How to develop a sales process that works. As a business owner, chances are that you already know how to sell to your customers. The problem is this knowledge sits inside your head. This makes it difficult to transfer this knowledge to your sales team.
You need to get the knowledge out of your head and into a place where other people can learn from you. This will ensure greater control over your sales results and is the first step to accurately predicting whether your team will meet the sales targets you set for them – preventing any nasty surprises.
STEP 1: Document the key steps you currently follow when you sell to potential customers. This can usually be done by sitting with someone who has a strong ‘process’ mindset, and simply talk through what you do when work with prospective clients to make a sale. Let that person document the steps as you explain them out loud.
STEP 2: Now review what has been documented, and think carefully about whether each step is optimal or if you feel it should be refined. Document the changes you make.
When working in an organization that already has a sales team, but no defined sales process, we often find it is best to sit with the whole sales team and facilitate a discussion in which the whole team explains the sales process to us, while we map out the process on a white board for everyone to see. This usually generates interesting discussion and debate and often yields the best defined sales processes. And we get an extra win from doing this – the sales team are quicker to buy into the newly defined process as they had a direct hand in crafting it!
Ensure your sales process defines:
- The choice of words to use in the conversation with a potential customer. Don’t be afraid to script phone calls, slide decks and conversations (don’t worry, we don’t want sales people to sound like automatons, but we do want them to know the best choice of words to use at each stage of the sales process – more on that later)
- What tone of voice is appropriate for the process
- What questions to ask at each of the various stages of the sales process
- What sales tools to use at each of the various stages of the sales process, e.g. when to use the brochure, when to use the slide deck, when to pull out the contract, etc.
- Timing of each engagement with a potential client – e.g. no more than 4 hours to respond to enquiry that came in via the website
Keep the following in mind, while you develop your sales process:
Build your sales process around the customer
As you develop your sales process, it’s critical to think about things from the customers perspective.
The most common pitfall in sales process development occurs when companies sell in a manner that is convenient to themselves, and not in a manner that marries the buying journey of your prospective customer.
Stop to think about:
- What are the needs of the client?
- What are the questions going through the clients mind at each stage of their buying journey? What are their concerns and what are their hopes?
- How can I ensure my sales people always meet the client where they are at in their buying journey?
Be deliberate and make small changes to yield big results
Whether your sales process is short (with one or two stages) or long, each step in the process needs to be deliberate in its contribution to converting a sale. Leave nothing to chance.
One single step in a sales process may not make a sale but if you stack up all the steps; each step clearly thought about; it will improve your closing rate.
Think about it this way – if your average conversion rate is two sales out of ten quotes and you are able to consistently increase that to 3 sales in 10, you will be growing your turnover by 50% ! That’s a significant jump and it’s happened with no additional sales resources, marketing or advertising expenses. It’s a matter of being more effective with the resources that you have.
A great sales process is one of the most efficient ways to grow sales!
