Process is a Sales Leaders Best Friend
Having a method to the madness, especially in the sales department, will create a strong team and business. Being methodical in solving problems can dramatically increase the revenue. To accomplish this, you must develop a sales process. You can ask any sales director and they will answer 10 different ways what they top processes are to accomplish this. Over my years and gathered experiences I’ve developed what I think are the top sales processes. A well-thought-out sales process that is understood and followed by all removes chaos and gives you needed predictability in running your business.There are 5 key questions I always find the answers to when I work with a client to develop their sales process.
5 Key Questions for Developing a Sales Process
What is your customer’s buying process? Get out from behind your desk and spend time with them. Include members of the sales team and ask a lot of questions with no preconceived answers.
What is your sales process? Realize that each company’s sales process is unique, and not cookie-cutter.
What is the exit criteria to move between sales process stages? You must have clear exit criteria per stage of your sales funnel.
What are your customer verifiers? Use customer verifiers as recommended by CEB (Challenger Selling). (read about this to expand it a few more sentences, then link off site to CEB or Challenger selling resource).
How are you allocating resources, by stage? Where do your sales close? Where to they get bogged down? You must allow resource allocation to be driven by the stage of the sales process, not just because that’s how you’ve always done it.
Each company and sales department will be a little different. If you are wondering why sales aren’t being made, ask yourself where in the process is it breaking down. Maybe your team followed the process and there was still a problem. If so, then it’s time to look at the process again. Or maybe there isn’t a process in place. It’s easy to ask what other sales teams are doing to be successful and how they accomplish a strong buyer’s process. We know that each company is different and each customer buyer's process needs to be understood. What are the key components in your process? What’s missing? If you need help, we’re just a phone call or email away.
