How to define a sales process for B2B sales

This is one of the best ways to make your sales more efficient

Presenter Daniel Nilsson

April 21, 2014

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Introduction• I created this presentation after doing extensive research on how to define

a sales process for B2B sales. The data I have reviewed are from marketing experts, sales experts, Gartner, reports and my own personal experience defining sales processes.

• The purpose of the presentation is to share my conclusions and help others.

• Please feel welcome to share your thoughts, insights or comments. I love feedback. You can send an email to info@daniel-one.com or visit my webpage www.daniel-one.com. I look forward to hear from you.

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MyStory

Daniel NilssonBusiness Developer and Intrapreneur

o My passion is to constantly improve and evolve companies

o I love to create customer-focused solutions and processes that last

o My future goal is to be part of creating and grow a solution that will affect at least 100 million people on an annual basis.

o I think giraffes are cool

More information LinkedIn http://se.linkedin.com/in/danielnilssonsweden Personal web page www.daniel-one.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielNilssonsInsights

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How to define a sales process for B2B sales

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What is a sales process?

Sales processes can vary greatly among organizations, products and services. Ultimately, every sales manager must ensure that their sales process and its corresponding phases are as short as possible.

Defintion

A sales process is the typical series of predictable events, or phases, required to sell a product or a service.

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Why should I define the sales process?

Increace the conversion rate and you increase sales. By understanding the process

in detail you can start to make it more efficient and

add tools that will helps your sales team to better

close deals.

Tips: Make sure that your sales

people make an effort to get to know prospects’

businesses better than any competitors do.

Higher conversion

By truly understanding how your sales process works and

then managing it, you can make sure that sales people

do the steps necessary to close big deals.

Tips:One important step is that the

sales person find out why, when and how bigger companies buy, and

execute a proactive plan. Make sure it is a step in

your sales process.

A lot of sales peoples time are wasted on deals that will

never happen. A great sales process will help

sales people and management to recognice

a lost deal early.

Tips: Make sure that your sales

people learn the decision process of the company

that buys from you to make sure you don’t waste

time.

Bigger deals Less time

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Step 1Define your customers buying process

Think through your customers’ buying process and the main decision points from customers’ point of view. Make sure that you discuss your definition with your sales team.

Define customers’ buying process

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Step 2Define sales stages

Define Sales Stages that matches the customers’ buying stages. Make sure to discuss the sales stages in your organization. Get input and initial understanding. Make sure to spend some time checking that your Stages match all your typical sales scenarios. This is best done in a smaller group.

Define sales stages that match the customer buying process

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Example Sales Process

In each stage several requirements are involved for classification. Using the stages it is possible to understand what is required to move the process forward and finally close the deal.

6 main stages

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Step 3Define the objective and targeted outcome for each stage

What is the goal and objective with each stage? What are the sales person supposed to achieve? Define the objectives and outcome of each stage.

Define objective and outcome for each stage

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Step 4Define actions for each stage

Every stage contains small steps and actions that every sales person should do in order to efficiently move the deal to each stage and reach the targeted outcome. Define the actions that is important for your sales process.

Define actions for each stage

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Step 5Define sales tools necessary for each stage

What tools needs to be available for your sales team to be able to reach the targeted outcome? Do your team need a great value proposition, referrals, discovery questions, success stories, presentations, etc? Make sure to define what tools that need to be available for each stage.

Define sales tools necessary for each stage

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Step 6Define marketing tools for each stage

What marketing tools needs to be available to your sales team to be able to reach the targeted outcome? Do they need a great website, email signatures, trade show support, whitepapers, success stories?

Define marketing tools for each stage

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A great example from SaleTechnik

Download it at http://cloud2.snappages.com/057af9cc01132828720a3b538eba31485bbf6aef/Opportunity%20Conversion%20Process.pdf

This is a great example of how you can define your sales process and

all the pre work, milestone, customer

buying process, targeted outcome, selling tools and

marketing tools around each step.

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Step 7Continue to improve

Once your sales process is defined you need to to evaluate it and continuously improve it. Maybe some steps and actions don’t make sense for your sales team? Then you need to see what you can do to define them better.

Continue to improve

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Thank you Daniel NilssonPhone: +46 707-403684Email: info@daniel-one.comLinkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danielnilssonsweden Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielNilssonsInsights Private web: http://www.daniel-one.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/danielnilsson77