For a company, defining sales targets is of vital importance. They enable you to accurately assess the achievements of your teams over a given period. In addition, the importance of monitoring your sales force should not be underestimated. It really is the essential pillar for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of your sales teams! To support you in this process, discover a compilation of all our tips for monitoring the activities and performance of your teams.
Definition of a sales force
A sales force is much more than just a team of salespeople. It is the backbone of a company’s ability to achieve its sales and growth objectives. Their main mission is to develop solid relationships with customers, understand their needs and challenges, and offer them appropriate solutions.
These professionals are like brand ambassadors: they use their expertise and persuasiveness to convince potential customers to make a purchase. They are the driving force behind the company’s commercial growth.
What are the tasks of a sales team?
As the central pillar of the sales strategy, the sales force plays an essential role in several key aspects:
- Prospecting and customer acquisition: members of the sales force are often responsible for seeking out potential new customers, whether through canvassing, direct marketing or networking. Their aim is to find sales opportunities and attract new customers to the company.
- Presenting products or services: once in contact with potential customers, members of the sales force must be able to present the features and benefits of the company’s products or services in a convincing manner. Their in-depth knowledge of the company’s offerings enables them to answer customers’ questions and guide them towards the solutions best suited to their needs.
- Closing sales: the ultimate goal of the sales force is, of course, to close successful sales. This often involves negotiating the terms of sale, overcoming any objections customers may have and reaching agreements that benefit both the company and the customer.
- Customer loyalty: once the sale has been made, the relationship with the customer doesn’t stop there. The sales force plays a crucial role in building customer loyalty. It offers a quality after-sales service, regularly following up with customers to ensure they are satisfied and proposing additional products or services that could meet their future needs.
What is a good sales objective?
Business objectives, also known as sales targets, are clear and precise targets that your company aims to achieve over a defined period, usually a year or more. They are of vital importance to your company’s commercial and overall strategy.
Business objectives can take a variety of forms and encompass several aspects within the organisation, for example:
- Financial objectives: achieving a specific turnover, achieving 10% growth in one year, etc.
- Marketing objectives: increase the number of customers, improve the conversion rate by 25%, etc.
- Human resources objectives: strengthen the employer brand, increase headcount by 30%, etc.
- Communication objectives: increase the communication budget by 10% to raise awareness, etc.
These objectives provide a compass to guide your company’s efforts and allow you to measure progress in different areas. Your sales force can make strategic decisions more easily to ensure the company’s long-term growth and success.
Commercial objectives: what are the benefits?
Determining objectives for your sales force has a number of advantages, as you can use these indicators:
- To make informed decisions: having clearly defined sales targets simplifies decision-making, whether strategic or operational. By knowing exactly where we’re going, we’re better equipped to choose the best route to take. For example, if your objective is to increase awareness of your brand by 20% among young people aged 18-25, you can direct your marketing actions, such as social networking campaigns, to achieve this specific objective.
- To motivate your resources: clear objectives motivate teams to achieve their goals. When every member of the team knows what they have to achieve. It also stimulates commitment and fosters a real team spirit. The pursuit of a common goal strengthens cohesion and encourages collaboration within the sales team or department, resulting in higher collective performance.
- To establish relevant control and monitoring criteria: defining clear and precise objectives provides a tangible reference for assessing progress and results. This makes it possible to establish relevant control and monitoring criteria, making it easier to keep track of sales activity. With well-defined objectives, it becomes easier to measure performance, identify gaps in relation to expectations and make the necessary adjustments to stay on track.
6 steps to effectively monitor your sales force objectives
1. Define clear commercial objectives
Before you can monitor the performance of your sales force, it is essential to define clear and precise sales objectives. These objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). Whether in terms of turnover to be achieved, the number of new customers to be acquired, or the conversion rate to be reached, these objectives will serve as a benchmark against which to evaluate the performance of your sales team.
2. Drawing up an effective prospecting plan
Prospecting for new customers is an essential stage in the sales process. To effectively monitor the performance of your sales force in this area, it is important to put in place a structured prospecting plan. This may include identifying potential prospects, segmenting the market, using prospecting tools such as email campaigns or social networks, and regularly monitoring the results obtained.
3. Manage your customer portfolio effectively
As well as prospecting for new customers, it is just as important to ensure the satisfaction and loyalty of existing customers. To monitor your sales force’s performance in this area, you need to implement customer relationship management (CRM) tools that enable you to track changes in your customer portfolio, manage customer interactions and implement effective loyalty strategies.
4. Measuring internal and external sales
Depending on the structure of your business, your sales may be carried out internally by your sales team, or outsourced to external partners or distributors. Whichever method you use, it’s important to put in place monitoring tools to measure internal and external sales performance, and to identify the most effective channels for achieving your sales objectives.
5. Analysing additional sales
Additional sales represent an opportunity to maximise the value of transactions by offering complementary products or services to your existing customers. To monitor the performance of your add-on sales force in this area, it is important to put in place specific performance indicators, such as the add-on sales rate per transaction, and to train your sales team to identify and seize these opportunities.
6. Integrate long-term objectives
As well as setting short-term business objectives, it is also important to bear in mind your company’s longer-term goals. These may include medium and long-term growth objectives, objectives for developing new markets or new products, or sales objectives with a view to a possible sale or acquisition of the company. By integrating these long-term objectives into your sales strategy, you will enable your sales force to work in harmony with the company’s overall vision.
What tools can you use to monitor the performance of your sales force?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
A CRM is a central tool for tracking customer interactions, managing customer data and analysing sales. It stores all information relating to customers and prospects, including purchase histories, preferences, interactions, etc. CRMs also offer reporting and analysis functionalities that make it possible to monitor the performance of the sales force and identify opportunities for growth.
Performance dashboards
Performance dashboards make it easy to visualise key data linked to sales objectives, such as sales figures achieved, new customers acquired, conversion rates, etc. These dashboards provide a real-time overview of sales force performance, enabling managers to make quick, informed decisions to optimise results.
Sales analysis tools
Sales analysis tools enable in-depth analysis of sales data to identify trends, buying patterns, cross-selling or up-selling opportunities, etc. These tools provide detailed reports and predictive analyses that help to understand customer behaviour and optimise sales strategies.
Tools for monitoring individual objectives
To monitor the individual performance of the members of your sales force, it is useful to have tools that allow you to define individual objectives, monitor progress and evaluate performance against these objectives. This can include features such as individual dashboards, activity reports, performance appraisals, etc.
Communication and collaboration software
To encourage communication and collaboration within the sales team, it is important to have tools that allow you to share information, coordinate efforts and work effectively as a team. This can include instant messaging tools, online collaboration platforms, document storage and sharing areas, etc.
Real-time feedback and coaching
Finally, it is important to put in place real-time feedback and coaching mechanisms to support the ongoing development of sales team members. This may take the form of regular follow-up meetings, individual coaching sessions, skills assessment tools, etc.
