sale you can get is seemingly imperative. It’s either that, or go hungry, right?

Sales Strategy: Hit Sales Targets by Targeting Your Sales and Marketing

In an age of seemingly dwindling opportunities and seemingly endless competition, picking up every sale you can get is seemingly imperative. It’s either that, or go hungry, right?

Wrong – everything is not as it seems, and if you get caught up in the idea that your business has to be everything to everyone and take every opportunity that comes its way, you stand a good chance of starving in the streets.

You need a Great Sales Strategy - Not Every Market Is a Good Market for Your Business I’ll make this as clear as I can: specialization does not limit profit potential. In fact, specialization can improve sales performance and profits so much and so fast that your only regret will be that you didn’t do it sooner. Just ask the doctor who chose podiatry over general practice. Ask Apple Computer, which sticks to serving a design-conscious, well-heeled customer base and does quite well, thank you, with only about 10% of the market (Apple used to do fine with less, too). Or ask me – I’ve seen the power of targeting niche markets in action.

Back in the 90s, I invested in a hearing aid manufacturing company, figuring the rising average age of citizens in this country could only work to my advantage. That part was true. I also figured that more was merrier when it came to marketing our products. That turned out to be less true.

Operating on the principle that our market was any clinic which sold hearing aids, we "targeted" hospitals, ENT offices, VA contracts, private practice audiologists, and dispensers no matter where they could be found. Our prospect list was 14,000 strong, and our eight salespeople worked that list hard, contributing to a 50% per year growth.

I’m not making much of a case for specialization and target marketing, am I? Just wait. All it took to bring down this house of cards was a special report on ABC’s Nightline, a report that painted a very negative picture of the retail side of our industry and which soon got the FDA’s attention.

Leave Money on the Table. Leave the Competition Behind.

After the Nightline story aired, our sales dropped 20% in one month. Our competitors cut prices, creating a playing field so steep that we just couldn’t win. It soon got so bad that we were faced with some hard choices, including letting half of our sales force go and possibly selling the company in a buyer’s market.

Before it came to that, though, we got a flash of insight: what if we focused our marketing and sales efforts on a select group of prospects who were a perfect fit for our unique strengths? What if we customized our marketing message, services, and offerings to appeal to a niche group of high ROI customers? What if we said, when looking at the money on the table, "We’ll take some of that, but we’ll leave the rest"?

To those who subscribed to the "more markets mean more money" philosophy, this cure was worse than the disease. For us, it is not on made our hearing aid manufacturing company more successful than ever, it laid the groundwork for many of the principles and techniques I use every day to increase sales and margins for the businesses I consult with.

Why did a plan that said to some potential customers, "No, we don’t want your business," work? More importantly, how can your business implement the same strategies and realize the sales success that we did? I cover those topics in detail, along with the myths that lead managers and CEOs to waste limited resources on unfocused, unprofitable markets, in my free book, Target Sales Focus. In this short space, though, I can tell you from personal experience and the experiences of my clients that a precisely targeted sales and marketing approach cuts costs while it boosts ROI, allows you to price like a specialist, cranks up the revs on your referral engine, and offers a wealth of other benefits you’d never expect.

As the old saying goes, "less is more," and it’s never truer than when it’s applied to a marketing and sales plan that brings your core strengths to bear on well-defined markets just waiting for a business like yours to claim them and make them your own.

© Copyright 2009, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.

Related Articles
  Growing Your Pipeline Through Targeted Communications Strategies
  Sales Strategy and Tactics - Thoughts from the Super Bowl
  The Magic Bullet of Marketing
  Increased Sales Effectiveness: Opportunity #1
  Part 5: Marketing and Sales Strategies
  Do you have the sales force your strategy needs?
  SALES & MARKETING - ARE THEY COMPATIBLE FOR MARKET SUCCESS?
  Leading Lead Generation & Inside Sales
  Has Your Sales Force Lost Their Passion
  Sales Coaching - The Big Differentiator
  Sales Training in Today’s Economy
  Formalizing The Sales Support Function
  Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year
  25 Ways to become a Great Team Leader
  Increase Sales By Being One of the Few and Not One of the Many
  UK Sales Coaching For Sales Managers - A 60 second tool
  Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking His Sales Managers
  No Pain No Gain 5 Step Sales Strategy
  What targets should I be setting for my marketing?
  Are You Firing On Your Prospects In Your Quest to Increase Sales?

Article Tags: Market Strategy, Sales Management Process, SalesStrategy, Strategic Sales Plan
Referred by: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com/



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Any ideas for potential partner sites? - Hi Everyone, I was wondering if any of you have any ideas on "potential partner sites" for our specific forum categories? For instance, is there a leading "Women Entrepreneur" or "Sales/Marketing" site you know of that doesn't have an existing online community of its own? This could be a great way to help us attract more traffic. Thanks
Hello From Marietta GA! - Hello All! My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
taxes in canada - Well in Canada we only have a few provinces and the Sales tax is slightly different. Here in Ontario the Goods & Services tax has reduced to 5% from 7% in the last year due to the promises made by the government in place.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Download a template or see a lawyer?

The Right Job - Part Five 'Compensation'

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.