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If there is a key to business growth, it is this: creating a sales process. I don’t want you to waste another minute without knowing what it is, how, and when to implement a sales process.
The sales process is a sequence of steps used by the sales department to take a prospect from “lead” to “customer”. In establishing this process, everyone involved and interested in sales, from the sales manager to reps, and even the CEO, uses the same terminology.
Why is this so important? The answer is simple. This sequence structures the sale finds leads and opportunities. Therefore, it allows you to follow the evolution of sales and visualize the progression toward the revenue targets for the month.
At each new step, metrics are established for the sales manager to be able to draw comparisons with previous months and monitor evolution. If the progression indicates that it will fall short of the objectives, it can act surgically in the phase that is harming sales.
For example, you may notice that sales development reps are not generating enough prospects to move on to closers. In that case, you can work with reps to qualify faster or ask marketing to reinforce inbound marketing.
So if you only see fog when you try to estimate billing at the end of the month, the sales process will bring you the clarity you need to try to change course.
How to create a sales process anyway? First, it is necessary to recognize that the role of sales is not to force a deal but to accompany the consumer throughout his purchase journey.
The modern consumer has access to a lot of information and uses the web to reach companies. The most successful sales processes leverage this inbound flow to create an inbound sales process that helps the customer navigate all stages of their buying journey: need recognition, solution discovery, solution evaluation, and purchase.
In this way, sales reps help customers recognize a problem or an opportunity. Then they help you discover the solutions, evaluate them and make a decision. If you follow this journey, you will align your sales forces with the steps that customers naturally want to take.
When to create the sales process? Ideally, before hiring more sales reps. Establishing the sales process makes it easier to train new talent and get them started in the right direction from the start. In addition, it also allows you to measure the success of each rep and coach when performance falls short of expectations. Or, the contrary, if you identify a sales rep with good performance, investigate and apply it to the team.
You can’t scale a business without a sales process. It is necessary to establish steps that the whole team recognizes, from sales to marketing to managers, and create tailored metrics. Only then will scalable and predictable growth be possible.