Leverage this template to facilitate healthy dialog with your sales team
In our discussions with private company owners, a discussion topic early on relates to the effectiveness of their sales teams’ process and overall capabilities. When the day comes you want to sell your business, the sales capability of your company will be evaluated closely by the potential acquirer. Given this reality, use time as a friend to build a solid sales engine to impress your future acquirer.
One of the ways to impress them is to show that your sales team has an above market performance win rate. And there are two win rates you will want to track and share with them. The first is what percentage of orders you get when trying to sell to new customers and the second win rate is what percentage of orders you win when pursuing work from existing customers, those you’ve done business with before. The general norm for many industries is the win rate of your sales team when chasing new customers should be north of 30%. Meaning, out of every 10 new customer opportunities your sales team pursues, you win at least 3 of them. When chasing repeat work from existing clients you’ve done prior business with, that win rate should be north of 70%, or 7 of every 10 opportunities that your team pursues.
Attached is a helpful template (Steps To Improve Our Win Rate) for facilitating a great discussion with your sales team. Use this to explore steps the team could take to improve your company win rate. Building this capability today may reward you handsomely when the day comes you want to attract and excite a third party to acquire your business. Having a strong sales engine takes time to build, use time as a friend and ensure you’re building that sales engine today.
