The three pillars of a dynamic sales process

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The three pillars of a dynamic sales process

Sales departments often resist formalizing their sales process because they fear that “process” will inhibit their sales team’s ability to innovate and respond flexibly to the demands of each particular sales situation. For some organizations, that’s exactly what happens. They hire inexperienced salespeople, give them tightly controlled scripts, and insist that they follow every step of the prescribed process in exactly the same manner every time.

But this tight structure doesn’t work in a complex B2B environment. It might win an occasional sale, but it will lose more than it gains. Sales teams are right to be skeptical of such a process.

Yet, as research shows again and again, process is still necessary to attain traction and improve effectiveness. For B2B sales teams, this means that they must marry the benefits of the “art” of sales, with the benefits of the “science.” And the way to do that is to implement a dynamic sales process that, instead of restricting salespeople, frees them to do their best work.

A dynamic sales process gives salespeople all the best steps to take, based on data and analytics, while simultaneously guiding them to make good decisions and to flexibly respond to the changing environment. Let’s take a closer look.

In simplest terms, “dynamic” just means something that “changes.” In sales process, dynamic means that the process adapts to the changing circumstances of the organization, the market, and the individual deal. A dynamic sales process aids salespeople in making the right decision with each prospect at each juncture of the relationship.

A dynamic sales process gives salespeople the best steps to take, based on data and analytics, while guiding them to make good decisions and respond to changes. - HENRIK ?QUIST

Some writers (and organizations) refer to a process as “dynamic” if it changes over time, as the market changes and/or as they learn more. Others consider their process to be “dynamic” if it contains separate plays based on things that happen during the sales journey. Still others add coaching and deal-level strategy to the mix and call that dynamic.

The truth is that a dynamic process is only truly, effectively dynamic if it rests on three key elements, which, for this article, we’ll call “pillars.” Those pillars are iterating, playbooks, and deal-level strategy. If any one of the pillars is missing, the process will fail to be truly dynamic.

The three pillars of a dynamic sales process:

• Iteration: Changes over time
• Playbooks: Changes based on known market variations
• Deal-level strategy: Changes based on factors unique to a specific deal

Iteration

Iteration refers to the element of the dynamic sales process that changes over time. We’ve talked about iterating elsewhere in this blog in the context of optimization, and we like to talk about it because it’s something that our software does very well. We also like the iterative process because it allows even small organizations to easily and simply build an effective process over time, without the massive (and often wasteful) consultative effort that many larger organizations employ.

Iterating requires sales executives, leaders, and individual sales professionals, to gather data throughout the sales process in order to learn what’s working, what’s not working, where problems are arising, and what causes slow-downs. The iterative process then applies this information to make changes quickly across the organization to improve. Iteration is an ongoing process that results in continually improving effectiveness.

Iteration is also the element of dynamic sales process that is most often confused for being the same as a dynamic sales process. Iteration is an important component of a dynamic sales process, but it is only one part.

Playbooks

Playbooks constitute the second pillar of a dynamic sales process. It refers to the elements of the process that change based on known market variations.

A sales playbook is a collection of moves that a salesperson makes based on what he or she learns about the buyer during the process. It may include content to be delivered at certain points, questions to ask, or information to gather. The plays vary based on factors such as the buyer’s industry, role in their company, budget, where they are in the buying journey, objections they raise, and competitors they’re considering.

A playbook is built around factors that arise repeatedly and are shown to impact the outcome of the sale. A dynamic sales process captures these variations in the market, and builds continually optimized (see iteration, above) playbooks that account for them.

Deal-level strategy

Deal-level strategy is the element of a dynamic sales process that changes based on factors that are unique to each specific deal. Because humans are individuals and organizations are made up of humans, even the most fully-fleshed process and playbook cannot address every specific situation that may arise in every single deal.

That’s where deal-level strategy comes in. Deal-level strategy refers to the individual innovations and adjustments that sales professionals and their managers make to address these unique situations.

A sales process that includes only iteration and playbooks will miss the mark on some viable and profitable opportunities when those opportunities behave in ways that are not accounted for in the process. A truly dynamic process will have a built-in mechanism for recognizing the divergence and responding to it by encouraging the development of deal-level strategy between the salesperson and the manager.

The fully integrated and dynamic sales process

A fully dynamic sales process stands strongly on all three pillars, adapting to organizational learning over time, marketplace variations, and unique opportunity behaviors. Such a process makes the most of every qualified opportunity, thereby increasing win rates and overall sales effectiveness.

We’re proud to have developed a leading software that is built on the three pillars of the dynamic sales process.

With Membrain, it’s simple to build an iterative process. Our software allows sales teams to collect the information they need to understand what’s working and what’s not at each stage of the buyer’s journey, and to apply that learning across the organization by tweaking the process continuously.

Playbooks are built in at every stage, automatically adapting the process based on triggers set up to respond to known market factors.

Deal-level strategy is supported with a simple interface that allows salespeople and their managers to build custom steps for each deal. We also make it possible to take deal-level strategy and send it upstream to playbooks and iteration when the same deal-level issues arise repeatedly, and as strategies are used and shown to work.

Reach out to us to discuss how Membrain can take your process from ordinary to world-class more quickly than you imagined.

This article was first published on the Membrain blog here: https://www.membrain.com/blog/the-three-pillars-of-a-dynamic-sales-process