Most tech founders don’t know how to rapidly grow sales after signing their first customers, and we all know not knowing where next month’s sales are coming from is a common stressor for startups.
Sales cycles have become increasingly unpredictable and incredibly long winded with too many opportunities for customer drop off.
Sales benchmark research shows that the average sales cycle length of B2B companies is 102 days.
In the current state of flux, your processes will be the thing that sets your startup apart from the competition.
At Sales for Startups, we work on educating our customers on the right deliverables to ensure efficiency in two-week sprint success and getting businesses VP ready.
To achieve this we focus on the four As. Analyse, Activate, Accountability, and Accomplish.
How to do a Sales Performance Analysis
Do you find yourself asking, “where are we?” and “where do we need to be?” and “how are you going to get there?”.
As your company grows, it can lose track of objectives, customers, employees and even the purpose of the product/service.
Performing a sales analysis will provide insight on the gaps within your business goals, people performance and capability.
- Identify the actual state
- Consider desired state
- Track the discrepancies
- Come up with a solution
How to write an activation plan
Alignment is crucial when it comes to executing sales activation plans. You have to ensure all your departments: sales, marketing, and customer success teams are on the same page.
- Set SMART goals
- Set a budget
- Implement the right tools
- Hire the right people
Creating accountability amongst the team
Accountability is important for any team, but when it comes to managing a hybrid sales B2B team it is vital.
Without accountability, people won’t take ownership to make sure the work is done right. Improving accountability in your team is an important step to creating overall predictable sales within your startup.
- Choose a champion
- Set clear expectations
- Open lines of communication
- Create formal check-ins
How to accomplish what you set out to achieve
At the beginning of each year, quarter, or month Founders meet with their board, managers, and team to review what they did and didn’t accomplish over that period of time and create new goals and aspirations for the future.
At Sales for Startups, we’ve found that creating a more structured environment with shorter goal and review periods is more impactful.
Two week sprints are full of opportunities to learn more with less time.
How do you create two week sprints in your startup?
- Set a timeframe
- Choose the right platform
- Define expectations
- Measure and track milestones
- Create working Practices
The holy grail of sales success is building predictable sales. Growing sales predictably should not be a mystery. For growth to be predictable you must aim to improve the quantity and quality of your leads and be mindful of how they’re being managed through the sales journey.
Sales for Startups work with Pre-Seed to Series A B2B tech Founders to build sales operations by clarifying your message, hiring the right team and ultimately converting more leads.
Book a call with a member of the team to find out more.