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Internet Marketing 101: How Small Busi-nesses Can Compete with the Big Guys
DEFINE YOUR SALES PROCESSTO GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
2
DEFINE YOUR SALES PROCESS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESSA strong and effective sales team is an incredible asset
for your company. These are the people who act as
the face of your company, interacting directly with cus-
tomers and client, but it’s not the size of the team that
translates into more sales. Your success and growth
depend on a lot more than a shotgun approach to
sales.
It’s not enough to drop people into a new company
and hope that they can find a way to communicate the
benefits of a given product or service. Even if you hire
someone with years of experience in sales, there is still
a learning curve and any number of speed bumps that
could get in the way. This is where an established and
well-defined sales process makes a huge difference.
When we say “sales process” we’re referring to a sys-
tematic and tested approach
that will help the sales team
close more deals and reduce
the level friction between intro-
ducing a customer to a product
or services and moving them
through to a closed deal.
WHY SALES PEOPLE NEED A PROCESSMost experienced sales people are actually looking for
a company that has an effective and proven sales pro-
cess. The reason for this expectation is a simple one.
Too many companies have a sales funnel that involves
the horrible assumption that “everyone just knows”
what constitutes a “sale” and what is considered a win
or a success.
This isn’t always true, though, because all companies
base their success on different metrics, and a poor
sales process will hinder a sales person’s ability to suc-
ceed.
It’s true that there are some natural sales people out
there, but the vast majority of people who choose
sales as a career will only hit their stride when there’s
a tried-and-true method that takes them through the
steps and provide the tools they need to close a deal.
So, simply put, the benefit of defining your sales process is twofold. You can increase your overall sales and develop more productive sales people.
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
3
PUT IN THE TIME – SEE THE RESULTSThe most successful sales processes will require a lot
of time and effort to put together. On top of that, it’s
important to realize that this is not a “one and done”
type situation. You’ll never be able to predict every pos-
sible problem and opportunity ahead of time. You will,
however, be able to build a solid structure from which
any sales person can work and start closing deals.
But there are more reasons to put in the time to devel-
op your sales process that go beyond the bottom line.
In fact, this kind of defined process can have far-reach-
ing benefits throughout the company.
• Identify opportunities and
potential problems
• Set proper expectations with
clients
• Predict revenue
• Make success repeatable
• Increase onboarding and training
efficiency
• Get everyone on the same page
• Set evaluation standards
• Better team meetings
• More measurable results
• Higher profit margins
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
4
IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES AND POTENTIAL PROBLEMSWhen you have an established sales process, it be-
comes much easier to determine the reasons for fall-
ing short of goals and then use that same information
as an opportunity for improvement.
Set proper expectations with clients – The salesperson
can more easily manage the client’s expectation, creat-
ing a more enjoyable customer experience.
PREDICT REVENUEWhen you know exactly what is in the sales funnel,
you’ll have a better notion of what is likely to make it
through and what isn’t. This means you can more accu-
rately predict the number of sales your people will be
able to close within a certain time frame.
MAKE SUCCESS REPEATABLEThink about the scientific method. A theory is just a
theory until an experiment is repeatable. If something
works once, it may have just been a fluke with some
random variables. A good sales process eliminates
those variables because you have a structure that you
work within each time.
INCREASE ONBOARDING AND TRAINING EFFICIENCYWhen there is a set framework which has proven that
it can turn leads into sales, it is much easier to insert
new sales people into the process and bring them up
to speed. Without an established process, your new
sales associates are going to have to find their own way
– which may not be the right way.
GET EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGEWhen everyone on the team is speaking the same lan-
guage (reporting the same things, in the same way,
and working toward the same goals), it is much easier
to maintain a level of visibility into your current suc-
cesses and failures.
SET EVALUATION STANDARDSHow efficient is your sales team, really? Are you com-
paring them to the teams you had five years ago? Are
you comparing them to other companies? Both of
those would be a mistake, because every company
should have its own measures of success. A good sales
process makes it easier to set your own, internal stan-
dards and evaluate the team based on them.
BETTER TEAM MEETINGSYou will find that most of your team meetings become
far more structured because you are always reinforc-
ing the established best practices. You will also have
more concrete examples of hits and misses so you can
show everyone why it’s so important to follow through
with it.
MORE MEASURABLE RESULTSYou don’t have to guess at the sales team’s perfor-
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
5
mance anymore. You will know exactly where sales
need to be and where you are currently at. Measurable
results are critical in order to continue growing your
team and your company.
HIGHER PROFIT MARGINSNot every product or service has the same margins. If
your sales time is selling a lot of items with very small
profit, there isn’t much long term benefit for the com-
pany. Identify and shift your focus towards leads or
deals with more profitable margins.
THINGS THAT MIGHT INFLUENCE YOUR SALES PROCESSIt’s important that, as you design your sales process,
you take into account several factors that are unique to
your business or industry. It may not seem like much,
but you need to include these influencers every time
you make a change to the process to ensure you’re
considering as many of the possibilities as you can.
