If you need ideas to improve sales, the fastest way to boost business growth is to enable sales systems throughout your organisation.
Successful sales systems create efficiencies, saving you time and money and helping you keep sales performance on the right track. 
Some examples of sales systems include:
- An effective sales process.
- CRM software.
- Marketing tools such as HubSpot and Infusionsoft.
What makes a successful sales system?
A successful sales system is a system that can be easily repeated. It’s highly automated and runs like clockwork, requiring little manual interference. It simplifies day-to-day tasks and supports your staff to make consistent sales.
Other traits of a successful sales system include:
- Consistency. It delivers consistent results, every time – no surprises.
- Reliability. It works. You can rely on it to do a good job without it breaking.
- Usability. It’s easy to use and everyone on your team understands how it works.
- Upgradability. You can upgrade the system without replacing the system.
- Impact. It has a real-world impact on sales. It produces real results – it’s not just for show.
“A successful sales system incorporates a company’s sales process with technology (such as CRM and pipeline management tools) to help guide salespeople through each step, track and measure progress, and provide visibility for sales managers,” says SalesStar chief executive, Paul O’Donohue.
“It should help managers hold the team accountable on specific activities and provide tailored coaching on deals that might have stalled.”
The most important system to get right is your sales process
“Research shows an effective sales process can lift revenue by up to 15 per cent,” says Grant Holland, SalesStar chief executive – Australia and New Zealand.
Below are some questions to ask to test the strength of your sales process.
- Does everyone follow the sales process?
- Has your sales process been built to suit your business?
- Does your team believe in it?
- Does your process include discovering and reaching decision makers?
- Is best-practice methodology included in the right phases of your process?
- Do you have a process to grow Share of Wallet? Or are you focused on service queries and firefighting?
Since your sales process brings everything together, a comprehensive review should reveal gaps. Once you fix the process, flaws with other systems will likely become clear.
