How to Hit Your 2022 Q4 Sales Goals
Most of us can agree that financially speaking, 2022 has been a complex and challenging year. Between an economic downturn and seemingly endless speculation of whether the US will officially enter a recession, small to mid-sized businesses have worked tirelessly to remain competitive while continuing to build revenue.
Now, as we have entered Q4, sales teams are under more pressure to hit their annual sales goals. With few signs pointing toward an economic recovery by the end of the year, reaching these goals may prove to be more difficult than any of us can anticipate. Is your sales team equipped to rise to the occasion?
Here are a few sales strategies that may help push your sales team past the finish line by the end of the year:
Revise Your Sales Process
A proven & repeatable sales process is important for cultivating consistent performance among your sales team. However, no firm-wide sales process should be set in stone. Especially for firms who may have experienced a dip in sales throughout the summer months, now may be the perfect time to reassess the finer points of your sales process and start making revisions informed by forward-facing market research and insights.
Revisit Past Leads
Sales teams should always be finding new prospects and qualifying new leads, but the option to revisit past leads may also be worth exploring. Perhaps the timing was not right during the first pitch and your sales team’s techniques have developed since then. Regardless, reaching out to a past lead presents your sales team with another opportunity to demonstrate value, meaningfully address past shortcomings, and gain further experience.
Push for New Referrals
Before Q4, sales managers may want to encourage members of their sales team to leverage their existing relationships with clients to push for new referrals. Because some members of your sales team may find this process to be potentially awkward with certain clients, consider developing a referral process with consistent steps and talking points. When requesting new referrals, sales managers may also want to remind their team members to prioritize long-term clients who share a high overall satisfaction with your firm.
Take the Time for Further Training and Coaching
Now may feel like the time to buckle down and focus on closing as many sales as possible before the end of the year, but your team can only get so far if they cannot properly address critical errors that may hold them back. Managers should always make training, coaching, and counseling a priority, even when deadlines feel tight. For newer and more inexperienced members of your sales team who may not even recognize why they struggle with closing, further training and coaching might be the only way they can reach their end-of-year sales goals.
Offer Incentives
Comprehensive training for new hires often cuts into a firm’s total number of billable hours. A formal process can help reduce the amount of sales training received by new hires while helping communicate what they will come to expect in their new role.
Prioritize the Right Prospects
Consider encouraging your sales team to focus more on high-value prospects when analyzing their sales pipelines for the rest of the year. “High-value” in this instance does not just refer to big spenders, but also the prospects who may develop into returning customers and can provide more referrals in the future.
Outsource Your Sales Management
Even if your team is doing most things right, sometimes a qualified third party is required to help you get over the finish line. An outsourced manager with the right level of experience, and the proper amount of time to dedicate to improving your processes can leave a lasting impact on your sales team beyond the end of Q4.
At Sebastian Lane Consulting, we offer our clients proven & repeatable sales processes tailored to their unique values and methodologies—all for only a fraction of the cost needed to onboard a new in-house sales manager.
To learn more about our outsourced sales management and practice assessment services, call Sebastian Lane Consulting at 443-534-6783 or email us at jesse@sebastianlaneconsulting.com to schedule your free consultation.