How To Improve Your Sales Process: The Basics

When it comes to sales processes, there are many different ways of approaching them. There is no perfect process that works for every single business. Instead, you need to look at your company and its needs, objectives, and culture to determine the most effective way for you to streamline your sales operations. In selling something as intangible as a service or product, it’s easy to overlook the importance of process. However, with increasingly complex industries and transactions that involve numerous people across multiple departments — not just one individual — it’s essential to make sure all protocols are in place before beginning any new endeavour. Operations can be streamlined in a variety of ways. From analyzing data to streamlining checklists and removing unnecessary steps from your process, there are several areas you can focus on in order to improve efficiency.

• Define Your Objectives

Before you even begin to think about what kind of process you want in place, you need to define your objectives.

• What are you trying to achieve with your sales process?
• What will make your company better as a result of implementing this new process?

First, you need to figure out why your company even has salespeople.

• What are they selling and to whom?
• What is their main goal with each sale?

These are all important questions to ask yourself. Whether you’re a large company or a smaller startup, each division within the organization should have a clear idea of what they’re trying to achieve. You also need to make sure that everyone involved in the process is on the same page as far as expectations, timelines, and responsibilities are concerned. If not, you risk causing confusion, frustration, and bottlenecks to occur as a result of miscommunication.

• Establish A Process

Once you’ve determined your objectives, it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty details of establishing a sales process.

First, take a close look at the customers you’re targeting and the competition. What kind of sales process do they use? How long does it take? What are the potential stumbling blocks along the way? In particular, you want to look at the customer journey. What are the typical steps in the sales process? What is your role in the customer journey? How does your sales process fit into the bigger picture? What other internal processes are relevant when it comes to sales? You’ll want to consider how your sales process could be affected by changes in the market or the economy. Are there new technologies or innovations occurring that could impact your sales process?

Next, determine how you’re currently getting sales and which parts of the process are working, and which are not. What are the company’s pain points? What are the biggest challenges you’re facing? What areas do you need to improve?

Finally, take all of your data and findings, and look at them as a whole. What could be done to make the entire process smoother and more efficient? What are the main issues currently affecting your sales process? What changes do you need to make?

• Define Key Activities

As you’re defining your key activities, it’s important to look at the wider picture. You need to see the big picture. You need to see the forest for the trees. You need to see the entire sales process from beginning to end. Understanding the sales process and how each part of it fits into the bigger picture will help you determine which activities should be broken down into smaller tasks. It will also help you understand how best to sequence them in order to maximize efficiency.

For example, when you’re analyzing data, what data are you analyzing? How long does each key activity take? Are they happening in the right order? Are they happening at all? You should also decide what metrics are important to track, as well as if there are any tools that could help you track them more efficiently.

• Map Activities To The Sequence

Now that you’ve defined your key activities and mapped them to the sales process, you need to make sure they fall in the right order. This is where you can begin to identify where there are bottlenecks in the process, as well as areas that can be streamlined. You’re looking for any unnecessary steps in the sequence. As you review the sequence, you may want to consider creating flowcharts or using another visual aid to help break everything down even further.

Let’s take a look at an example: - You’ve identified that generating leads is the biggest challenge in your sales process. So, you’re devoting your attention to that part of the process first. You’ve mapped the activities to the sequence, and now you need to determine where there are delays. - Immediately, you notice that generating leads is taking too long. It’s taking your sales team too long to actually obtain those leads. Once they have the leads, however, they have no issues closing the sale. - In this scenario, you’d want to look at ways that your sales team can obtain leads more quickly. - You’d also want to make sure that your team is getting the leads they need and putting them to good use.

• Measure What’s Working And What’s Not

Now that you’ve identified and rectified issues in the sales process, it’s important to keep an eye on the sales metrics that matter. How many leads are you obtaining? How many are converting into sales? What are your sales cycle times? How long does it take for sales to close? How can you improve on these numbers? What can you do to maximize your ROI? What changes could you possibly make that would further streamline your sales process? When you’re monitoring the metrics that matter, you’ll be able to see which areas of your sales process are working, and which ones need improvement.

• Wrapping Up

There are a number of ways that you can improve your sales process. By understanding your objectives, establishing a sales process, mapping activities to the sequence, and measuring what’s working and what’s not, you can better equip your sales team to close more deals.