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    • Action plan

    Decide which digital sales channels will work best for your business

    High effort

    High impact

    With so many digital sales channels available to businesses, selecting the ones that serve your individual needs can be a challenge. Start by fully understanding your target demographic and then establish the best system for organising your customer data.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Build up customer personas of your target audience by researching popular platforms and looking at data from past purchases

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Developing customer personas will give you a better understanding of your target customers and how to advertise to them.

    Creating a new customer persona

    Customer personas give you a better understanding of the needs and challenges of people who might buy from you. Use this template from HubSpot to create a persona for a new target customer.

    Using customer research to determine which digital sales channel to use

    Even the best sales strategy won’t be effective if you haven’t spent time on customer research. Use this checklist to get started.
    2

    Learn more about the digital landscape and emerging trends by speaking to peers and reading relevant industry publications

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    Keeping abreast of where your customers might be in six or 12 months allows you to move quickly when the time is right.

    An introduction to building a network to support your business

    Building a professional network can feel like a minefield. This guide will help you develop your network and advise you how to get the best out of it.
    3

    Introduce a CRM to organise sales data and get a real-time view on your most effective sales channels

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    If you don’t already have a CRM or strategy for using data , now is the time to get one. It means you can start collecting and analysing customer data, giving you better insights into where to sell.

    Find a CRM system that delivers value for your business

    Customer relationship management (CRM) systems enable businesses to collate customer data from various channels and better understand and serve the needs of customers.

    An introduction to using the data you have to improve decision making

    Data plays an important part in effective decision making, whether it’s around company growth, hiring practices, sales or marketing campaigns.
    4

    Streamline your sales process by focusing on the sales channels that have had the highest success rate so far

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Rather than trying to sell through multiple channels, use data to be smart about which ones to use. Look at what has worked best so far and dedicate your time and resources to those.

    Streamlining your sales process

    Streamlining your sales process isn’t rocket science – follow our checklist to better target prospects, track progress and collaborate more easily.
    5

    Decide which digital sales channels will work best for your business by comparing their performance with your old sales channels

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Deciding to stop using certain sales channels – or introducing completely new ones – can be daunting. But if your decisions are based on robust research, these changes should have a positive impact on sales and profit.

    An introduction to working out the best digital sales channels to use

    Done right, digital sales can super-charge your business growth. Read this guide to find out how to get your approach spot on.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Source of sales

    Knowing how customers discovered your business shows what marketing is effective

    Why this metric?

    Marketing needs to contribute to your revenue goals.

    How do I start tracking?

    Record how new customers found out about your company. The information can be collected automatically when customers are inputting their details or by salespeople.