How to Define a Sales Process

There are different points in a sales process.

In simple terms, they’re the Initial Contact with the customer, Request for Proposal (RFP), Proposal, and Sale. Sometimes there’s a Request for Information (RFI) thrown into the mix, or maybe a returning customer has an Upcoming Project.

Taken alone, these points are like the plot summary of a story. People don’t buy plot summaries. They buy stories. If you don’t know how to tell a good story, you’re going to miss out on a lot of lucrative sales.

A good story is all about how you tell it. A defined sales process is about how you sell it.

A defined sales process will help you reduce unnecessary work, focus on ideal customers, and develop more profitable projects.

What Happens if You Don’t Have a Clearly Defined Sales Process?

If you don’t have a clear sales process, every opportunity is at risk of being over or undervalued. Not only that, you could also overlook customer expectations or, worse yet, not meet them.

There are lots of unsavory things that can happen if you don’t have a sales process that’s designed to capture information and create value along the way.

First, the sales process should complete the qualification process. It should qualify that the opportunity and potential buyer meet criteria so you don’t end up wasting your time.

Second, the sales process should extract or discover the hidden value for both the buyer and the seller. Anyone can find the surface value. The hidden value — the opportunities, upsells, and substitutions — that’s where the real money is made. It’s also where decisive value to the buyer is hiding.

Third, the sales process should lay the groundwork for future engagements even before the current sale is completed. You should always be thinking about the third or fourth sale.

Having a good sales process ensures all these things happen. Otherwise, when somebody calls you, you can rush in a straight line toward a proposal. You jump the gap too soon, and you miss all that valuable information and opportunity.

Three Benefits of Defining the Sales Process

• It reduces unnecessary work by creating opportunities to understand what you’re doing. You have fewer false starts, such as writing a proposal that doesn’t meet customer expectations.
• It helps you focus on ideal customers by filtering out customers who aren’t the best fit.
• It develops more profitable projects by reducing over-delivery and underselling.

Sales Process Stories From First Contact to Goal

So, what does a good sales process look like? That will depend on the type of first contact you have with the customer. Let’s walk through a few examples.

The Customer Needs Support

First Contact: A typical first contact query might sound something like, “We have this gala coming up, and we don’t know what to do next.”

The customer is calling out for help and support, but they don’t even know what they need yet. It’s your job to help them figure that out.

Next Steps: Obviously, you can’t start by writing a proposal. Instead, your next step has to be a needs assessment.

A needs assessment will let you discover what the customer is trying to accomplish. What is the gala for? What’s supposed to happen? Who are the attendees? How do they want the guests to feel?

The needs assessment doesn’t judge. It doesn’t find solutions. It simply unpacks what the customer wants.

Once you take the customer through a needs assessment, you’re in a position to make a recommendation.

Making a recommendation without the needs assessment is, to be quite honest, arrogant and uninformed — and it will very likely miss the mark.

Goal: Depending on the customer and their needs, you might recommend the customer come meet the team and learn more about your company. Or maybe they need a formal capabilities pitch so they better understand what you can do for them, which is the first step in becoming a valuable partner.

The Customer Needs Technical Solutions

First Contact: In this scenario, a customer calls up and says, “We saw that video you had of the big projection on the outside of the building. We want that.”

The customer saw something they liked, and they think they know what they need.

Next Steps: It’s easy to jump straight into the technical solutions and explain how you can implement the solution they asked for. But this query is actually also a prompt for a needs assessment.

The job here is to understand why the customer thinks they need this particular solution.

You might find out they’re exactly right, and they really do need that big outdoor projector. Or maybe you find out the projector won’t really accomplish their goals, and you have a better solution to offer them. You can’t know for sure without a needs assessment.

Goal: In either case, the next step is getting the customer to a demo, either to show them options in the technology they originally wanted or alternatives that will better meet their needs. This helps them understand their options and embrace the value of the solution so you can both get closer to a budget.

In this step, you should also have a capabilities pitch queued up and ready to go. That way, when opportunities come up, you’ll be ready to talk about what else you can offer. Yes, we can help you with graphics. Yes, we can produce this event for you.

