4 Sales Processes that can be a Game Changers

When asked if they have a sales procedure, the majority of executives will say yes. However, when asked to describe their sales process, they give wildly varied responses. While conducting research for the book Cracking the Sales Management Code, we noticed this troubling trend. Sales managers can't properly coach or interact with their salespeople if they don't have a shared definition of the term "sales process." They also find automating, measuring, and improving their sales process to be incredibly difficult.

Our research uncovered fundamental sales processes that contain the most crucial actions of every salesperson's day-to-day effort. It can be easier to measure, manage, and coach salespeople if specified processes are used. It's critical to have clear definitions for your sales process.

Management Of Calls

Because it provides much-needed structure and intentionality for sales agents as they conduct their conversations, a call management process improves individual interactions between a seller and a buyer.

There are usually three parts to this process: planning, implementation, and debriefing. Salespeople should have answers to the following questions at the planning stage:

What is the goal of your sales call?

What are the best questions to ask?

What kinds of objections do you think you'll face?

During the sales process, the agent should focus on their research and strategy to guide the call, while remaining attentive and allowing for flexibility if the conversation does not go as anticipated.

When it comes time to debrief, having a colleague or manager present who can provide comments on what went well and what could be improved for the rep's next call is beneficial. It's also a good time to think about any questions the rep didn't get a chance to ask during the call or solutions to issues they couldn't settle.

Qualification Of The Lead

Early in the sales process, sales teams should use a methodical technique to qualify leads. Agents benefit from having a procedure for qualifying leads because they know what to look for when engaging with leads.

Reps will be more prepared walking into their initial conversations with prospects, and can feel more confident when pursuing the right leads for their offer, if they have a specific set of criteria to look for when qualifying leads, as well as a consistent set of questions, to ask in initial sales calls.

Management of Opportunities

An opportunity in sales is a highly qualified lead who is likely to purchase. The opportunity management process aids salespeople in identifying and tracking sales opportunities as they progress through their pipelines.

Reps must closely track and record how prospects go through the sales process once they've entered the pipeline, noting which methods of communication and sales approaches convert opportunities into customers best.

Management of Accounts

By regularly aligning your company's capabilities with your customer's needs, the account management process maximizes the long-term value of select customer relationships. To ensure the customer's success and pleasure, this process frequently escalates up after the initial contract has closed.

Though account management is often the responsibility of account managers rather than sales reps, both account managers and sales reps must maintain alignment on how to best move customer accounts. This typically includes a debriefing time during which sales professionals prepare account managers to take over the account by sharing the knowledge they obtained during the transaction.

Conclusion

If you don't have established sales processes in place, now is a good moment to start. You're probably frustrated if you have improper sales practices in place.

You can, however, become a sales management rock star if you have the correct formal sales procedures in place. You can confidently assess, manage, and coach your salespeople to improve their performance by having them execute their most critical actions more consistently.