As someone who’s been in the trenches with CEOs and sales teams for years, I can tell you that success in sales doesn’t happen by accident. It comes down to having clear, measurable goals that drive action every day. You can’t just talk about growth; you have to plan for it. And that starts by setting the right goals.
How do you do this?
Let’s break it down:
1. Identify Your Ideal Core Customer
Most companies make the mistake of thinking any customer is a good customer. Wrong. The key to success is identifying your ideal core customer. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. You can waste months, even years, chasing the wrong clients, hoping to hit your revenue targets. But once you clarify who your best customers are, you’ll start to see real, sustainable growth.
Here’s a quick example: I had a client in the electrical industry. They were selling to anyone and everyone, big utilities, small ones, you name it. But when we sat down to clarify their core customer, they realized that focusing on their top 20% of clients would drive 80% of their sales. They started "firing" bad clients, and guess what? In the first year of working together, their revenue doubled. By the second year, their revenue didn’t jump much more, but their profitability doubled. That’s what matters.
Remember, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king! So, while everyone loves to chase big revenue numbers, it’s the profit that keeps your business healthy and growing.
So, my question to you is: Do you know who your ideal customer is? If the answer is “no”, your first goal is to establish a profile for your ideal, core client.
2. Understand and Address Customer Needs
Now, let’s talk about something that separates average salespeople from the true pros – understanding customer needs. It’s one thing to show up with a pitch, but it’s another to ask the right questions, dig deep, and figure out what emotional pain point you’re solving for them.
Here’s a quick story. I had a salesperson in my company, and she was one of the best. She closed one of the largest deals in our company’s history. With her commission in the bank, she walks into a BMW dealership to buy herself a new car, ready to pay cash. But the salesperson there completely misread her because she looked young. He assumed she didn’t have the money and treated her accordingly. He started quizzing her about setting up financing. Huge mistake. This happens in business all the time. Don’t assume you know what your customer needs. Ask the right questions. In Metronomics, we refer to this as “consultative selling”.
A lot of salespeople jump to the solution too soon. They’re so eager to sell that they miss out on the most critical part of consultative selling: understanding the customer’s pain points. If you take the time to uncover those deep emotional drivers – the frustrations and challenges your customers are facing – you’ll not only sell more but you’ll create and nurture trust.
3. Build and Maintain Trust to Drive Growth
Building trust with your best customers is key to real growth. Remember the client I mentioned earlier? After narrowing down their focus to their core clients, they didn’t just start making more sales – they started building real relationships. The CEO decided to reduce their customer base to the best clients, the ones they knew could generate long-term value. They cut down the products they offered, focusing only on what their best customers really needed. This gave their sales team a huge advantage – they weren’t spread thin, trying to sell everything to everyone.
Instead, the sales team got to know their clients on a much deeper level. “Did you know we also carry this?” or “What other needs do you have that we can help with?” Those kinds of conversations came naturally because the team knew their clients so well. With every interaction, they weren’t only selling; they were building trust. More interactions with the same clients gave them more chances to serve, impress, and deepen that relationship.
This is where setting clear, measurable goals for your sales team matters most. Are you tracking how often these conversations are happening, and with which clients?
I encourage CEOs to set two types of measurable goals: quantitative and qualitative. First, track the number of interactions your sales team has with clients – that’s your quantitative measure. Then, assess the quality: What percentage of those clients meet 80% or more of the criteria that define your core customer? This lets you measure not just volume, but also the quality of those interactions, and then coach your sales team to improve.
4. Shifting from Price to Value
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. If you’re stuck competing on price, you’re in a losing game. You need to shift the conversation from price to value. What’s the difference? Price is what something costs; value is what it’s worth to the customer.
Once you’ve built trust and shown that you truly understand their needs, customers are willing to pay more for the right solution. Position yourself as the expert who can deliver not just a product, but a solution that really alleviates the customer's pain at an emotional level.
Take, for example, one of my clients who was getting undercut by big-box stores. They were trying to compete on price, and it was killing their margins. Once we shifted their focus to delivering higher-quality products with unbeatable service, they stopped worrying about competing with the big guys. They focused on their core customer and delivered value that their competitors couldn’t match. The result? Higher profits, even though their prices were higher.
So, the next time you’re talking to a client, ask yourself: Are you competing on price or offering real value?
At the end of the day, if you’re chasing every sale with a focus on price over value, stop! Instead set clear, measurable goals that align your team and drive real action. If you’re focused on the right customers, asking the right questions, and building trust through value, your sales success will take care of itself. When you do this, you’re not SELLING a product; you’re SOLVING a problem. That’s where real, sustainable growth happens.
If you’re a CEO committed to digging deeper into this and building a high-performing sales team, let’s book a time to talk about it. I’m here to help!
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