If your sales performance is stagnant, or worse, it’s time to look at some strategies to give it a boost. Flagging sales performance can be caused by any number of factors, and not all of them are easy to identify and fix. Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take to give your sales performance a boost, without a lot of troubleshooting or soul searching. Understanding and employing some very basic tactics can give your sales performance a much-needed shot in the arm. Here, you’ll find five steps that you can start implementing immediately to improve your sales performance.

Know Yourself

One of the keys to improving your sales performance is to know yourself, and the products or services you’re offering. What makes your business special? What sets you apart from the crowd? Chances are, there are a lot of other businesses offering similar products and services as yours-why should a potential customer choose you over them? Until you can answer that question for yourself, it will be impossible to answer it for your prospects. To accomplish this, it’s important to develop a distinct corporate identity. You should have a clear understanding of who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

Know Your Customers

Once you’ve developed your identity, it’s time to figure out which customers will best benefit from your products and services. Create buyer personas for your different offerings, and identify clear ways your prospects will benefit from your services. Prospects want to know how products and services offer value to them personally. Vague product descriptions and generalized sales pitches won’t give them the information they need. Listen to and understand your prospects’ needs, then create customized marketing materials that speak to those specific needs. Once your prospects recognize the personal value in your offerings, your sales performance will start to rise.

Culture Club

Some people have an image of a salesroom being populated by cutthroat mercenaries, all out for their own interests. On occasion, it can seem this way. However, if everyone in your sales department is looking out for themselves, who’s looking out for the overall sales performance of the business? You have to cultivate and promote a culture of mutual support and cooperation. The focus should be on growing the business, not individual sales figures. If everyone is working toward their own goals, there’s no guarantee that those goals won’t be self-defeating. If everyone is working on the same goals, it’s much easier to steer the salesforce toward better sales performance.

Hire the Best

Your sales performance begins and ends with the quality of your salespeople. If you’re not recruiting and retaining the best talent, you’re losing out on all the benefits they bring to the table. Attracting top talent isn’t always about the money. Like your products, you have to sell your business to top sales candidates. They’ll have offers from other companies on the table, and you have to make your offer stand out. Personalized packages show that you understand and care about the individual needs of the candidate. To create these packages, you’ll actually have to listen to and learn about applicants. Using that information, you can woo them with things like childcare, professional memberships, or anything else that would interest them personally.

Tools of the Trade

Once you have the best salespeople working in the best culture, you have to give them the tools they need to succeed. If they’re hamstrung by outdated technology or practices, your sales performance will continue to suffer. The latest customer relationship management and marketing automation software can provide your salesforce with powerful tools to help boost sales performance. Training programs, conferences, and seminars are great ways to keep your salespeople up to speed on the latest best practices in the industry. Give your salespeople whatever tools they need to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.