Some of the things you need to look at include:
• The current sales team
• Industry trends
• The company’s current assets
• The product/service offerings
• Any changes to the product lineup
• Financial limitations
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
6
Can your sales process adapt quickly enough to keep
up with the changes in all of these areas?
The structure of your process is important, for sure,
but you also need to make sure it’s fluid enough to
evolve with the times.
BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATIONWhile every company will have its own needs and re-
quirements, there are usually some basics that you’ll
find in every reliable and effective sales process. The
individual elements – those that address a particular
concern for your unique customers – can be layered
on top or woven throughout the structure as needed.
These foundational elements follow a simple path from
a new prospect all the way to a closed deal, though a
sales person may easily move back and forth along the
path before completing the sale. This is just fine, be-
cause as long as you’ve included these steps in your
sales process, you will have a strong foundation for all
their activities.
The Four-Part Foundation
1. Prospecting
2. Qualifying
3. Presenting
4. Closing
How do you incorporate these elements?
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
7
3. PRESENTINGDuring this stage, the sales person must take every-
thing they’ve learned about their leads and create a
proposal that meets their needs while supporting the
company’s growth. There may be a certain amount of
negotiation that occurs here, and that’s fine as long as
the final deal is beneficial to both sides.
4. CLOSINGThe closing isn’t actually the end of the process, though
it may seem like it. This is where the sales person will
finalize the deal, see that payments are made, and ser-
vices tendered. However, this is also a critical phase
for developing repeat or long-term customers, so that
even if this deal is done, there is still potential for these
customers to keep coming back.
1. PROSPECTINGThis first step involves making contact with the leads,
discovering their needs, and then matching those
needs to the things the company is offering.
This is also where you will need to define the contact
types. Are they a prospect? A lead? A customer? This
will inform the way you approach them and make sure
they are receiving the care and attention appropriate
to their current situation.
2. QUALIFYINGNow that you have someone to talk to, and you’ve de-
cided how, exactly, you’ll approach them, it’s time to
find out a little more information. Specifically, this is
where you determine if they have the budget to work
with you or match your company’s necessary criteria.
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
8
DEFINE EVERY STEPOnce you are sure that the basics are a fully integrat-
ed part of your sales process, you need to encourage
your sales team to work their way up the steps as con-
sistently as possible.
To do this, you need to define the steps that will take
a sales person from prospecting to qualifying or pre-
senting to closing. It’s one thing to just say that you
have these steps in your process, but its something
else entirely to define what needs to happen in that
step before you can move to the next one.
Think of those basic four steps as milestones. Now you
have to figure out the process that takes you from one
to the other. For example:
• Prospecting means engaging with a potential
customer.
• Qualifying means assessing their needs and
determining what is driving them to you. It
may also mean that the sales person must also
be able to define how the company will satisfy
their needs better than the competition.
• Presenting means developing a proposal that
is both appropriate and timely.
• Closing means making sure that the check is
in the mail.
When it’s all said and done, just remember to keep all
these steps and milestones as simply as possible. If it’s
too complex, the sales team may just decide to find its
own process that “works for them.”
CLOSING THE DEALWe’ve already mentioned this in the last section, but
it’s such a critical part of the sales process that we’re
going to look at it a little closer. This is an important
moment in the process, because if the sales person
hasn’t done the job correctly, they could end up push-
ing the wrong thing at the wrong time and wind up los-
ing the sale for good.
There are some important questions that need to be
answered to make sure this stage is completed to ev-
eryone’s satisfaction.
WHEN DO YOU KNOW A DEAL IS READY TO CLOSE?Many sales people have an innate sense for when a
lead is ready to become a paying customer. They have
the experience or the insight that allows them to just
know “this is when I can close another one.”
Most people, though, need a little more information
and something a little more substantial to make this
call. This is where “buying signals” come into play. Your
sales team needs to know and understand these sig-
nals to close more deals and keep those leads moving
through the funnel.
Buying signals communicate how a prospect is feel-
ing at the moment and whether they are ready to talk
about making a purchase. A trained sales person can
learn to spot specific types of questions or statements
that will help determine their state of readiness. The
team could, for example, categorize them like this:
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
9
• When they’re ready to buy or learn more, look
for questions like:
• What other options can I add on?
• How fast can this project start?
• How long until completion?
• What will be the initial investment on my
part?
• What does the warranty cover
• When they need more support or reassurance,
look for questions like:
• Is it true that it has had these specific prob-
lems?
• What would happen if my needs change in
the future?
• What if I have to start dealing with a new
agent?
• How long with this really last me?
• When they’re not ready at all, they will come at
you from a different angle:
• I hear you’re not really as good as [blank],
though.
• My friend says I’d be better off with [blank].
