As you enter into a new sales year for your business, taking the time to objectively review your sales data can help you to spot trends in successes and failures. By evaluating your customer base, your target audiences, your marketing efforts and the work of your sales team, you can identify where there may be weaknesses that you should focus on. It also helps you spot your strengths as an organization. Both of these things are vital to building a successful business. Here are some tips to help you evaluate your sales success to build a plan for the coming year.

Are Your Customers Happy?

Establish a team to make follow-up calls to customers after a purchase. The goal of this call is to ensure that your customers are happy with their investment, the experience and the level of service they've received since. If you implement a web platform with sales intelligence tools, you can track this feedback and highlight any holes in the sales process where you can improve your customer satisfaction.

Are You Making Money?

At the end of every quarter, you should evaluate your sales transactions and the profit margin you've recorded on each one. Even if you're doing a steady business and making a lot of sales, if you aren't making money on those sales, there's still a problem. This type of review ensures that you're recording a profit on each sale that your team closes.

Are You Remaining Competitive?

Sometimes, a slump in sales occurs because your competitor has a leg-up on the market. This can happen due to progress on a key product or financial savings due to lower prices. The best way to combat this type of issue is to keep an ear on your competition.

Once a quarter, you should conduct a competitive survey to get an idea of what's changing with your primary competition. You should monitor industry trends on a regular basis and make sure that your sales team knows how to counter any possible discussion from customers about a competitor's product.

Arm your sales team with competition cards that clearly illustrate what your business has to offer in comparison to your competitors and make sure that your sales team sounds knowledgeable and experienced. The more the team knows about your business, your products and your competitors, the less likely they are to be caught unaware on the phone.

By taking the steps to remain ahead of the market and aware of any coming changes, you can help keep your company positioned for success. The tips presented here will help you start the new year with an eye toward success.