Sales Process: Repeat Success and Avoid Failure
Sales Process: Repeat Success and Avoid Failure
By having a good sales process, A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result” you will be able to ensure that all of your team can repeat best practices to ensure success. You will also have a record of what went wrong with those sales or leads you failed to win. By analyzing how you lost, you will learn how to avoid mistakes in the future.
What is a sales process?
A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result”. That result should be a successful sale, done in the shortest possible time, with minimum discount. Upon becoming a customer, that company or person, should become a reference, create a testimonial and refer business to you. Understanding the set of actions that led to that sale, documenting them and ensuring your team follows them, is creating a sales process.
How do you get a sales process right for your business?
Assuming you understand how to track all steps leading up to a sale for a given product and customer group is the first step. You then need to do this for all of your products and customer target markets. Now examine the commonalities within those processes and clearly document them.
Sometimes it is good to base your process on a proven template. However it is important to remember that you know your products best. The key elements you need to incorporate are as follows.
* Who is your target market?
* What problems does your product solve of needs and desires does it fulfill?
* How do customers generally put a value on these capabilities?
* Who is the final decision maker within your potential customers?
* Who are the influencers of a buying decision within your customers?
* How do customers evaluate your products?
* Does your customer have a budget in place?
* Who is your competition, how do you deal with them?
Now ensure that the steps in your process cover all of these elements and others particular to your product and industry. This way, you can ensure that you are continually getting the right message to the right people.
What are the benefits of automating a sales process?
How often have you contacted a company to get information, only to wonder why you had heard nothing a week later? If you did get an information pack from them, did they follow it up with a phone call? When your sales people meet with a prospect, do they always set up the next appointment before leaving? Do they always summarize the points discussed in a meeting with a follow-up email or letter? By implementing technology that prompts your people to always to the right things, little is left to chance. What is more, the business owners are able to forecast sales, which keep production and your bank manager happy.
How do you get sales people to use the process?
The one common trait that all successful sales people seem to share is that they seem to hate and are particularly bad about paperwork, but who cares anyway? You care and so do your customers. If you have pre-sales support staff, how do the sales people get to use them? If they can only book them based on sales that have reached an appropriate stage in the cycle, they have to keep up to date. If sales people find it easier to prepare a proposal and mange their time, based on a system that you give them, they will use it.
However the most important factor of all, in getting sales people buy-in to any new process or system, is to ask them to help you design it. If they feel they have created a process that makes their life easier, and enables them to earn more money – they will use it. And you all win.
How to implement a sales process!
Either follow the steps outlined above or call in someone who can help you. What you do not want to do is to go straight to a vendor who offers an automated system. You need to ensure that if you do go down the technology route, you choose the correct solution. Remember, you know your business best, so work with someone who understands that and who will help you implements something that works for you.
Sales Process Repeat Success and Avoid Failure - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Lawless's Website.
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Why bother with a sales process?
By having a good sales process, A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result” you will be able to ensure that all of your team can repeat best practices to ensure success. You will also have a record of what went wrong with those sales or leads you failed to win. By analyzing how you lost, you will learn how to avoid mistakes in the future.
What is a sales process?
A process is defined as: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result”. That result should be a successful sale, done in the shortest possible time, with minimum discount. Upon becoming a customer, that company or person, should become a reference, create a testimonial and refer business to you. Understanding the set of actions that led to that sale, documenting them and ensuring your team follows them, is creating a sales process.
How do you get a sales process right for your business?
Assuming you understand how to track all steps leading up to a sale for a given product and customer group is the first step. You then need to do this for all of your products and customer target markets. Now examine the commonalities within those processes and clearly document them.
Sometimes it is good to base your process on a proven template. However it is important to remember that you know your products best. The key elements you need to incorporate are as follows.
* Who is your target market?
* What problems does your product solve of needs and desires does it fulfill?
* How do customers generally put a value on these capabilities?
* Who is the final decision maker within your potential customers?
* Who are the influencers of a buying decision within your customers?
* How do customers evaluate your products?
* Does your customer have a budget in place?
* Who is your competition, how do you deal with them?
Now ensure that the steps in your process cover all of these elements and others particular to your product and industry. This way, you can ensure that you are continually getting the right message to the right people.
What are the benefits of automating a sales process?
How often have you contacted a company to get information, only to wonder why you had heard nothing a week later? If you did get an information pack from them, did they follow it up with a phone call? When your sales people meet with a prospect, do they always set up the next appointment before leaving? Do they always summarize the points discussed in a meeting with a follow-up email or letter? By implementing technology that prompts your people to always to the right things, little is left to chance. What is more, the business owners are able to forecast sales, which keep production and your bank manager happy.
How do you get sales people to use the process?
The one common trait that all successful sales people seem to share is that they seem to hate and are particularly bad about paperwork, but who cares anyway? You care and so do your customers. If you have pre-sales support staff, how do the sales people get to use them? If they can only book them based on sales that have reached an appropriate stage in the cycle, they have to keep up to date. If sales people find it easier to prepare a proposal and mange their time, based on a system that you give them, they will use it.
However the most important factor of all, in getting sales people buy-in to any new process or system, is to ask them to help you design it. If they feel they have created a process that makes their life easier, and enables them to earn more money – they will use it. And you all win.
How to implement a sales process!
Either follow the steps outlined above or call in someone who can help you. What you do not want to do is to go straight to a vendor who offers an automated system. You need to ensure that if you do go down the technology route, you choose the correct solution. Remember, you know your business best, so work with someone who understands that and who will help you implements something that works for you.
Sales Process Repeat Success and Avoid Failure - To learn more about this author, visit Peter Lawless's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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