“Increase sales” is the stated goal of many soloists at the start of the year. Having strategic sales plans maximises your chances of securing the business you need to get on track for achieving this year’s targets.

Other things being equal, over the next 12 months the amount of business you will generate will be determined by, amongst other things, the number of prospects you identify, the number of approaches you make to qualified prospects and the number of meetings you can secure.

Likewise, if your strategic sales plans are based on attracting clients rather than approaching them, your success will be determined by the number of activities which you undertake where you can showcase yourself and your business and attract clients to you.

Here are six activities to consider to increase sales:

Put together a robust plan

The key is a logical and robust plan of action which if implemented will deliver the required number of prospects that you require to feed into your sales pipeline.

Identify required action

Identify TODAY the activities that you can undertake to identify the prospects that you require.

Review face to face channels

Write down a list of all the events, associations, conferences etc that your audience will be attending this year and where you have the opportunity to meet prospects. Book yourself in TODAY.

If your competitors are attending these events and you are not, who is more likely to be feeding the prospect into their sales pipeline?

Want more articles like this? Check out the sales strategies section.

Review media channels

Write down a list of all the media that you can review daily, weekly and monthly to identify prospects. Subscribe TODAY to relevant publications and start reviewing them now.

Again, if your competitors have a logical plan to review relevant publications and you do not, who is more likely to be feeding the prospect into their sales pipeline?

Work on attraction strategies

Identify all the opportunities where you can showcase your business.

Approach conference organisers TODAY for the opportunity to speak to your audience.

Approach magazine editors TODAY for the opportunity to write articles to attract your audience.

Give yourself the competitive advantage

Whilst your competitors are easing themselves into the New Year, why not be the person that has developed and started implementing a logical, credible and robust plan to achieve the sales that you want to achieve in 2006?

Let me know how you get on implementing one or more of these strategic sales plans. Good luck for the year ahead!