Everyone knows where good intentions get you. You don’t want your sales process to be one of those good intentions that stay captured in your employee handbook or sales manual. But how do you create a process that is put to use? With more than three decades of experience in sales and a trademarked process, the professionals at Sales Focus Inc. have a few recommendations. What is a Sales Process? A sales process is a series of repeatable steps that your sales team takes to convert prospects into customers. The number of steps in the sales process can change due to a rep’s industry, product, and prospect but make sure to include the four stages: research, prospecting, sales call and close, and relationship-building. Why Build a Sales Process? A sales process is important to your business because if you do not have one your sales managers will not be able to distinguish what went wrong and where when quotas are missed. Your managers will only be able to see the number of deals closed. Having a sales process implemented in your business will be able to track your team’s performance at every stage of the sales cycle. Creating a Sales Process: The Seven-Step Sales Cycle 1. Prospecting In order to keep your sales pipeline full of leads, you must prospect. Prospecting is the quickest way to increase both your conversion and closing rates. And the only way for you to kick-start the entire sale. Prospecting is the process of sourcing new, early-stage leads to begin working through the sales process. Prospecting may involve online research, attending conferences, or asking for referrals. 2. Lead Qualification After you have searched for leads, next is making sure they qualify and fit with your business. In order to make sure they are qualified leads you will need to find out the following information: What their overall interest level is What they are trying to accomplish Their pain points What current solutions they are using Budget 3. Company Research The research stage is when the sales rep learns more about the prospect and company. This stage allows you to learn how to tailor your pitch to each prospect differently. The hardest part of the research stage is understanding each prospect’s challenges and needs that your product or service could solve. At the end of this stage, you want to know more about the company better than the prospect you are working with. 4. Pitch This step is probably the most time-consuming. You will be explaining your formal product or service to your qualified prospect. You do not want to waste any of your sales rep’s time if it is avoidable. Each presentation should be customized to the specific prospect to ensure a productive demonstration. Be sure to point out how you can fix their pain points. Never feel uncomfortable asking a higher-up to jump in on your call. They will be able to answer the technical questions if there are any. 5. Objection Handling Do not be shocked if your prospect comes to you with an objection before, during, or after your pitch. Navigating rejection and assisting your prospects through their objections is how you will become an amazing sales rep. Following is a four-step method for handling objections that we at Sales Focus Inc. use: Encourage and Question Confirm Understanding Address the Concern Check – Respond A great way to practice how to handle objections is to write down the most common objections you face over a week. Come up with questions on how to understand the objection(s). Turn to a colleague and practice out loud. This will help you tremendously. 6. Close This step is where every salesperson hopes to be regularly. Once you have overcome all the objections listed above, you can close the deal. Be sure to remind the prospect of the goal you are achieving for them. How to close the deal: Ask a direct question Ask an indirect question Provide an incentive Offer a free trial period If you are unable to close a qualified lead, you should return the prospect to the nurturing stage to implement a strategy that increases sales performance. 7. Nurturing The sales process never ends when you close the deal. As a sales rep, you are responsible for continuing a relationship with your customer, regardless of whether the sale was closed or not. Nurturing your clients opens up doors to upsell, cross-sell, or ask for referrals. Improve Your Existing Sales Process Improving your existing sales process isn’t just about making small tweaks—it’s about taking a strategic approach to optimize every step for better efficiency and results. By analyzing what’s working, identifying areas for improvement, and incorporating feedback, you can create a streamlined, high-performing process. The key is to start with the right information and a clear understanding of your current sales workflow. Follow the below steps to refine and enhance your process, ensuring your sales team operates at its full potential. Gather Some Intel Map out your potential customers. Make sure to set aside some time to really find out who your ideal target customer is. By building trust with your target personas, you will know how to customize your process for them. Map Out Your Existing Sales Process You do not want to risk wasting your time recreating the wheel, but you’ll never know if that’s what your sales process discussions will lead to if you do not first have a clear idea of what your current process is. Map out what your sales process looks like and include some visual cues to show: Areas where no one knows what’s happening or what’s supposed to happen Areas where you have an established practice or system but one that does not seem to be very efficient or effective. If you have more than one sales process, for instance, one for the field team, and another for the phone team, map them both out. This could be the first step to streamlining your process and, possibly, to cross-training sales representatives. Identify What Is Working & Isn’t Working Identify the steps or systems in your existing process that aren’t working. If you don’t know which steps or systems these are, ask your sales team—they’ll know. Identifying what isn’t working is not just an exercise in complaining. Go further and see if you can pinpoint why something isn’t working. Are there technical difficulties (like unreliable cloud-based software or lack of updated hardware)? Is there a compliance issue? Are sales reps cutting corners or forgetting something that would make the existing process go more smoothly? Do you need updated information about your market to be more effective? It is possible that when analyzing your existing sales process, you may find that the process itself is not the problem. You may need to revise or re-strategize your marketing campaign or target a different segment of the market for improved sales performance. It’s easy to focus on the negative, but if your team was making any sales, then something was going right—what was it? Find out what about your existing process is worth keeping. Ask for Input from Your Sales Team There is no one better to talk to and gather advice from than your salespeople. They definitely will have an idea of what is and what isn’t working. A good idea is to ask your sales team to map out the sales process from their perspective. By looking at the material from your teams, you will be able to gather a handful of insights to help you finalize the process. If you discover that the current process is the cause for lagging performance, do not leave “the fix” up to management alone. That’s a surefire way to get resistance and non-compliance from your sales team. Ask them for input. If you’ve done your job right, your sales team is composed of experienced (historically) high-performers. They will have valuable insights to improve the process and achieve more sales more efficiently. And, when they feel acknowledged (whether or not their suggestions are implemented), they will be motivated to achieve higher performance for your company. Re-Map Your Sales Process Before your sales reps implement a new process, test it on paper. Create a visual map of the process, do some role-playing, and create some “what if” scenarios to work through. Try to answer as many questions and resolve as many issues as possible before your sales team goes “live”. Seek Feedback and Correct There will never be a better teacher than in real life. So, once your sales team has been using the new process for a few weeks with actual prospects and clients, reconvene to find out if the process needs further refining. If it does, then go back to step 2—identify what isn’t working, and what is, and ask for feedback from your sales team. The key to creating a process that your reps will fully support is buy-in. They need to feel invested in the process. Benefits Of The Sales Process The benefits of implementing a sales process in your business or never-ending. Some of the main benefits are: Guiding your sales team to stay on track. Gain a better understanding of prospects. Able to dedicate your sales reps to focus on qualified leads. Accurately forecast sales. Sales reps can ensure continuous engagement with prospects. Enhance customer experience. Get new reps up to speed. When executing a sales process, your managers will also be able to redirect their focus from micro-managing their team to more high-value tasks. Conclusion Creating and implementing a sales process in your business will help your sales team close more deals and convert more leads. Follow the steps above and tailor them to your business, sales team, and customers to increase conversions and build long-lasting relationships. If you need help creating a process and/or a cohesive sales team dynamic, contact SFI for expert consultation.
