Sales Strategy Tool
Use-it Cases
For Strategic Planning
For Communication
When you want to think through how you will attract customers and sales.
When you want to quickly communicate your sales process.
When you need to identify where the gaps in your business model are.
Personalize this model to use in your investor pitch
ToolTips
• Having an effective sales process even at the earliest stage is the best insurance that a company can have. There are a variety of sales processes, but most
follow the general phases described as follows:
o Prospecting: How will you find customers or get leads? How will you identify sales opportunities? Remember this first phase just opens the door to
potential sales. You may close far less than 10% Many sales professionals call this “priming the pump”.
o Qualifying: How do you know that the customer is interested in buying? Tire kickers can be time consuming and costly so you need a way to know
what your chances are to complete the sale.
o Proposal: Will they buy? Some sales strategies refer to this phase as the ask. How will you put this all important question to your customer so that you
make “yes” the most likely answer? The only thing worse that a badly “asked for” sale is the “unasked for” sale.
o Decision: How does your customer say “yes”? How do you make it as easy as possible for him or her? How do you quickly know and address
(negotiate) any objections that your customer may have so that you can close the deal?
o Repeat Business: Once you have closed the sale, how do you increase the chances that you will get repeat business or an upsale? How do you smoothly
hand the customer over to other members of your team to complete the service if that is necessary?
• The next step is indeed the all telling test question! Do you know the steps your customers go through to get to that all important sale? Understanding
your customer ‘s buying process from how he finds out about your product to how he pays for it is crucial!
• Your next task is to think through the activities you will be able perform during each one of these phases and who and how they will be accomplished.
• Next, think about how you will know that each phase is successful. If the activities or steps that you’ve defined do not lead to that goal, you need to rethink
those steps
• The final effort is significant, but it turns your sales strategy into a repeatable process and presents a professional impression of your business to your
customers. What tools or job aids do you need to complete the activities in each phase? What collateral do your sales reps need? If you are fortunate to
have an experienced salesperson on your team, what do they use and how can you replicate those tools for your other sales reps?
Case Study: TowerCare Technologies
TowerCare Technologies provides centralized, consolidated, and highly adaptive process applications for long-term health care and nonprofit
organizations. Their applications, are built upon a proprietary work-flow and people-centric architecture, enable customers to achieve productivity
improvements of over 40%, increases revenues, decrease expenses and meet new security and privacy goals.
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Sales Strategy Tool
Sales Strategy & Process
SOLUTION SELLING
SALES PROCESS
STEPS
CUSTOMER BUYING
PROCESS
SALES PROCESS
ACTIVITIES AND
MILESTONES
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Prospecting
Qualifying
Proposal
Decision
Evaluate options
Negotiate
Identify business
needs
Generate new
prospects (via referrals,
networking, trade
associations,
conferences)
Look at existing
customer base for
opportunities
Identify decision-maker
within target company
OUTCOMES/GOALS
JOB AIDS
Initial sponsor
identified
Determine
requirements
Probe and assess needs
with decision-maker
Create a buying vision
that maps
product/service to
business needs
Asses potential,
including revenue
forecast and internal
dependencies
Buying vision and
access to decisionmaker
Business Development
Prompter
Product/Service Benefit
Statement
Customer Reference
Story
Follow-Up to
Product/Service Sales
Call (formal)
Selling Points
Presentation
Competitive Points List
Create an evaluation
plan to demonstrate to
decision-maker your
ability to meet their
business needs
Negotiate terms and
conditions
Phase 5
Repeat Business
Implement and
evaluate success
Complete the work
(deliver the
product/service)
Close the sale
Follow-up with the
customer
Ask for the business
Issue the proposal
Value demonstrated
and proposal
submitted
Product/Service
Evaluation Plan
Signed contract
Satisfied customer
(repeat business,
reference)
Rebuttals to Negotiation Product/Service
Roadblocks
Satisfaction Tracker
Give-Get List for
Negotiation Tradeoffs
Sale Follow-Up
Letter
Negotiation Tracker
Follow-Up to
Product/Service Sales
Call (informal)
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Sales Strategy Tool
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
Prospecting
Qualifying
Proposal
Decision
Repeat Business
Customer
Buying Process
Sales Activities
& Milestones
Outcome &
Goals
Job Aids
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