Are You Pursuing The Right Sales Opportunities?

Success in today’s competitive marketplace often comes down to pursuing the right sales opportunities. This article explains why this is important and how you can make sure that you do it effectively?

The Problem

Many sales forecasts are missed and sales careers sabotaged by salespeople spending their time pursing the wrong sales opportunities.  This usually occurs because the salesperson reacts to the marketplace instead of attacking it strategically.

The Solution

High performing salespeople are more strategic because they focus on what’s important.

What sets these high performers apart is their ability to employ clarity of purpose, consistent communication to the marketplace, commitment to taking right action and the discipline to execute. These salespeople achieve excellent results because they know:

• Their clients and the pain they are experiencing.
• How their product addresses the pain.
• What message clients need to hear to make a decision.
• How to move their clients from decision to implementation.
• When they can’t win.

Because they have a clear and consistent strategy for approaching the marketplace, they are able to focus on important and winnable sales opportunities.  They don’t get distracted by periodic “road kills” that may litter the highway of a major sale.  They also don’t get seduced by the allure of landing the “big elephant” when their chances of winning are slim or none.  The quickest way to zap your time and income is to spend $1,000 in selling effort to land a $100 commission.

To make sure they are pursuing the right sales opportunities, they ask themselves:

• Is there a fit between the client’s needs and my solution?
• Can I win?
• Is it worth pursuing?

By developing the discipline to ask these questions regularly, answer them honestly and then acting on the answers.  Successful salespeople are able to say “yes” to the right opportunities and “no” to the wrong ones.