Guest Blog: A Visual Sales Strategy

Last month at my NWEN workshop- I met Oswald Norton of Executive Coaching NW. He shared this sales strategy tool that helps to visualize and coordinate your sales efforts. I thought it might be helpful for those of you who are more visual!

Creating a strategy for your Authentic Selling Campaign is one way to create a step by step process for a successful outcome. CultureSync, a company focused on cultures that collaborate, taught me how to create strategies using this picture.

I’ve used it so often that whenever I launch a new marketing campaign, I always have it in mind.  It has four essential components: Your outcome, Your assets, Your actions and Pitfalls.

Outcome:

Start with the outcome you want to achieve by the specific date you want to achieve it.  This outcome assumes that you know what you do and is focused on a target market. Example: Your outcome is to increase this quarter’s revenue by 25% over last year’s revenue for the same quarter.

In order to achieve your outcome you need both assets and actions.

Assets:

Assets are defined as anything that you can use to achieve the outcome.  Examples include: your network, your product, your employees, and companies like Yellow Dog Consulting that can help you focus your message, or add marketing tools to your assets.  You may also have assets you want to create that you add to this list as a TBD.

Actions:

Actions are defined as any action that you take to increase your assets.  The goal is to make your assets grow to such an extent that they cause your outcome to be achieved.  Examples: One of your assets is a list of current or former customers you know will need your service(s) in this quarter.  The action is to re-educate them on your services and how your services will aid them in achieving their goals.  You will message them through a marketing campaign that you will launch in time to achieve your outcome by the date you’ve set.  You may also have a target market of potential clients, those that are TBD in the asset column.  Your action is to develop the contact list of these potential clients.

Pitfalls:

Pitfalls happen any time that you allow yourself to get distracted from the actions you’re taking to create more assets. It can be anything from focusing on a great new market, to allowing yourself to believe you’ll never achieve success.  The trick is to recognize a pitfall and create an action to get you back on track.

I train teams to use this tool to accomplish both small and large projects.  If I can help you strategize, I hope you’ll contact me at Executive Coaching NW.