How to build a sales process for your sales team? Guide for Business Managers and Directors
Reading time: 5 minutes.
We know that assuming management roles in a company is a challenge that can cause anxiety and nerves, but at the same time it is a perfect opportunity to grow and show your full potential. And what better way to do that than by designing a successful sales process!
Chris Grosser, a Tesla sales consultant, once said that “opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” In other words, determination and proactivity will define the success or failure of a project.
The truth is that there is no single formula to create a perfect sales process in every company. This is where leaders must understand their market, its internal dynamics, and create strategies that allow the business to evolve, one step at a time.
That’s why here are 3 steps that will help you put together the ideal sales process for your team. Remember, it is not advisable to want to run before learning to crawl.
Maintain consistent action and documentation
Crawling is quite a feat for babies, as it is a clear advance to reach firm steps.
This analogy works perfectly for sales process design, and the first stage will be to start creating proper documentation.
The sales process should be detailed in a document called a playbook, and according to Salesforce, nearly half of companies haven’t written one. Jim Schuchart, vice president of sales at Privi, says that “there is no worse sales process than not having one.”
Structured data> Unstructured data> No data
More than creating a complex guide, the priority will be to select a strategy and that your team begins to know it, apply it and learn from it.
For example, instead of creating new opportunities in the CRM, focus on retaking lost opportunities, decide if you will send an email to your prospects or if you will call them, also choose the message, etc.
After doing so, enter all the data in the CRM. This is very important, having structured data will be key to analyze your strategies and offer personalized customer service. Let there be no empty spaces!
Create sales stages and key activities
This stage could be associated with learning to walk. You already have an advance in your documentation, rules and strategies, so it is time to take on more demanding challenges: create sales stages and key activities. For that, follow these rules.
1. Each stage be self-explanatory
Una buena técnica para asegurarte de que las etapas se entienden con facilidad es mostrarlas a colegas en diferentes departamentos o a nuevos colaboradores. Si la diferencia entre la etapa 1 y 2 no se comprende, será necesario optimizarlas.
2. Each stage has easy-to-recognize differences
It is important to recognize what makes a prospect advance from one stage to another, for example, when a simple lead will become an opportunity. Does your prospect get an automatic demo or do they need to speak to a sales rep first? Questions of this style must be answered.
3. That as the stages advance, there is progress in the purchase decision
The idea is that your prospects know, at each stage, the benefits they will have when making their purchase. It is not enough to just show them in the first stage or wait until the last one. It must be a process of constant attraction.
Following this guide will help you not only to clearly identify each stage, but also to make it easier for your customers to understand it, and to know how close they are to completing their purchase.
Support the buyer’s journey
With the correct information in your CRM and your sales stages up and running, it’s time to take the next step, and start running! This is where you focus more on the customer buying process than on internal strategies (which are already documented).
Lean on these points:
1. Stages are the buyer’s process, not the seller’s
At this point we put aside “how to sell” and our focus will be “how to buy” your client. Identify the key steps and replace items like “Demo completed” and “Free trial” with “Assessing solutions” or “Technical fit assessment.”
2. Establish exit criteria for buyer and seller at each stage
Not all of your leads will make it to the last stage. It details with what actions it is determined that your journey is progressing.
As for the seller, the exit criteria will indicate when it is time to leave the scene with a particular lead. 44% of reps give up after the first rejection, but the truth is that it takes an average of 5 contacts before making a sale.
3. Let buyers go their own way
Buyers don’t behave the same. Each of them makes decisions in different ways, for example, some may appreciate a technical fit assessment rather than a demo, but others prefer to see the benefits of the product early, so it would be ideal to show them a demo or free trial first. .
Rather than establishing an order, create a list of activities that must occur to achieve the goal.
Sales processes must be tailored to each company, your teams, your resources and the preferences of your customers. This guide will be useful to design a structure that allows your company to achieve its goals.
At Innova Marketing Solutions we can help you create a robust sales process that allows your team to grow step by step, to offer your buyers an attractive journey that enhances your sales. Contact us today and get a free 30 minute consultation.