Revamp Your Cloud Sales Process

"Our sales people are terrified to sell our cloud solution." says a VP of Marketing at one of my cloud providers.  

I think to myself, did anyone notice my complete disbelief  and shock at that statement?  For the next 6 hours, the cloud team details how their sales process is completely confusing to their sales team.   This is because they launched 5 years ago and never changed their sales process.

All businesses have processes.  Reactive processes are expensive, leading to lost sales and frustration from the customer and the sales team. 

These 5 step will help you develop a new cloud sales process. 

Step 1: Think As A Cloud Customer

If you are selling cloud, think of what cloud insinuates to the customer.

"Fast, easy to use, and at my fingertips." says my millennial entrepreneur friend.  Write down some requirements of a successful cloud solution. End goals such as download from the internet, set up in 20 minutes or less, online help, test drive/trial period and seamless mobility. 

Then figure out which processes to work on to get to those end goals.

Step 2: Disregard What Everyone Else Is Doing 

What processes need to be put in place, adjusted, or scaled up to meet the goals of a cloud customer?  

First,  forget what you used to do and why you use to do it. Copying an existing plan or continuing with the same old process because it is easier for you (or because it maintains job security) will only equate to frustrating your customer and lost sales. 

Step 3: Creative Redesign of Your Resources 

Identify what resources you have and how you can creatively leverage this to meet your cloud customer's needs.  If the solution is not immediately clear, use brainstorming to come up with possible solutions to try out.  Sometimes you may not have the means to fix a process due to lack of resources. You may need to raise money, hire an expert, outsource the work, or buy equipment to improve a process. However, before you spend money on new resources identify what gains you are trying to reach.

Step 4: Measure the efficacy of applying resources to a new process

It is important to measure the gains of the new process in the terms of cloud customer usability. Therefore, set up measurement criteria with no more than 10 cloud metrics.  A friendly panel of millennial testers will gladly show up for a free lunch and a $10 gift card. 

Prior to your panel showing up, qualify a priority list of what is the most important with another group of cloud testers.  During your discussion, verify the process regarding ease of use,  ease of implementation, price to perceived value and the overall  customer service experience.  Your findings will tell you where you should put most of your time and resources to improve the sale process.  

Step 5: Test The New Process

Now that you’ve figured out what’s not working and how to make it work, you can take the necessary steps to launch the process. Practice this and test it a multitude of times before using it on a new customer. Train your staff on how to use it and roll it out while carefully monitoring the results.  Many processes are not isolated events, but require a community buy-in to work well so ensure that the other departments are also trained and part of this new process. 

Definitions of Success

You will know when you have succeeded when your customer acquisition becomes more transparent to your customers and staff.