How to create a sales strategy for your start up – example sales strategies

It doesn’t matter how great your products or services are, how competitive your prices are, or how impressive your brand is; if you don’t make enough sales, your business could fail.

If you don’t take a considered, structured approach to selling, your business may not maximise its revenue.

Even if you do make enough to break even, sustainable growth could be difficult if your start-up isn’t making a profit.

The answer is to have a reliable sales strategy.

This ensures that you sell the right things to the right people in the right way and make the best use of your resources.

A joined-up approach could help deliver the sales your business needs to make.

What is a sales strategy?

A sales strategy is a plan that explains how your business will sell its products or services.

It tells you who you want to sell to, what you’ll sell them, and how you’ll reach them.

A sales strategy typically includes:

• target market – the specific customers you want to reach
• value proposition – why customers should buy from you
• sales channels – how you will connect to customers
• tactics – the steps you’ll take to make sales
• sales goals – what you want to achieve
• measurement – how you will track success.

Your plan should cover selling different things in different ways to various customer groups.

For your strategy to work well, you need to know your customers and competitors. 

If you don’t have this information, conduct market research first.

Market research could also give you valuable information about what your competitors are up to and help you spot opportunities they’ve missed.

Your sales plan will likely change as your business grows and customer needs and market conditions shift. 

Read more about the secret to effective selling.

Why is having a sales strategy important?

A sales strategy keeps you from wasting time and money.

Without one, you might target the wrong customers, spend resources on ineffective approaches, miss sales targets necessary to keep your business alive, and struggle to grow your business.

A good sales strategy helps you focus on your best opportunities and maximise your time and effort.

It keeps your message clear across all channels, which strengthens your brand.

You’ll understand your customers better, set clear goals, and track your progress more easily.

Everyone in your company working toward the same goals creates unity and purpose.

Your strategy also helps you stay ready for market changes and stand out from competitors.

Many businesses combine their sales and marketing strategies since both help attract and keep customers.

With a solid plan, you can spot problems early, stay on track, and make enough sales to keep your business healthy and growing. 

Read more about marketing strategy with our essential guide to marketing.

How to create a winning sales strategy

Step 1 - Set your sales goals and objectives

Having key sales targets – whether total revenue or unit sales, usually for a quarter, six months or a year – is essential. 

These figures may already be in your business plan or sales forecast.

Are you aiming to achieve a turnover of £50,000 in your first year?

Perhaps it’s £2,000 of sales per month or £10,000? An existing business might seek to increase its historic monthly sales by 2% or 20% by the end of the year.

A business might seek to attract two new high-value customers every six months or 50 lower-value customers a month.

Your objectives should always be SMART – an acronym for:

• specific
• measurable
• achievable
• realistic
• timely.

Without clear strategic objectives, you may find it difficult to accurately judge your sales’ success. Read about sales forecasts – a definition and guide.

Step 2 - Identify your target customers

Successful businesses know which customers to target.

Trying to appeal to everyone could mean you end up appealing to no one.

Before putting together your sales strategy, you may want to make sure you know the answers to key questions about your target market:

• who are your target customers?
• what do they want?
• where are they based?
• what do they buy, when do they buy it, and how often?
• how much do they typically spend?
• what characteristics, behaviours, and attitudes link customers?
• what do they dislike about other suppliers?

A crucial question if you’re an established business might be: why do your customers buy from you?

Many B2C sellers create buyer personas – fictional customer characters – while B2B sellers may have ideal buyer profiles.

Creating these could help you focus your sales and marketing efforts, avoiding wasted resources on unlikely leads. 

A successful sales strategy might focus on acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones by rewarding their loyalty.

For new or small businesses, it could be wise to focus on a small market segment and tailor your offerings to serve that niche, with the potential to expand later. 

Read about how to identify your target market.

Step 3 - Analyse your competition

Knowing your competitors’ strategies helps you make better sales plans.

Look at what they do well and what they don’t do well.

When you see where competitors struggle, you might find gaps your business can fill – for example, if they’re slow to deliver, you could offer faster service.

Watch how customers respond to your competitors’ products, prices, and quality – what makes customers happy or unhappy, and what do they really want?

Use this information to improve how you talk about your business.

You could highlight what makes you different and better than the competition. 

Read our guide to competitor research for start-ups.

Step 4 - Decide your sales channels

A sales channel is how you connect to customers to sell your products or services.

These channels can be:

• direct – face-to-face, via a business website, or online marketplace like eBay, direct mail, telephone sales, catalogue, and email
• indirect – via wholesalers, retail outlets, dealers, and overseas distributors.

Other businesses license sales of their products or services.

Alternatively, you could partner with a non-competing business to sell each other’s products or services for commission.

Knowing your target customers helps you choose the right sales channels for your business.

Successful start-ups often use several channels to increase their chances of success.

Regularly monitoring sales channels will help you identify the most effective ones.

Step 5 - Outline your sales process

After choosing how you’ll reach customers, create a simple plan for your sales process.

This is your step-by-step guide from finding customers to making sales.

Having a clear sales process helps turn potential customers into real buyers and keeps them happy.

This usually includes:

• finding leads – people who might want what you sell
• checking leads – working out which people are most likely to buy based on their needs and interests
• closing the sale – by answering customer questions and ensuring they’re ready to buy.

A clear process could help you reach sales goals, manage leads, and satisfy customers.

Step 6 - Create your sales message

Craft a clear message about why customers should buy from you.

This message must explain what makes your business special and how it helps solve customer problems.

Your value proposition tells potential customers what benefits they’ll get from your products or services.

