Commercial strategies define the pillars of your company. These pillars will take shape through a plan, with organizational goals, generating not only profit, but value and competitive advantage in the market.
And how do you develop an effective business strategy that meets your company’s objectives and creates value? Furthermore, how can a business strategy influence the numbers and make your business successful?
These are the questions we will answer in this article, indicating paths, showing the step-by-step process and pointing out the best strategy tools to expand your company.
What is a business strategy?
A business strategy is the development of actions planned by the company in a systemic way, with studies, analyses and focusing on clear objectives. Thus, creating value for the business and its stakeholders .
This strategy must be aligned and integrated with all sectors and be thought of in the short, medium and long term, enabling a clear and fluid plan. This ensures that your business is prepared for various situations, both for high productivity and for times of crisis.
According to a study by Bridges Business Consultancy , 48% of organizations achieve half of their strategic goals and 85% fail to achieve two-thirds of them. This confirms the importance of companies investing more and better in developing their business strategy.
It is crucial that you know exactly what your objective is so that you can then put marketing and sales strategies into practice and achieve them.
How does a business strategy influence business numbers?
In fact, having a consulting firm specialized in the commercial area , providing support in this planning, greatly increases the chances of this strategy being successful. The support of specialists also contributes to the recommendation of the best methodologies and tools, increasing the effectiveness of the results and competitive advantage.
Numbers must be monitored and analyzed so that they can be influenced. This systematization can, for example, increase your company’s revenue sales strategy by 21%, as revealed by the IDC study.
Numbers can be influenced in several ways with your business strategy. The use of management methodologies capable of measuring objectives and results is one of them.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicator ) are tools that facilitate the alignment, definition and monitoring of the achievement of the company’s objectives.
The metrics used in your strategy serve both to measure whether the objective is close to being achieved, and to measure the performance of processes, people or the company as a whole.
How to define an effective business strategy
An effective business strategy is built around value creation. Without this focus, the chances of a business initiative being successful are slim. Creativity is important, but a company won’t get very far without adding value.
Following the guidelines of the Business Strategy afghanistan whatsapp data course at Harvard Business School, a successful strategy is defined around three key questions:
- How can my company create value for customers?
- How can my company create value for employees?
- How can my company create value by collaborating with suppliers?
However, without a clear business strategy, a company cannot create value and is unlikely to be successful. Several factors are crucial to defining an effective plan:
- Market , target and product analysis;
- Pricing of goods and services;
- Selection of suppliers;
- Strategic management;
- Selection of a qualified sales team;
- Training and development of employees ;
- Good internal communication;
- Effective allocation of resources;
- Use of good technological tools;
- Constant and continuous monitoring of the evolution of your commercial strategy, with adjustments or changes, if necessary.
Remembering that all actions that will be implemented must be in accordance with the reality of your company and objectives, considering financial, human, technical and material resources.
How to Make My Business Strategy Stand Out
Value, in essence, is what sets a company apart. It has nothing to do with a more affordable price, but with what makes your product different that builds customer loyalty and makes your brand a reference in the market.
The willingness a customer has to pay for a good cmo and data marketing study the key is in the data or service from your company represents the value that your commercial strategy has created for that customer, making their purchasing experience satisfactory.
A Harvard Business Review study shows that consumers are increasingly motivated to buy from sustainable brands. Sales of products with green labels grew five times faster than those without the label.
6 steps to developing a successful business strategy
Here we have listed six important steps that will help you develop a successful, value-added business strategy. Let’s take a look at them!
1. Define your goal
There’s nothing like starting your business strategy by defining your company’s objective. Having a clear purpose is essential to creating value for customers, employees and suppliers, especially if this objective is associated with a social or environmental cause.
One tip here is to use OKRs. This is a great management andorra business directory methodology that helps define and align the company’s objectives. It is basically composed of 2 pillars: Objectives (O) and Key Results (KR).
Objectives are defined qualitatively and indicate what the company aims to achieve or where it wants to go. They describe the targets to be reached during a period. Key results are metrics, usually expressed in numbers, that serve to measure whether the objective is close to being achieved.
OKR is widely used by companies that want to grow exponentially and/or draw up new plans.
2. Evaluate the market opportunity
The next step is to understand your market. How is your competition performing? Which companies have a market share similar to yours? What makes your solution different from the competition? What gaps has the market left for consumers that sales strategy your company can take advantage of and fill?
This is the time to identify opportunities through research, studies and market analysis before planning a strategy. It is essential to know how your organization can offer unique value to the customer through these opportunities.
3. Create value for customers
Once you understand the market and define your business objective, it is time to create value, determine how your organization will offer greater or unique value, developing strategies to improve your company’s performance and satisfy the customer.
There is a lead capture value scale called “customer delight,” through which you can increase the customer’s willingness to buy by lowering the price of the product.
If price reduction is not an option, it is a case of bringing together the Marketing team and thinking of new ideas to add value to the product, thus increasing the chance of customers purchasing.
These are some actions that create value for the customer:
- Improve product quality;
- Offer high quality service, improving your shopping experience;
- Incorporate socio-environmental causes into processes, packaging and brands, which generate customer engagement;
- Reduce price.
4. Create value for suppliers
In addition to satisfied and engaged customers, your business strategy needs to generate value for suppliers, which are the companies that provide raw materials, labor or take care of logistics, helping to keep your business active.
The relationship between a company and its suppliers can be conflicting, as both parties want to increase their margins. However, maintaining a good relationship with suppliers is essential for the success of your business , as they directly influence the price and quality of the services offered to customers.
As with customer relations, there is a scale that measures feedback with suppliers, known as “supplier surplus”. It indicates when the cost of materials increases or their willingness to sell decreases.
Some strategies can create value for both parties. They include:
- Accepting a higher price when the material or service provided is of higher quality. While this increases the supplier’s surplus, it can increase sales strategy customer satisfaction and willingness to pay; or it can increase the company’s margin, allowing you to raise prices.
- Working in partnership with the supplier increases the efficiency of both, increases the supplier’s surplus, reduces the overall cost of the good or service provided, as well as the sales disposition of your company.
5. Create value for employees
A satisfied sales team can provide a better customer experience, which in turn results in better sales results.
Some ways to create value for your employees include:
- Offer competitive salaries ( commissions );
- Adopt productivity bonuses as a motivational factor ;
- Provide workplace flexibility, whether your team is fully remote or hybrid;
- Contribute to your professional development, with courses and training;
- Create a workplace rich in experiences and ideas, encouraging team participation in the company’s growth;
- Promote an organizational culture of learning and support.
6. Map out strategies and track goals
By creating value for employees, suppliers, and customers, you also create value for your company. To ensure that you are tracking your goals , determine your key performance indicators and objectives (KPIs and OKRs). What metrics indicate success? How will you sales strategy track results over time?
To help with this monitoring and analysis, divide each of the value creation goals for the three groups above into action items. For example:
- What steps can you take to increase your sales team’s compensation ?
- How can your best supplier be a business partner?
- How is the customer journey going at each stage of the sales funnel ?
Tools that help build a business strategy
With the evolution brought about by digital transformation, it is unthinkable to have an improvised business strategy. There are a number of useful sales strategy tools on the market that can benefit your planning.
Learn more: Business Planning for 2024: Was there anything left out? Take a Check-Up and find out!
These are systems capable of collecting, monitoring, managing, organizing and cross-referencing a huge volume of data, offering great opportunities in directing sales and marketing campaigns and in winning over customers, with added value.