Sales is one of the most important activities across your entire business. As the primary revenue generators, salespeople are responsible for effectively ensuring the health of your company through the satisfaction of your existing clients and the sourcing of new ones. However, many managers and even entire firms neglect to take the final step in the evolution of a sustainable sales process: analysis and forecasting.
By developing a repeatable and standardized process of analyzing and forecasting your sales data, you not only make the jobs of your salespeople easier but take a meaningful step towards long-term profitability. Here’s why.
Allow Your Team to Set Goals
Research has shown that those who set goals and implement a concrete plan achieve better results, regardless of the field of practice. Through the analysis of your sales, you’ll be better able to engage in a goal-setting exercise with your staff by understanding the quantitative outcomes of your work. Arming your team with the data of how their tactics and relationships are paying off will allow them to more accurately and more consistently set meaningful goals.
Reprioritize Your Efforts
It’s impossible to solve a problem if your team is not aware there is one. Analyzing your sales is the best way to identify if your efforts should be redistributed to other areas or activities. If a large percentage of your sales calls and report generation is spent on clients that don’t have the largest impact on your bottom line, it may be time to readdress the sustainability of that client relationship. Additionally, analyzing sales by coverage person and forecasting growth can help determine if additional help will be needed on certain accounts, or if certain clients might be overstaffed in terms of sales coverage.
Streamline the Onboarding Process
Having a firm idea of where your sales team has been – and the direction in which it is headed – will make hiring additional professionals markedly easier. Your team will be much better able to see whether a professional will be necessitated based on the growth of your client portfolio, as well as how much your firm could afford to pay said professional. On the candidate’s end as well, the training and onboarding process will be smoother if they are presented with detailed data on existing accounts as well as goals for growth and prospecting. Better equipping your incoming salespeople to make an impact as early in their tenure as possible will benefit your team dynamic as well as your finances.
Evaluate Performance
One of the most obvious benefits of analyzing and forecasting your sales is that it serves as an excellent performance evaluation tool. When it comes to year-end bonuses or promotion opportunities, having an analysis of your sales sorted by salesperson will ensure you make the most prudent and fair decisions.
Find Your Next Sales Star with Talance Group
At Talance Group, we focus on building long-term, fruitful relationships with our clients. If you are looking for the right talent for your company, we’d love to discuss how Talance’s network offers a unique advantage. Our sales and marketing recruiters take the time to understand the complexities of your business and specific hiring needs before your search even begins. Our #1 rule is always to do what is in the best interest of our clients and candidates; your success is our shared goal. Visit our website at talancegroup.com/contact-us to start searching today.
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Talance Group partners with American Association of Finance and Accounting (AAFA) to connect top-talent with a large network of accounting and recruiting professionals. Partnering with AAFA allows Talance Group to provide a boutique, relationship-focused service at a national level.
