Imagine you were asked to speak at an event. How would you prepare?
Would you take a risk and say whatever comes to mind? Would you prefer to have a clearly defined outline that adds structure to your talk?
Creating an outline for your presentation will help ensure that your audience will gain value from it.
A good B2B sales process is similar to a well-structured speech.
Sales processes that are effective can increase the number of sales, turn more prospects into customers, and make sure that everyone who talks with a customer has positive and consistent experiences.
Revenue growth depends on sales managers creating scalable processes that result in repeat customers.
What Is a Sales Process?
The steps a sales team takes to move a prospect from an early-stage lead to a closed customer is called a sales process. A sales process that is Strong will help representatives to be Consistent in the deals they close by providing a framework to follow.
What Makes a Great Sales Process?
Now we need to analyze what makes a great sales process truly great. You cannot expect any process to magically convert leads and increase sales, though having a good cold calling software can help a lot.
What are the key characteristics of an excellent sales process? Your sales process should be:
- Prospect-focused, not company-focused. Prospects aren’t just looking for great products and great prices—they want a good all-around experience and a lasting customer relationship. This is why a customer-centric strategy is so important: it should inform your sales process at every step. Don’t think about what you have to sell—think about what potential customers need.
- Clear and to the point. A well-defined sales process should be easy to follow. Every prospect should receive a consistently excellent standard of service, no matter where they are in the sales pipeline. Your sales professionals must be made aware of what your expectations are and how you’ll be evaluating them.
- Intuitive. For your sales team, the sales process must feel like second nature so that they can adopt and follow it with minimal fuss. The easier your sales process is for your sales team, the easier it’ll likely be for customers as well, minimizing pain points.
- Easy to replicate. An effective sales process is easily repeatable, meaning that it can be executed in the same way, again and again. All the members of your sales team should be able to do this.
- Aligned with your broader goals. When you’re developing your sales process, think about how to measure its success. What’s your chosen benchmark? Which metrics will you be using? Sales processes should be measured according to goals that all the relevant stakeholders understand, with check-ins at regular intervals.
- Flexible. It’s easy—especially for up-and-coming small businesses—to be blindsided by unexpected developments: whether it’s the arrival of new technology, new product or service offerings, or other unpredictable changes in your particular sector or market. Your sales process should give you some room to maneuver so that you can respond effectively.
- Scalable. Your sales process must be able to grow in tandem with your business. You should incorporate this into your thinking from the start. How will you adjust when your sales managers are handling twice as many inbound phone calls from potential clients as they are today?
It is difficult for a salesperson to be successful without a sales process that is clearly defined and well-organized. We have provided everything you need to build your project in this article.
Why Build a Sales Process?
A sales process is a detailed plan that helps a sales team close more deals by generating and qualifying leads. The map is essential for your marketing team’s lead generation efforts.
If there is a standardized sales process in place, it would be easier for less experienced sales representatives to understand what the best practices are and what needs to be done at different stages of the sale.
If you want to earn more money, it’s important to create a sales process. If you give your sales team a shared framework, they will have a more effective way to seal deals.
More efficient selling
If you have a sales process in place, your sales team will know what behavior they need to display to be successful. The salespeople will learn how to make cold calls to generate appointments, how to close deals and make new sales more quickly, how to use content to persuade qualified leads to continue further along the sales process, and so on.
You can improve your customer conversion rate and reduce the amount of time your sales team spends between leads by doing all of the above. Ultimately, this should mean a healthier bottom line.
Faster sales rep onboarding
If you want your new sales reps to be successful, it is helpful to have a clear sales strategy. A sales process roadmap can help you make sales meetings more efficient and help new salespeople get up to speed quickly.
With this plan, your new employees should be able to help with outreach, generating leads, and sales soon. Less avoidable mistakes will be made and team members will be more engaged.
Consistency for your future customers
The sales process protects your brand and its reputation. If you have a clear set of steps in place, your customers will all receive the same excellent level of service.
It is important that customers’ beliefs about your brand are in agreement with what you want your brand to be, so that they will remain faithful to it and feel confident in it.
Sales automation can help with consistency and making your process more streamlined. A CRM is a great place to start if you’re looking to implement sales automation.
More engaged (and happier) sales reps
A survey from Gallup found that less than a third of employees felt engaged at work, with 14% actively disengaged. One of the most important ways to improve employee engagement and staff retention is to set clear expectations.
If you have a good sales process, your salespeople will know how to take care of new customers and make sales.
