Sales Performance Advice
Selling to Kitchen Gifts and Accessories Businesses
There's no question that kitchen gifts and accessories businesses are major players in a growth industry -- and that makes them attractive to entrepreneurs who are eager to get in on the action. For business sellers prepared to compete, kitchen gifts and accessories businesses offer a reliable source of income .
There's no such thing as an easy B2B sale. To succeed in this environment, you need a strategy that is built on the fundamentals of good business.
Quality products, a good strategy and a lot of hard work are requirements for companies who sell to kitchen gifts and accessories businesses. Although there are market challenges, new entries to the marketplace can gain traction by applying a handful of proven sales principles.
Benefits of Networking
Networking enhances your sales capacity. In addition to raising your company's profile, it increases the amount of influence you have with kitchen gifts and accessories businesses.
But more importantly, a strategy that emphasizes networking as a core sales activity inevitably drives more leads and referrals into your company. Sometimes the leads you generate through solid networking will be leads that you had never considered before.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Frequent employee evaluations are a must for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.
Although annual reviews may suffice for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for improving performance and revenues. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to kitchen gifts and accessories businesses.
Message First, Targets Second
Messaging is an important part of a successful sales strategy. Confused messaging dilutes the sales cycle and frustrates prospective customers' efforts to discern the value of your products.
Ideally, the identification of key messaging should be incorporated into a comprehensive planning process that combines sales and marketing into a comprehensive strategy.
The next step is to reduce your contact list to the contacts who are most likely to respond to your messaging. Although lead generation techniques are diverse, lead lists can be a useful resource for generating a list of prospects that are receptive to your messaging. Vendors like Experian specialize in providing targeted lists of kitchen gifts and accessories businesses that can be customized to your precise specifications.
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