How Harley-Davidson got started, what led to their success, and what you can learn from them to help you grow!
Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details.
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Why Your Business Needs a Sales Process
A sales process is simply a series of customer-focused steps that enables the sales person to substantively increase win rates, build customer retention, and increase revenue production. Each step consists of several key activities and has a predictable, measurable outcome.
A great sales process can help your sales force succeed.
The benefits of a sales process include:
• Definable steps. A sales process helps you identify best practices for working through sales opportunities. Random acts produce random results.
• Predictable outcomes. A sales process helps you see which steps will bring a sales opportunity to closure.
• Repeatable activities. A sales process helps you replicate your successes and avoid your failures.
• Measurable results. A sales process helps you forecast revenue and measure the time required for key steps in the process.
A well-defined sales process can help you:
• Identify and qualify leads.
• Find more opportunities for repeat business among your existing customers.
• More consistently position the unique value that your company can deliver versus the competition.
• Discover your customers’ needs and match these needs to your products or services.
• Identify and deliver convincing proof that your products can meet those needs.
• Better assess the revenue potential for a given customer – and be able to view consolidated information for all customers in your sales pipeline.
• Negotiate and close more sales.
• Build stronger relationships with customers and business partners.
• Put a follow-up process in place after the sale that helps drive customer satisfaction – and generates repeat business and referrals.
Buying Process v Sales Process
Customer Buying Process
All customers go through five basic steps in the Customer Buying Process.
Step 1: Identify needs. Business owners look for ways to improve revenues and market share, to lower costs, and to improve operating efficiencies. Consumers look for ways to improve their standard of living or their overall satisfaction.
Step 2: Determine requirements. The customer’s goal in this step is to clearly identify all the aspects of the problem or opportunity they are trying to solve and to specify the requirements for a solution.
Step 3: Evaluate options. The customer solicits proposals and seeks out proof that the potential vendors can meet the stated requirements.
Step 4: Negotiate. The customer now has a clear understanding of the options available and begins negotiations to acquire the product or service. Price is one consideration, but negotiating considerations include the cost of change and the risk that the solution will not meet their needs.
Step 5: Implement and evaluate success. The product or service is implemented and the customer begins the process of judging whether it truly meets the stated needs.
Five steps define the sales process methodology. Each step is made up of several key activities with predictable, measurable outcomes. The steps help the business person succeed by:
1. Focusing on a total understanding of critical business issues faced by customers.
2. Developing potential value to be gained by customers.
3. Creating a strong desire in the customer to buy products and services supplied by your company.
Step 1: Prospecting. At this first stage of the sales process, the salesperson is generating qualified leads, finding new opportunities among the existing customer base, and differentiating his or her company versus the competition.
Step 2: Qualifying. In this stage you and the customer are sizing each other up.
Step 3: Proposal. When you reach this stage the promises end and you have to demonstrate to the decision maker that your company can really deliver the goods.
Step 4: Decision. The desired outcome, naturally, is a successfully negotiated deal.
Step 5: Repeat Business. A signed contract is really just the first part of the Process. The Repeat Business step acknowledges that it is indeed a sales process – not a moment in time when a contract is signed.
Maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is the key to consistent and predictable sales performance. Everybody feels better when there are enough qualified opportunities "in the works" to forecast strong sales in the fu...
Sales can seem like a mysterious process when the process you’re following isn’t working. It’s especially frustrating when others following supposedly the same process achieve results while you don’t. Are you just...
Dave Kurlan
Dave 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
Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website
Dr. John Oda
John Oda Ph.D NLP is a business peak performance expert, an author, and speaker frequently called upon to provide corporate training, workshops and seminars for many companies in the United States. He is an expert in coaching sales and business professionals in overcoming the behaviors and obstacles that may impede their sales results and affect their bottom line. Since 1995, John has created a speaking bureau such topics, which include: time management, sales training, human diversity, leadership programs and etc. He provides companies with a strategic plan to increase their bottom line by over 25 percent yearly. - Visit Dr. John Oda's Website
George Ludwig
George 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
Kim Castle
With 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
Vwodek Wojczynski
Business Coach and Consultant Vwodek Wojczynski (pronounced Voy-chin-ski) brings fun, awareness, accountability and fresh perspectives based on his diverse experiences in life and business.
Born in Poland and educated in Greece and Canada, he is trilingual with 8 years experience in business development with clients in Canada, USA, Switzerland and Poland.
His approach is systematic and process-driven. He fuses the know-how of proven business methods with his commitment that entrepreneurs experience satisfaction and joy based on their values, motivations and strengths. He believes that businesses succeed based on their ability to generate value by providing what’s needed and wanted.
Ultimately, he trains executives and true business owners - people who work less, produce more, own businesses that run automatically after a while and make a difference globally.
His current research focus is the development of intelligent business systems and the application of emerging artificial intelligence technologies in business.
He is also an avid traveler, spoken word performer and visual artist. He resides in Toronto, Canada. - Visit Vwodek Wojczynski's Website
Anne Barr
Anne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations,
networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business
ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
Colly Graham
(Visit Colly's Website)
Colly Graham CEO of salesxcellence After
graduating from college, Colly entered the
field of accountancy however after five
years decided to change his career
direction in sales. First working for a
Fortune 500 company in fast moving
consumer goods, his career progressed from
selling capital equipment, financial
services to internet services, with a wide
management experience in both telephone
and field sales, concentrating on the
recruitment, training and development of
sales people, in this role he gained
experience in designing and building a
number of successful sales teams. Colly
brings thirty years of practical
experience of selling and his ability to
empathize with sales people and establish
immediate rapport and credibility as a
trainer, (the accolade Colly receives from
most sales people is “that he has carried
the bag”). A licensed practitioner of NLP
Colly trained with Richard Bandler in
1998. When I entered the field of sales,
back in 1969, with local franchise holder
for Pepsi Cola because of my lack of
knowledge of any selling skills I set a
goal, to one day, start my own training
company. As my career in sales progressed
becoming a sales manager, group
Colly Graham Video - Colly Graham discusses Creating Customers on the Telephone -The importance of the telephone in selling is now well documented. This training DVD focuses on getting in front of more prospects by teaching the skill of telephone appointment setting. The workshop demonstrates the connection between daily activities, the sales cycle, and the number of sales necessary for a consistent flow of qualified appointments. Based on practical skills that get results fill your diary with qualified appointments.
Colly Graham's
Complete
List Of
Sales Articles
If you enjoyed this article, get Colly Graham's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!