{"id":1004,"date":"2025-02-22T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:14:37","slug":"2348227_sales-strategy-must-be-longer-than-12-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/2348227_sales-strategy-must-be-longer-than-12-months","title":{"rendered":"Sales strategy must be longer than 12 months!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Often within companies when it comes to sales you hear the phrase, \"We'll give it 12 months, because then it has to happen.\" But where does this thought and desire come from anyway?<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The \"Accounting Year.\"<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The concept of the \"accounting year\" (or fiscal year) originally stems from the need to measure and report a company's financial performance on a standardized basis. The idea goes back to the early days of commerce and taxation, when governments and businesses needed to find ways to track their revenues, expenses and profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many ancient civilizations, such as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, taxes were levied based on harvest cycles or trade. As economies became more complex, there was a need for a standardized time frame for collecting tax revenue. The fiscal year became a way to calculate and collect taxes over a set period of time, usually 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many industries, such as agriculture or retail, the seasonal nature of the business plays a major role. Companies began to set fiscal years that better reflected their specific seasonal revenue and cost structures. This made it easier to evaluate and plan for financial performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounting year was also introduced because of the legal obligations for companies to file their books annually with governments and tax authorities. This simplified the administrative processes for auditing and complying with tax laws and has since become a fundamental part of financial reporting and taxation in almost every country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many cases, a company's accounting year is determined by its operating cycle, although some countries or companies choose to have the fiscal year begin on a specific calendar date such as Jan. 1 or April 1.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why a Sales strategy should be separate from a fiscal year<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sure, it's convenient that numbers, targets and goals are measurable and for this reason are often tied to an accounting year, but for a successful sales strategy you need to look much further than an accounting year. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many reasons can be given but I will name just a few single<\/em> which I personally think is very important:

1. Build long-term relationships: <\/strong>Successful sales is not just about quick results, but more importantly about building long-term relationships with customers. This takes time, especially in B2B or complex markets, where decision-making can often take months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Market and customer trends: <\/strong>Markets change and customer needs evolve. It is important to have a strategy that not only addresses the current situation, but also anticipates future trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Invest in brand awareness: <\/strong>Building brand awareness and trust with potential customers is a process that takes time. It is essential for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Effects of marketing and campaigns:<\/strong> Marketing campaigns and other sales initiatives take time to be effective. By looking over a year, you can better understand which initiatives are working or not working and adjust your strategy accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Sales cycle in complex markets:<\/strong> In industries with longer sales cycles, it can sometimes take a year or more only to close a deal. A strategy that focuses sec. on the short term could miss important deals.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

' Last but not least:<\/strong> Creating competitive advantage: <\/em><\/strong>Companies that adopt a long-term strategy are better able to capitalize on future opportunities and differentiate themselves from competitors more focused on short-term gains.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"The pursuit of quick wins in sales can pose several dangers.\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By focusing too much on quick results, you often lose sight of long-term growth. This can leave your brand or your customer base vulnerable because you are not laying a solid foundation for lasting relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


-> which can lead to a lack of trust and loyalty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-> what next you impedes long-term growth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-> which in turn can lead to unrealistic expectations<\/strong>, thinking that success must always come quickly, which is not always feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-> and leads to the missing out on valuable long-term customers<\/strong>.

Quick wins may bring short-term success, but can be detrimental to your brand and long-term customer relationships.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why quick wins in more complex sales at all are not the solution?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you apply a short-term sales strategy, for example, for a more complex IT product, the dangers can be even greater. Technically complex products require a thorough analysis of customer needs and a detailed explanation of how the product can fulfill them. When aiming for quick wins, there is a risk of looking superficially at the customer, missing important requirements that can cause problems later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT solutions require more implementation, customization and training. Trying to \"close\" too quickly without fully educating the customer can lead to unrealistic expectations about the speed and ease of implementation, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and possible contract breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT products also often require ongoing support and updates. Quick wins can lead you to not properly maintain the customer relationship or not provide the required support, leading to customer frustration and loss of trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, with complex (IT) products, the sales cycle can take months, as customers must go through several departments, approvals and detailed evaluations. By focusing on quick deals, you may miss the opportunity to properly address these slow but necessary phases of the sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, complex IT solutions are often part of a broader ecosystem of products and services that need to be optimized over time. If you focus only on quick wins, you may miss out on valuable long-term relationships in which you can exploit upsell or cross-sell opportunities as the customer evolves.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With more complicated products and services in the B2B market, it is crucial to take a more detailed and long-term sales approach. Simply because quick transactions may not reflect the full value of the product and the customer will ultimately not be optimally served. It can even hurt your brand if customers feel they were not properly supported or that their needs were not fully understood. In short, a sales strategy that looks beyond 12 months provides the flexibility and vision to achieve long-term success, rather than being limited to quick and fleeting results.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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By Martijn Spek<\/a>, Feb. 22, 2024<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Often within companies when it comes to sales you hear the phrase, \"We'll give it 12 months, because then it has to happen.\" But where does this thought and desire come from anyway?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Vaak hoor je binnen bedrijven als het om sales gaat de term: \u201cWe geven het 12 maanden, want dan moet het gaan gebeuren.\u201d Maar waar komt deze gedachte en wens toch vandaan?","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.husaca.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}