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Making Your Sales Number in the Coming Year

metaphor of success for making your sales number
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Making your sales number is one of the highest priorities for any organisation. If you have not hit your mid-year or end-of-year number now, then this year may not deliver the results you forecasted.

Now is the time to take stock of what is happening and look for fresh approaches that will ensure the numbers are achieved. Currently, your sales strategy and implementation plan may be faced with one or more of the following challenges:

  • Increased headcount did not lead to increased revenue
  • The pipeline does not have enough opportunities
  • Your sales cycle is getting longer
  • Your deal sizes are not increasing
  • Your win ratio is lowering even when you lower pricing
  • There is a lack of new customer acquisition, and the cost of acquiring them is increasing
  • You are losing customers at a greater rate than the previous year
  • You have struggled for two years now to make your sales number
  • The company is demanding a much larger sales number next year than previous growth rates
  • Traditional customers are not purchasing at the volumes they have done previously
  • New sales channels have become available, but you are not able to maximise them
  • Your sales results are reliant on a few good people, and the others are delivering ordinary results
  • The buyer’s decision-making process has become more complicated, and you are finding more people involved in the process
  • You are experiencing a lack of energy in the sales team to deliver the results
  • Your sales leader is struggling to find answers on how to improve the results

If you have identified with one or more of these points and feel it accurately describes your business, your sales strategy or implementation plan might need to be modified.

What is the best approach so you are making the right changes?

Firstly, it is important to understand the problem correctly. It is important to distinguish between the need for a strategy modification and the need for better execution of the current sales strategy. The Sales Improvement Review will identify this for you and provide you with the facts and road map for resolution. We break down all the issues so you know the priority of which ones to address first to expedite the results you can achieve.

Secondly, it is important to challenge your current assumptions. Companies achieving growth never assume they have all the answers. Whereas those struggling are known to say, “We are already doing that”, a lot.

Thirdly, companies can no longer rely on past experiences. The business world is changing too quickly, making the past experience less and less valuable. The Sales Improvement Review measures the practices used by the companies that are achieving results consistently each year. Comparing yourself to best practices is informative and can provide you with an additional competitive advantage.

Finally, get an expert outsider’s perspective, particularly someone from outside your industry. You are too close to the sales strategy to analyse it objectively. We can assist you in taking a contemporary and fresh-thinking view to build for the future.

With over 200 business in-depth reviews completed across many industries, we provide the catalyst for improvement and growth. We see things that you may not have considered that unlock your business. We enable sales leaders to deliver results in your company.

If you wish to discuss a review and set your business for profitable growth in the year ahead, please reach out for a conversation with Adele Crane by contacting the office.

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About the Author: Adele Crane

A leader in Implementation Consulting.
CEOs and Managing Directors have relied on Adele Crane to solve challenges with the performance of their sales and marketing since 1990. Her consulting experience in delivering results in 90-120 days is unprecedented by any other known sales and marketing consulting professional in the world. As an author of 3 acclaimed books, appearances on major media, and publications in USA, NZ and Australia, Adele’s experience brings fresh thinking and contemporary practices to business.