What is a sales process & why do you need one?
Section takeaways
Defining the steps in your sales process takes the guesswork out of your customer. interactions. No need to make this complicated or heavy-weight when you’re starting.
Figure out who is a “qualified” customer so you can prioritize those interactions.
Build in a system to regularly review your process and make changes regularly as your business needs grow and change
What is a sales process?
Repeatable steps you follow to close a customer.
Why is it important to have a sales process?
Repeatable steps mean you’re more efficient and consistent.
Efficiency = more deals, more money.
Consistency = better experience for your buyers.
A consistent process allows you to collect data about your sales process, which is useful to better understand your business and customers.
When do you establish a process?
The earlier the better. Identifying the steps in your sales process will allow you to scale faster, and learn. To learn from what’s working and improve on what isn’t working, you must be clear about what you’ve been doing and have been doing it consistently. Not to mention, as a founder you’re juggling a lot–the less you have to think about when it comes to selling the easier it will be, and the more selling you will be able to do!
What goes into a sales process?
Every company is different—from their sales approach to the products they sell. But the key is to identify the steps that will be consistent for your business. To break it down, the steps will include something like:
Prospects / Leads (people who could be customers)
Qualify (decide which of these are a good fit)
Discovery (find out more about them and their needs)
Demo (show them the product)
Evaluation (let them try the product)
Close (get them to pay you to use the product)
Nurture (Maintain the relationship now that the are customers. Potential to upsell/cross-sell them)
An example sales process
Once you have outlined the parts of the process, you need to define what each means for your business. For example:
Prospects = visitors to the website who fill out a form and fit specific criteria
Qualify = decide which of these are a good fit based on a set of information you need to gather
Discovery = find out more about them and their needs; if those needs align with what your product provides
Demo = show the product
Evaluation = they try the product themselves. You may be negotiating pricing and terms
Close = either you win their business (they pay) or you determine they are not a fit and move on
Nurture = maintain the relationship now that they’re customers. Potential to upsell/cross-sell them
Clear definitions are key. They ensure everybody is operating off of the same assumptions, understands what goes into each stage, and any internal activities required. At each step along the way, there are activities you’ll want to standardize.
For example:
Demo / pitch
Email / written communication (what is your voice; what message are you sending and when?)
How to use tools to scale the process (efficiency and internal consistency + data integrity)
Why do you need a Sales Process?
A consistent sales process allows you to better understand your business and provides a cohesive experience to your customers.
If you have a solid sales process, you will be able to work efficiently and understand your business, be able to explain it to others (like co-founders, executives, investors, your curious friends), and make smart decisions driven by data. For example, when you’ve implemented a sales process you will be able to:
Estimate how much money is on the table by seeing how many open opportunities (i.e. active sales conversations) you have at a given time. This is your pipeline.
Calculate things like your “win rate”, average transaction size, conversion rates
Better understand where to spend your marketing budget to generate better leads
Understand why you might lose deals and spot patterns (i.e. is there a company size or industry you’re losing consistently?)
Your potential customers will also benefit. No matter who a customer talks to, they will get a consistent experience. This is key for your brand perception. People buy for emotional reasons: if your sales process is smooth/professional and makes them want to work with your team, they will be more likely to buy from you
When you’ve taken the time to outline your sales process you can close business more efficiently because you’re not constantly reinventing the process along the way, wondering every time you get off the phone or send an email what you should do next. The more you define ahead of time, the more time you and your growing team can spend building the product, working on marketing messaging, and finding new prospective customers.
