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The term "sales strategy" is used at two different levels. Various sources (management books and lecturing materials from business schools) define and discusses a sales strategy at the company level.

Basically, a sales strategy at the company level, is the company's plan for how to take its products and services to market and sell these to its customers. The company level sales strategy answers the following basic questions: What products and services are we selling? What customer segments (geographies/industries/demographics) do we want to target and approach? What is our method of selling our products and services? How do we differentiate our products and services from the competition? What are the sales targets (revenue, marketshare, penetration targets etc)? How will we support the selling efforts through marketing initiatives. What kind of sales force will we need? etc.

Often, the term "sales strategy" will occur at a lower level as well. When one business sells to another business (B2B) it is often done through sales representatives. Imagine a sales representative for a software company that makes software to large enterprises e.g. software that helps with accounting or inventory management or imagine a sales representative that sells wind turbines to large energy companies. Often, this type of selling is referred to as complex selling. At this level, a sales strategy is the sales representatives plan for how to approach, interact with and convince the customer that the business transaction should be done with his or her company. Or simply, the plan for how to secure a new customer or retain an existing.

To increase the likelihood of sales success, the complex sale always involves a sales strategy or plan for the following elements, regardless of the product or service offering:


 * Relationships - One of the fundamental disciplines of all complex sales cycles involves building and maintaining relationships with all stakeholders involved, directly or indirectly, in the transaction. The sales representative must have a plan for how to engage with all involved stakeholders and convince each that his or her offering represents the best alternative out there.


 * Challenges - The next fundamental discipline when selling complex offerings is understanding the customers business challenges and opportunities. Without exceptional knowledge of the customers business and the business challenges that they face, the sales representative will have a hard time engaging any stakeholders in quality dialogue and thus building a strong relationship.


 * Solutions - Thirdly, sales representatives must be able to position their product or service offering as a solution to the customers business challenges. Over the years, many books and articles has been written on this subject. They all conclude, that simply knowing and presenting your products function and features will not differentiate you from the competition and get you the sale. You must present how your specific offering solves the customers exact business problem or helps them capitalize on new business opportunities.


 * Value - Additionally, success in complex sales cycles is dependent on the value proposition or business case that you can deliver to your customers. Buyers in complex markets are often presented with similar alternatives and most often, the decision will fall in favor of the vendor that has the most compelling value proposition. And bare in mind, that value can be delivered at many levels, including at the personal level, where a key decision maker might decide a business partner based on his or her belief that this partner is best positioned to enable their own success.


 * Process - Finally, controlling the process is essential to success when selling complex solutions. Research indicates, that sales representatives who excel in proposing and managing the process with prospective customers have a higher chance of winning new business than sales representatives that simply follow the buying process set forth by the customer.

Various systems to support sales representatives when engaging in complex sales cycles have been developed over the years. Early systems involved keeping track of contacts and actions, later systems, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems helps with keeping track of all transactional information about customers and prospects and new generation Intelligent Deal Management (IDM) systems, supports the development of specific customer sales strategies.