Whether you crushed Q1 or didn’t quite hit your sales goals, you can breathe a sigh of relief that Q1 is over. The end of the quarter is always stressful, even if you hit quota back in February. But now that we’re a few days into Q2, it’s time to start planning for the rest of the year and ensure your team is still on track for success. Here are a few things sales leaders should add to their to-do list for the start of Q2.
Revisit your predictions.
Even if you reached all of your goals in Q1, it never hurts to make sure that your metrics are accurate and that you’re measuring the right things. Q1 should be a good indicator of your pipeline coverage, and whether you’ll have similar results for the rest of the year.
Identify your all-stars.
Are there certain sales reps that absolutely dominated this past quarter? Recognizing these key individuals is not only good for self-esteem and motivation, but you can also identify best practices that help these reps succeed. Can these behaviors be emulated to help other reps excel, too? Look into their organizational habits, email and call processes, and collateral that they share with prospects to discover what is working.
Find the weak links.
On the other hand, it helps to seek out those who may have missed their number and find out why. Was it because they put too much emphasis on one deal that never worked out, or was there a disconnect between the customer’s needs and what your sales rep provided? This may not be a single person’s fault, either; could something have dropped off during the pass from inside sales to outside reps? A quick, simple process change could be the easy fix, or may be a sign of a bigger problem. Either way, identifying the weaknesses can help to strengthen the entire process for Q2.
Collaborate with marketing.
Revisiting marketing processes and deliverables can easily affect the sales organization in a good way. Make sure the leads that marketing is passing on to sales are quality and ready for sales interaction. Offer any guidance on industry trends and/or pain points your sales team is seeing throughout the sales process so marketing can create the appropriate collateral to support sales conversations.
Don’t panic.
It’s early in Q2. You have a lot of time to turn things around if your sales team isn’t where it should be right now. If you are ahead of the game, don’t sit back and bask in your victory just yet. Make sure your processes and sales rep practices are on track so you don’t slip in Q2.
No matter where your sales organization stands after Q1, it never hurts to revisit performance and progress to ensure sales success. Good luck with your planning in Q2.
