Why you need a sales process and how to build it

Your sales process is the framework every sales person in your organisation should follow to generate revenue for the business and turn prospects into customers. The steps in your sales process should be repeatable and uniform.

You have probably heard before that a good sales person is hard to quantify because selling is more of an art than a science… to a certain extent this might be true, BUT, with a proper sales system in place you make necessary steps actionable and repeatable.

Now, I want you to imagine that you are baking muffins. You are throwing into the bowl what you think might belong there. You put your mixture in to the oven and what comes out tastes great, in fact, these must be the best muffins you have ever tasted. A week later you try to bake the same muffins again and you try to stay as close to last week’s original ingredients as possible. The muffins are still good, but not quite the same. If you now wanted to pin-point where it went wrong, you wouldn’t be able to. The key word here is consistency. If you are consistent, you can document, review, measure and improve and when you finally figure out that one-in-a-million recipe you can bake these tasty muffins time and time again.

The conversion path from a lead to a customer is not linear and we all know that sales people face uphill battles, turns and detours at every corner. You can support your sales force by having a strategy in place. By doing so, you give people a road map, or a recipe if you will, on how to generate these sales and how to move leads through the pipeline as quickly as possible.

---> Having a sales strategy makes you 33% more likely to close sales at a higher rate [*1]

When you start researching how many steps you should include in your sales process, you’ll find recommendations from 3 steps anywhere up to 9. People have different ideas on how things should be done. My take on things and what works best for me might not work for everyone else but here it goes: My magical number is 4. That’s my framework and the core structure that I use.

1. Prospect

Prospecting means filling your sales funnel with early stage leads that could become customers with the aim of contacting them. Every good sales rep knows that this activity should be part of their weekly routine. The reason most sales organisations are not making their numbers is because their sales people aren’t prospecting. Their pipeline is anaemic. You should have a plan in place as to where you will be getting these leads from and how you will contact them. Cold telephone calls, email campaigns, referrals, conferences, strategic alliances perhaps? Remember: It is a numbers game and every No gets you closer to a Yes and you need consistency in your prospecting efforts. Here again, document everything. Which emails work, which don’t? What phone scripts get conversions, which don’t? Eliminate what doesn’t work and enhance and optimise what does work.

--->Your lead converts from prospect phase into discovery phase if they signal that they are open to talking to you!

2. Discover

For me this stage is more than simply connecting, it is about discovery. If someone is willing to talk to you, it is your responsibility to qualify them as "in or out" as quickly as you can. You do this out of respect for the prospect’s time but more importantly for your own time. Do not be afraid to qualify out! In fact, be very specific with your own selection criteria. Remember, we want to be trusted advisors rather than sales people and as such we can and should be selective as to who we want to work with. You want to discover is if there is a need for your product or service. You want to find out if there is budget and if you are indeed speaking to the right person.

--->Your lead reaches the next phase and converts into a prospect after you qualify them!

3. Uncover

This is where you get into the nitty-gritty details. You have earned the right to speak to the prospect and to ask questions (don’t be afraid to ask for permission to ask questions, most people appreciate that). This step is essential before you even think about presenting anything. When you uncover, you do not uncover future need, you uncover present pain! What problem is it that your service or product can solve? Be aware, I am not talking about telling your prospect that purchasing your solar cells can bring the power bill down. I am talking about asking questions about how high the power bill is, how much the poor prospect has to work to be able to pay for it, what that means for his life. People buy on emotions! Make it personal! When I uncover, I imagine it to be my round of collecting ammunition. Ammunition I will need to be able to pull the “emotional trigger” later on.

--->You have now uncovered pain and your prospect converts to an opportunity!

4. Aid and Close

Now we are talking. Here is where you get to use your freshly collected ammunition. In this stage you need to be careful! NEVER present features and benefits (article on this is coming on January 3rd). Human beings are built to mitigate loss NOT explore future potential. If you present features and benefits, you present to future potential. What you want to present to are the problems you uncovered and how you will solve these for the prospect. Remember, people buy on emotions. You figured out that your prospect works … a lot … the power bill is too high and you have just the solution. Surely $50 more in his pocket per week means he can work less and take his wife out to her favourite restaurant more, who wouldn’t say yes to that? Instead of trying to close like you usually would, try to get a feel for how safe the sale is. If you feel comfortable with where you're at, try to be disruptive and ask your prospect what they would like you to do next. Give it a try, the response will surprise you.

--->Closed won or closed lost!

Remember, there might be some detours along the way but if you make sure to push your leads through these steps your chances of closing the sale increase. Monitoring the behaviour of your leads will help you pin point weaknesses in your funnel or even your own skills. For example if you notice that you are:

1. Not converting leads into prospects, maybe you are not speaking to the right people.
2. Struggling to convert prospects into opportunities, you might be asking the wrong questions when you uncover problems.

Some of you might ask yourselves, what about following up if people say they need to think about it…. I do not believe in following up after step 4 is completed (at least not if steps one to four were completed correctly). If someone gives you objections, you haven’t uncovered enough problems, didn’t create enough emotional buying impulse in the first place and haven’t positioned yourself as the trusted advisor. Re-visiting these steps might help, BUT beware, you might look like a pushy sales person. 

This is not a magic solution and sales cycles vary from product to product, depending on the customer, the prospects, the target market etc.

Main Take-Aways:

•  Plan your sales process
• Document your activity and touch-points
• Monitor conversions
• Optimise your process and make it repeatable and actionable

I have had the pleasure of working with some amazing companies for which I built sales processes and trust me, you want to start documenting your sales process from the very beginning. Try to record every step, every touch point. I did exactly that and it allowed me to find out what works and what doesn’t. It allowed me to make sure every sales person who followed would benefit from my early learnings and work as efficiently as possible.

If you like what you are reading and always want to be up to date, put: “I am #salessavvy” in the comments section and I will send you a private message every time a new #salessavvy sales hack is published.

Read also:

The truth is in the data - Why you want to create a measurable sales pipeline

Prospecting - The sales person's nightmare

My favourite resources on the topic:

Mastering your Sales Process / David Masover 

New Strategic Selling / Robert B. Miller

References: [*1] https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-is-the-7-step-sales-process