• Can I get my money back if I don’t like it?
HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT EASIER FOR SOMEONE TO PAY FOR YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE?Moving a potential customer through the entire sales
funnel requires the sales person to remove as much
friction as possible.
“Friction” could include concerns over the price or war-
ranty, but it might just as easily be an annoyance at a
contract that is overly complex. Once the sales person
understands what category their lead falls into (ready
to buy/still in need of support), it will be much easier to
spot the things that create friction and eliminate them
before they pull a lead out of the funnel.
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
10
WHAT STEPS MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE ANY POTENTIAL CLIENT WILL MOVE INTO THE “CLOSED” CATEGORY?This is the question that can only be answered by your
sales process. Over years of trials and revisions, the
sales process should be founded on a simple method
that will help the sales people know which steps must
always be completed before any prospect will be ready
to move into the “closed” category.
In the end, closing a deal is all about finding and high-
lighting the emotional and functional reasons why
someone would want what your company is offering.
CUSTOMER RETENTIONClosing a deal and leaving it at that is ultimately coun-
terproductive. Keeping your customers coming back to
repeatedly do business with you is far more effective.
The way the sales team closes deals can have a huge
impact on whether or not a customer will feel com-
pelled to keep working with you down the road. And
just remember, the value of a return customer is al-
ways higher (and the process is less costly) than always
trying to pull new leads into the funnel.
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
11
TOOL UP YOUR SALES PROCESSReliable Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
software is a critical component of most modern sales
processes. With the right program, you can:
• Map out every step of the sales process with
every customer
• Stop relying on your own memory, which is in-
evitably fallible
• Capture and organize every communication
that has occurred between the sales person
and the potential customer
• Create visibility in each lead entry so client
needs are apparent at a glance
Be prepared to go beyond your CRM, too. Many sales
teams feel that as long as they’ve got access to their fa-
vorite CRM. Maybe that is enough for some sales pro-
cesses, but there’s a lot more potential out there.
Everything from offline marketing materials to simple
lead tracking software are all assets that can improve
and streamline your process. Anything that can build
out your model and help you move each customer
through every milestone could be used by the sales
team. At the same time, you shouldn’t be afraid to re-
move anything that isn’t working.
SALES ANALYTICS AND PIPELINE TESTINGNever assume that you’ve got the plan and the process
nailed from the very start. Keep collecting hard data
and use it to determine what is working and what isn’t.
You may have to make some tough decisions about
what tools and processes to keep and which to elim-
inate, and that will be a lot easier when you have the
facts to back up your decisions.
EXPANDING YOUR ASSETSSmall businesses are constantly faced with the chal-
lenge of making limited funds go further. For some
companies, this may make it seem like the newest,
most relevant CRM programs are beyond their reach.
On the other hand, it might make it feel like building
up a sales team as a startup is almost impossible, be-
cause attracting talent is next to impossible because
you don’t have the capital to expand your staff.
As you develop your sales process, be aware of your
financial options. There are several traditional and
non-traditional financing products that can help a
small business grow and expand.
SEEK AND USE FEEDBACKThe sales process is not something you should try to
develop without serious consultations with the sales
team. These people will be expected to use these tools
and methods every day, so if they’re not feeling com-
fortable with them, or they keep running into speed
bumps, you need to know about it.
Your team will be more likely to adopt the sales pro-
cess when they feel like they had a hand in its creation,
so keep them in the loop and handle all feedback up-
Define Your Sales Process to Grow Your Business
12
front and you can minimize resistance to its adoption.
More than that, though, you will start to gather action-
able data that will constantly improve your process.
For example, you can:
• Work with the top performers to see what
they’re doing right and how that can be used to
further develop the process.
• Work with the low performers to see how they
can use the sales process and CRM tools to im-
prove their efficiency.
Solicit feedback on a regular basis because a stagnant
sales process will just continue to lose both leads and
sales people. Any good process will continue to evolve,
and so will the CRM that is used to facilitate it. Don’t
be afraid of feedback or flexibility. Use the information
you gather to create a better process and a great team.
EXPECT ADHERENCEThe best sales process in the world still won’t mean a
thing if everyone on the team is still doing their own
thing because “it always worked for me before.” Some
people just hang on to the things they’ve always known
because it feels comfortable.
As your company and process evolves, though, it’s
okay to expect them to do the same. Make sure that
everyone is on board with the program and let them
know that their performance will be judged according
to the established process.
When everyone is working toward the same goals, with
access to the same resources, it will be much easier to
build a unified team that is focused on growing your
business.
PLAN FOR GROWTHWhen you define your sales process, you create a
framework from which your sales team can help you
build your business.
Building out an entire sales team is going to seem more
than a little overwhelming for a new, small business,
but it is easier when you have a solid structure in place
and the tools they need to close those deals.
Define your process, support your growth with alterna-
tive financing solutions, and discover new ways to help
your company grow.
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