Make sure your message speaks directly to what your target customers need and want.

You may decide to use a variety of sales tactics to reach your sales goals.

These could include:

• different prices across sales channels – you might have lower prices online than in-store, for example
• adjusting prices seasonally
• offer package deals when sales are slow
• suggest upgrades or better versions to customers (upselling)
• recommend related products to existing customers (cross-selling)
• give loyal customers special discounts or rewards.

Step 7 - Track your sales performance

Monitoring the success of your sales efforts shows what’s working and what isn’t.

Pick key numbers to measure, like monthly sales totals or how many new customers you get.

Check these numbers regularly – maybe once a month or every three months.

These measurements help you stay on track and make better decisions based on real results rather than guesses.

Step 8 - Review and adapt your sales strategy

A strong sales strategy is often dynamic, adapting to market changes and customer behaviour.

You might miss sales goals and new opportunities if you don’t adjust your strategy.

Look at your strategy every few months and keep doing what works well and stop doing what doesn’t – this could help save you money, time, and effort.

Here’s a quick-reference guide to sum up the steps:

Steps and their actions

1. Set goals - decide on clear sales targets using SMART objectives.
2. Identify customers - decide who your ideal customers are.
3. Analyse the competition - look at what your competitors are doing and find gaps you can fill.
4. Choose channels - choose the best channels to sell to your customers.
5. Outline the process - plan how you will find leads and make sales.
6. Develop messaging - explain what makes your business special and how you solve customer problems.
7. Track performance - set metrics to monitor sales performance and improve.
8. Review and adapt - regularly tweak your strategy to keep it effective.

Sales strategy example 1

Street food start-up

Before launching, the new business owner conducts local market research in the town they plan to set up in.

Office workers on their lunch breaks emerge as the target customers, responding positively to the idea of being able to buy Indian street food for lunch.

The research also confirms that the best location is a public square near large corporate offices, with trading hours between 11am and 2pm on weekdays only.

Local office workers like the menu selections they sample and think a £5 average price per item offers good value.

Adding a bottle of water (which costs 20p and yields an 80p profit) enables the owner to make more margin with a £6 meal deal.

Customers could claim a free £2 side order with a stamped loyalty card proving five previous meal-deal purchases to encourage loyalty.

However, weekly lunchtime sales can only generate 70% of the sales required to achieve the business plan’s aims, so the owner needs additional sales channels.

To increase revenue, they started catering for weekend weddings and a popular artisan food event in town each month.

When overall sales remain below expectations, the owner targets the 20 largest corporations within a mile of their lunchtime pitch, offering early evening deliveries.

They also contact corporate events managers offering catering for business events.

These combined strategies successfully achieve the necessary 30% increase in monthly sales.

Sales strategy example 2

The HR consultancy start-up

Identifying a gap in the market, a new HR consultancy offers affordable HR support to local micro businesses with fewer than ten staff.

These businesses typically lack a HR manager and are hesitant to outsource HR or pay large consultancy fees.

In its first year, the consultancy aims to secure £1,000 monthly deals with 15 businesses to achieve an annual turnover of £180,000, providing a £60,000 salary for its two partner directors.

They also plan to sell downloadable HR document templates online, expecting £1,000 in monthly sales.

They use social media and search engine marketing to attract customers, and produce a weekly blog to generate leads, which is complemented by videos on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Email and telephone marketing strategies result in one appointment per 30 emails or 10 calls.

One in four of these leads to a sale.

To generate new leads, the HR consultancy offers a 10% discount for new customers for the first three months.

In addition, a key tactic is to offer 20% commission to local accountants and law firms if they refer a lead that becomes a customer.

They are also members of their local chamber of commerce and regularly attend local events and meetings, partly to try to meet new leads.

Sales strategy example 3

Established manufacturing business

The manufacturing business’s annual sales have declined by 6% in the past three years.

A new sales strategy aims to transform the business with 10% annual sales growth.

Until now, the manufacturer’s core customers have been UK small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Underpinning the new sales strategy is targeting SMEs in Germany.

A strategic objective is set to sell products worth £200,000 to German buyers in the next six months.

The UK manufacturer must reduce margins to cover export costs and offer competitive pricing, which means selling 10% more units to achieve the same sales value.

As part of its sales strategy, the UK business recruits a new salesperson fluent in German.

They find leads in Germany using LinkedIn and attend major trade shows.

Leads are followed up with contact by telephone, arranging face-to-face sales appointments.

Following slow progress, the UK manufacturer shifts its sales strategy.

They start to sell through a distributor based in Germany instead, which proves more successful.

Common sales strategy mistakes to avoid

Even good sales plans can fail, so it can pay to watch out for these common mistakes.

Not updating the strategy

Don’t stick with old plans when things change.

Review and update your approach regularly to keep up with market shifts and changing customer needs.

Ignoring competitors

Pay attention to what other businesses are doing.

Knowing their strengths and weaknesses could help you spot opportunities they’ve missed and make your business stand out.

Not understanding customers

Your sales efforts will miss the mark without knowing who your customers are and what they want.

Regularly talk to customers and gather information about their needs and problems.

Unclear goals

A sales strategy without specific, measurable goals could lead to disorganisation.

Setting clear goals helps to set your direction and measure success.

Neglect skills development

Keep improving your sales skills and knowledge – regular training keeps you competitive.

New tools like AI might also help your business sell better.

A good sales strategy gives your start-up a clear growth path – and it can also help you find the right customers and adapt to changing markets. 

Find out more about the Learn with Start Up Loans Open University courses.