Market share is an excellent indicator of the overall health of an industry. It can give valuable insight into the performance of other competitors in the same field. Still, it should not limit your approach to your sales strategy.
In fact, the opposite is more accurate, as the world is your oyster if your market share is minuscule.
As salespeople, we must remember that even if our market penetration is small, it’s still possible to make a significant impact. The broader economy cannot affect us enough to make a difference in selling our product or service. Instead, focus on what you can control:
- building relationships with customers and
- honing sales practices
The Power of Relationships
Building long-term customer relationships will ensure success no matter how big or small your market share may be. And as customer needs evolve, they will come back to you when they need help making decisions related to your industry and product. You can quickly become an invaluable part of their buying process by establishing yourself as a reliable resource for honest advice and guidance.
Fine-Tuning Your Practices
In addition to focusing on customer relationships, another way to maximize success regardless of market size is by fine-tuning your sales practices. This means looking hard at whom you’re targeting, what strategies are working best for closing deals with those prospects, and what areas need improvement to reach more people within your target market.
It also means analyzing processes such as lead scoring and qualification criteria to understand which leads will most likely convert into paying customers. Finally, take some time each quarter or year (or whatever works best for you) to review metrics such as conversion rates and average deal sizes so that you can identify trends over time and adjust accordingly if needed.
It would be best if you were quite critical of your confidence that your sales team and company are executing their revenue generation capabilities well. A recent study by Sales Xceleration® shows that 95% of companies ranked themselves below average or worse. In fact, the last research saw that 4% more companies rated themselves as Poor. You can learn more about this study (and how to avoid the worst pitfalls) by attending a Special CEO Workshop by Kevin Lawson and me on March 1, 2023. (https://lnkd.in/e6gtbDd5)
When it comes down to it, market share numbers should never be used as an excuse when determining whether or not it’s worth pursuing a specific segment or area within the industry – instead, focus on what matters most: improving customer relationships and honing sales practices to maximize success regardless of size or scope. By taking advantage of these two powerful tools – relationships and processes – any salesperson can be successful no matter how small their piece of the pie may be!
