Having a Sales Process is Key to Developing Sales Consistency
As a sales manager, when you own your sales process, you’re on track to mastering the art of developing repeatable results from your sales team. As a manager, you have a choice. You can build your fortunes around finding that one superstar salesperson who owns a revenue-generating sales process you can’t recreate, or you can take ownership and develop a sales process that allows you to cultivate an entire team of salespeople who consistently produce exceptional results. You decide. Will you own your sales process or not?
What is the Sales Process?
In simple terms, the sales process is nothing more than a step-by-step outline of how someone moves through a sales cycle, from identifying the prospect and making initial contact to reaching a sound conclusion that, ideally, benefits both the salesperson and the customer. For most businesses, the general sales process looks very similar, whether the sales cycle lasts an hour, a day, or several months. Here is an example of a 13-stage sales process:
1. Identify Prospects
2. Develop Leads
3. Conduct Research
4. Create a Plan
5. Make the First Visit
6. Assess Needs
7. Identify a Solution
8. Prepare Presentation/Demonstration/Proposal
9. Deliver the Presentation/Demonstration/Proposal
10. Negotiate
11. Close
12. Complete the Transaction
13. Follow
Up You may be thinking that I use a few more stages in my sales process than you’re used to seeing. I do. You can have a sales process with fewer stages, but does it truly represent what takes place in the sale? This one does.
You may have a variation or two in your sales process, but the goal is to mirror reality as closely as possible so you can use your sales process as a management tool, training tool, and a checklist for salespeople to use as they move through each sales cycle. When you are debriefing with a salesperson after a call, or during coaching sessions, you can talk about what happened according to each stage. This makes it easier to clearly identify the salesperson’s strengths and weaknesses, and to gain a better understanding of the challenges your salespeople are experiencing in the field. Your sales process is everything.
Let’s take a closer look at the first six stages of the sales process so you can get a better idea of how owning the process works.
1. Identify Prospects: The sales process starts off with prospects. What’s a prospect? Anyone in the known universe who could use your product or service. For example, if you sell and service access control systems for large commercial and industrial applications, every organization that fits that definition would be a prospect for your products and services. Start with this broad category, and then narrow your prospects to a manageable number. When you developed your strategic sales plan, you should have determined what your ideal customer looks like. If you haven’t heard the podcast or read the blog on strategic sales planning, check out Developing Your Strategic Sale Plan, parts one and two, and read Create a Customer Profile. Once you determine what you are looking for in a customer, and identified those within your territory, you have established where your leads come from. Your sales process should state that you will only develop leads from a pool that fits your criteria.
2. Develop Leads: Once you’ve identified the criteria for generating leads, as the sales manager, you should then establish a process for your team to use when developing those leads. Lay out for your salespeople the best practices for obtaining leads and converting them into appointments. This process should include a lead objective. Your sales process may establish that each salesperson will conduct x number of cold calls, by phone or in person; send x number of emails to prospects; and establish x number of first visits. By making them responsible for understanding what must be done in the early stages, you are gaining control of the sales process, and you are also ensuring your salespeople understand what you expect from them and why.
3. Conduct Research: Once your salesperson has developed the lead and is preparing for the initial meeting, it’s time to research the prospect. With use of the Internet, there is no reason anyone should go into a meeting without a thorough understanding of the organization, its leadership and how it can benefit from your product or services.
4. Create a Plan: Armed with ample research, the salesperson now simply prepares a pre-call plan to lay out the purpose of the meeting, expected results and how to accomplish that goal.
5. Make the First Visit: The goal of the first visit, or the initial contact, must be clear. In most cases, this is not the time to make a sale. Rather, the objective should be to establish common ground, report, and credibility, and lay the groundwork for the next step. If you are involved in a short sales cycle, all the steps in the sales process may take place in one visit, but don’t rush through the process. Take things one step at a time, completing each stage before moving to the next.
6. Assess Needs: You can’t sell a product or service if you don’t develop a clear understanding of your prospect’s needs and wants. People don’t buy products; they buy solutions to their problems. Your salespeople should be able to describe to you how they will conduct the needs assessment before they go on the visit, including what questions they plan to ask and who in the client’s organization they’ll talk to. They’ll need also to let the client know what additional resources within your organization they can rely on for assistance, and offer examples of clients with similar cases.
In Conclusion
Owning your sales process is more than just listing the various stages. It’s making sure you have a system in place that works for your salespeople, and helping them to get the desired results.
One word of caution – don’t make the sales process too rigid. You have to allow for the talent and individuality of your salespeople, and give them the freedom to shine. A sports coach may draw up a perfect play, but the players have to use their athleticism and experience to make adjustments on the field for the play to work. Sales is no different.
The goal of owning the sales process is to put your salespeople in the best position to win. You’ve probably seen these steps before, or something similar, but for your sales process to effectively help your team produce exceptional, repeatable results, you’ve got to own it.
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