How to Create a Sales Process
If you want to have a crucial advantage over your rivals, it helps to have a streamlined process. This ensures that your sales team is unified and knows what is happening.
Sales Process Steps
After learning about sales processes and their importance, the next step is to understand the different stages that are typically involved.
Prospect.
The process of sourcing new leads that are in the early stages of the sales process is called prospecting. The sales process cannot function without this, and it is something most sales reps do regularly.
Prospecting might involve researching online on sites like LinkedIn or Quora. The event might take place at conferences or industry events. Other than asking your current clients or colleagues for referrals, you can also find potential customers by having them recommended to you.
If you’re looking for new customers, a good strategy is to interact with the content on websites like the ones mentioned earlier. If a post is relatable or disagreeable to you, respectfully express your thoughts. The more familiar you are with a prospect, the more likely they are to engage with you in the future.
Connect and qualify leads.
The “connect step” of the sales process is when representatives reach out to potential customers to collect information. The second part of this step is to determine if the new leads are a good-fit for your business and if they will likely progress through the buyer’s journey.
A rep can typically identify qualified leads over a “connect” or “discovery” call (sometimes over email if not via phone) by asking qualifying questions like:
- “What is your role within your company?”
- “What do you do day-to-day?”
- “What problem are you trying to solve?”
- “Why is this a priority for your business?”
- “What other solutions are you evaluating?”
Hot Tip: Qualifying leads doesn’t have to be complicated. BANT is a simple qualification process that can help you determine if a prospect will be a good match for the products or services you sell.
Research the company.
This is the research step, when reps learn more about each prospect and company.
Your reps will be able to improve their chances of closing a deal if they research and understand the customer’s perspective.
In this stage, it is crucial to understand each prospect’s challenges and needs and to establish your product or service as the solution.
In order to get a full understanding of the company and its goals, your representative may need to speak with other people within the company who work in different departments. A good salesperson is expected to have a deep understanding of the company and what they are trying to sell. They should be able to articulate the company’s message and values to the individual prospect.
If you want everyone to be on the same page with the sales process, make sure to agree on the highest priorities for the business. If you want to get accurate information from the people you talk to, it’s helpful to ask specific, carefully-chosen questions. Once you have completed the task, review the responses you received and look for any common themes. Choose themes that your product or service aligns with and base your positioning around those themes.
Give an effective pitch.
During the presentation step, the salesperson formally demonstrates the product or service to the prospect.
The connecting and qualifying step is very important because it is time-consuming and is normally done later on in the sales process with customers who are more likely to buy from you. It is not efficient for a sales representative to use up time unnecessarily.
Each presentation should be based around the specific needs and problems of the individual prospect. A rep might bring an engineer or executive to the meeting to demonstrate the level of customer service the customer will receive when doing business with the company. This allows them to answer more technical questions that the representative might not be able to answer.
Make sure to adjust your presentation to fit the prospect’s specific needs and problems. If a representative is meeting with a potential customer, they may bring an engineer or executive with them to show the customer what level of service they can expect from your company. This allows them to answer more technical questions that the representative might not be best suited to answer.
Handle objections.
Prospects often have objections to a salesperson’s presentation or proposal. This is a specific step in the sales process because it is expected. Your sales team should be prepared to address any concerns that arise.
Hearing your potential customer’s complaints and queries can help your employees better personalize your product to satisfy their requirements. Reps should identify and anticipate possible objections to their research and presentation preparation, including objections about cost, onboarding, or other parts of the proposed contract.
If you’re selling something, it’s important to not see objections as bad or a waste of time. Try to be understanding and listen carefully when the person you are trying to sell to is telling you their concerns. Ask them questions about why they are hesitant so that you can better understand their concerns and present a solution that is more relevant to their needs.
Sales Process vs Sales Methodology
It’s important to understand the distinction between a sales process and a sales methodology. They are not the same, even though people often confuse the two. Here’s how they differ:
The sales methodology is the set of steps and principles that guide a salesperson’s approach to selling. Sales philosophy: How you’ll be selling your products: Which methods will be most effective for your chosen market and audience:
The sales methodology must be correct in order for the decision-makers to know what steps to take in the sales process. There are three different types of sales methods; the best known ones are the challenger, consultative, and inbound models.
Your sales process should practically implement the chosen methodology. A sales process is a set of specific steps that need to be followed in order to successfully sell a product or service. The steps involved in a sales process will vary depending on the business’s goals and vision.
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