So, you want your sales team to beat the competition and shatter your sales goals in 2023. 

Well, as their sales leader that’s up to you. 

You need to forge a roadmap that your sales team can use to chart a successful year. But there’s a ton of sales strategies out there. Should you change your strategy? Which strategy or strategies should you work with? Should you consider augmenting your target audience to include XYZ? 

Answering these sales strategy questions becomes easier when you have some clear lines to color within. That’s why a sales strategy framework is crucial. 

What is a sales strategy framework?

The Oxford dictionary defines framework as, “a basic structure underlying a concept, or text.” A sales strategy framework, therefore, is a methodology that a company or sales team follows when adopting and creating strategies to achieve their sales goals. It outlines the norms you need to follow when creating strategies to target potential customers, build relationships with them, and close deals.

The key elements to an effective sales strategy framework are identifying specific goals, understanding the target market, defining a sales process and building a strong sales team. 

A good sales strategy framework will serve as a useful reference point for sales managers to craft strategies and for sales representatives to consult as they go about selling.

The goal of a sales strategy framework is to provide a structured and systematic approach to sales. You don’t want a haphazard, motley crew of sales strategies, do you? 

Instead you want your salespeople to focus on the most important tasks and prioritize their efforts, ultimately leading to better sales performance and results. You want them to do this quarter after quarter and year after year, even as you try different strategies. That’s where your sales strategy framework will be handy.  Moreover, the start of the year is the perfect time to develop a framework that will set the tone for your sales strategies. 

So, let's dive into the steps you should take into for the ultimate sales strategy framework for 2023:

Sales strategy framework stage 1: Set clear and measurable goals – define what you want to achieve

Before you even start crafting sales strategies, you need to know what goals you're working towards. Set clear, measurable goals and objectives for your sales team to work towards. For example, instead of just saying "increase sales," try "increase sales by 15% in Q1 2023."

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• What are your overall business goals? How can your sales organization contribute to achieving these goals?
• What specific, measurable goals can you set for your sales team members?
• Who are the primary stakeholders?
• What kind of decision-making process does your sales team have to face at prospect companies? What factors influence the decision-makers? (You need to ask this to understand if your goals are realistic.) 
• How will you track and measure progress across the entire sales cycle?
• How will you communicate these goals to your team and ensure they are aligned with the company's overall objectives?

Sales strategy framework stage 2: Figure out (or revisit) your target market – know who you're selling to

More than 50% of prospects aren’t a good fit for your product. Trying to sell the right product to the wrong person is a huge waste of your resources. It will make your sales team's jobs harder than it needs to be. They could be using the wrong moves. For example, B2B sales and enterprise selling represent a whole different ball game from selling directly to customers.

Also, your target customer evolves, so make sure to do frequent target market assessments and reassessments. 

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• Who is your ideal customer? 
• Who not to target?
• What does your ideal customer need?
• What pain points are you solving for your ideal customer?

Sales strategy framework stage 3: Analyze the market – understand who you’re selling to and what they want

This stage focuses on engaging with prospects, showing them the value of your product, and how it helps achieve the goals set in stage one. 

The following are crucial components you should cover under this stage:

Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Your UVP is a short, clear statement that explains the benefits of your product or service and how it addresses the needs of your target market. What makes your product different from the competition? What value does your product add to the customer’s business? What unique features does it offer?

Here’s an example of a UVP statement, "Our product is the only WMS on the market that automates workflows and integrates with legacy technology, resulting in unmatched work productivity.”

Positioning: Positioning your product or service in the minds of your target market is an important aspect of marketing strategy. It helps customers understand what makes your offering unique and why they should choose it over competitors' products. For example, ‘integrated cloud security solutions’ or ‘collaborative design tools’.

Messaging: How do you communicate your value proposition? Don’t make the mistake of trying to pack in all your products into every sales pitch. Pick a few pain points and talk about how you solve them for your users. This should tie in with the specific pain points that your colleagues in marketing plan focus on in their messaging.

Customer journey: Understand your ideal customer’s journey. How do they discover your product? What are they looking for? What happens post-purchase? All of this is crucial to your sales strategies and, therefore, crucial to your sales strategy framework.

Buyer Personas: Creating buyer personas is an important step in any sales strategy. These profiles help you understand your target market on a deeper level, so your salespeople can tailor their sales pitch to the buyer’s specific needs and pain points.

To set up buyer personas, you'll need to gather as much information as possible about your ideal customers. This can include demographic information such as age, gender, location, and income level. It should definitely include information about their business goals and challenges. Most importantly, you want all the juice on their pain points. 

Prospect pain points should guide any sales strategy, and should be a pillar of your sales strategy framework. 

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• What initiatives can you implement to improve how your reps present your unique value proposition and position in the market?
•  How can you craft a strong messaging strategy to effectively communicate your value proposition? (One that resonates with your marketing team’s messaging.)