The Customer Submits an RFP

First Contact: It’s no secret I’m not the biggest fan of RFPs . In our world, an RFP is simply the customer’s way of saying, “We’ve engineered all the value out of this, and we want the best dollar solution.”

The purpose of an RFP is to pit suppliers against each other in a race to the bottom.

Next Steps: However, you don’t want to treat customers like this is what they’re doing. If you do, you immediately enter into an adversarial conversation.

Instead, treat this as another opportunity for a different kind of needs assessment. This time, you’re trying to find out what type of response the customer is looking for. There could be a lot of reasons behind an RFP, such as:

• Do they need validation that they have the right solution?
• Do they need to understand the price range of this kind of project?
• Are they looking for a different approach than they’ve had before?
• Are they looking for a different type of supplier than they’ve had before?
• Are they just price shopping?

Your job is to find out the reasons behind the RFP before proceeding.

If the customer is just price shopping, you may not want to participate. This is a good time to end the conversation and let them know when would be a good time to re-engage with you.

Chances are, though, that you want to try and meet their needs. Maybe they’re looking for somebody who has a better process or a better personality fit (hopefully at a good price). This is your opportunity to discover the angle that’s going to give you the advantage.

Goal: The goal of your needs assessment is a comprehensive project review where you discuss the project they actually need.

Reframing the RFP with a project review discussion is probably the most powerful tool you have for a customer who doesn’t really understand why they have an RFP in the first place.

The project review could also offer an opportunity for a capabilities pitch. You might uncover other needs that are also part of your products and services, such as the need to run a virtual event in sync with a live event.

Maybe the customer doesn’t realize you’re an expert in that area. Maybe it wasn’t included in the RFP. Either way, it’s a great time to say, “We’re experts in this, too, so why don’t we add that into your solution?” In this case, the project review leads to the solution pitch.

The Customer Submits an RFI

First Contact: I don’t see these very often, but the RFI is a request for information, and it’s usually a prelude to an RFP. I see it most often in large creative jobs where the customer needs a full-service producer, creative treatment, soup-to-nuts supplier.

The RFI is really the customer trying to find out if you’re qualified to be a participant in an upcoming proposal pitch. But ultimately, they’re asking for a capabilities pitch.

Next Steps: By asking for a capabilities pitch, the customer is telling you a little about what their needs are. So before you jump to a capabilities pitch, it’s much better to add the intermediate step of a needs assessment. Most RFIs allow for this.

A needs assessment will help you better understand what the customer has done in the past, what they’re looking for now, what problems they’re trying to solve, and where they think their opportunities are. This information will allow you to better frame your capabilities pitch.

Goal: Your capabilities pitch may lead to a solution pitch at this point. In fact, the RFI may even be asking for a solution (in broad terms, not a solution with a micro-budgeted timeline).

There will still be an RFP down the road. But the needs assessment, the capabilities pitch, and your solution pitch will all inform that future RFP.

The Customer Has an Upcoming Project

First Contact: In this scenario, you encounter a return customer or a customer who isn’t shopping around — they come to you. They want you to do the job.

It’s your business to lose.

Next Steps: It’s tempting to rush to a proposal here without going through a defined sales process. The details can be sorted out later.

But the sales process should do more to create value and expectation of value with this kind of customer. I still advise a needs assessment, maybe along the lines of, Tell me more about this project. Let me bring some of my team in so they understand what you’re looking for, and we can start working on it together.

Depending on the project, you might bring in your creative person, or maybe a technologist or logistics expert. Whatever you learn through the initial contact will influence who’s there for the discovery conversation.

Goal: At this point, it looks like you’ve actually starting to work on the project. Then you have an opportunity to take that information and come back to the customer with your ideas and recommendations — with a solution pitch.

The pitch is also the time when you provide the customer with a budget range for your ideas.

Use the Sales Process to Dig Deeper

It can be incredibly tempting to rush to a proposal. But sticking to a sales process will help you pause and take time to dig deeper. What does the customer really need? Do they know what they’re asking for? Do they know what you have to offer?

The sales process demands discipline: You don’t want to jump ahead to the last fork in the road. Just get the customer to the next branch. Then, you’ll have enough information to choose the next path, and the next, until you have a solution that provides you with the most opportunity to meet the customer’s actual needs.