Sales strategy framework stage 4: Create a sales process – how do you sell your product?

What steps should your sales reps typically follow when they attempt to  close a deal? 

A solid sales process is like the all-powerful force in Star Wars – it guides you towards success. 

Make sure you have a clear sales process in place for your team to follow, from initial contact to closing the deal. This will help ensure that every sales opportunity is handled consistently and effectively.

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• What are the steps in your sales process?
• How will you generate leads and identify potential customers?
• What specific sales activities will be included in your sales process?"
• How will you handle objections and negotiate the sale?
• What follow-up processes do you have in place to maintain contact with the customer? What cues will your reps use to identify upsell or cross-sell opportunities?

Sales strategy framework stage 5: Build a customer conversation map – what opportunities do you have to foster relationships? 

Make sure you're consistently reaching out to your customers . Yes, even after conversion. You want to ensure that your product is driving value, and that they’re getting the most of it.  

Chances are you’re thinking, “but that’s another department.” 

Well, you might not be wrong, but these quick check-in conversations are a way for salespeople to keep one foot in the door for future upselling and reselling. Chart out these opportunities for your sales reps to use when relevant. 

This chart is known as a customer conversation map. It is a visual representation of the interactions and touchpoints a customer has with your company, from initial awareness to post-purchase follow-up. 

To build a customer conversation map, start by mapping out the different stages of the customer journey. Consider all the different ways a customer might interact with your company, such as visiting your website, attending a sales presentation, or speaking with a customer service representative.

Once you have a general outline of the customer journey, you can start adding in specific details about the interactions and touchpoints. This might include information about the channels through which the interactions take place (e.g. social media, email, phone), and the specific content or messaging that is shared, and any feedback.

Conversation intelligence tools like Wingman can be helpful in gathering these details.

Once you have your customer conversation map in place, you can use it to identify any gaps or pain points in the customer experience. Then, you can develop strategies for improving the customer journey. You can also use it as a reference for training your sales team and aligning their efforts with the overall customer experience.

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• What are the different stages of the buyer’s journey?
• How can you optimize outreach sequences?
• What channels do customers use to interact with your company?
• What messaging tactics does your salesforce employ at each stage?
• How can you use the customer conversation map to improve the customer experience and align your sales efforts with the overall customer journey?

Sales strategy framework stage 6: Sales enablement – standardize sales training and certification 

Your sales team is your army, and your reps need to be trained and equipped to battle all the sales objections they will have to face.

Make sure you have the right people in the right roles, and that you're continuously investing in their training and development to help them succeed. 

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• What skills and knowledge do your sales reps need to be effective in their roles?
• How will you train and develop your sales reps to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge?
• Do you have a clear process in place for onboarding new sales reps and integrating them into the team?
• How will you monitor the performance of your sales reps and provide feedback to help them improve?
• Do you have a system in place for tracking and measuring the effectiveness of your sales training and development efforts?

Sales strategy framework stage 7: Align with your marketing team – create demand

In order for your sales team to be successful, they need to have a steady stream of leads to work with. That's where marketing comes in. By aligning with your marketing team, you can create demand for your product or service and generate a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team to pursue.

Questions to ask yourself during this stage:

• How will the sales and marketing teams ensure consistent messaging and positioning across all channels?
• How can you utilize marketing collateral to support the sales process?
• How can the sales team participate in lead generation campaigns to drive qualified leads and align with sales goals?
• Are your marketing efforts in line with your value proposition?
• How can your sales leaders share insights and feedback from customer interactions with marketing to improve market understanding?

Sales strategy framework stage 8: Measure – define metrics for success

Before you deploy your legion of salespeople – how do you know you’re winning?

It's important to define key performance indicators (KPIs) and clear metrics for success to track the performance of your sales team and measure the effectiveness of your sales strategy.

Like any good salesperson, you need to constantly analyze and optimize your strategy. Data is your friend. Use it to track your performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions about your sales strategy.

So here you have it – the ultimate sales strategy framework for 2023. With these steps in mind, you'll be well on your way to crushing your sales goals and making 2023 your best year yet. 

Make sales effortless with Wingman

Wingman is a conversational intelligence tool that helps sales teams close more deals with real-time, contextual cues delivered to sales reps during their sales calls. Wingman also integrates  with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to provide sales reps with important customer intel before sales calls. This helps salespeople to tailor their pitch to the specific needs and preferences of their prospects and increase their chances of closing deals. 

Meanwhile, sales leaders get intelligent call recordings, summaries and transcripts. With these, you can identify patterns or areas of weaknesses in your sales reps’ performance and help them become sales warriors. You also get at-a-glance dashboards that help you forecast more accurately. 

Call recordings not only enable you to conduct more reviews, but also help you align with marketing and product teams, using the customer’s own voice. And you get plenty of new information to add to your overarching sales strategy framework.

See Wingman in action – opt for a demo today.