Documenting your sales process helps you grow revenue
Documenting your sales process helps you grow revenue
- Each distinct step a prospect takes in the journey
- Knowledge the prospect needs to move from each step to the next
- Information & tools you can provide to help the prospect move forward
- The length of time a prospect needs at each step
- Conversion rates: the percentage of prospects who move from each step to the next
When you document this process, you have a powerful tool that enables you to:
- Estimate the revenue and return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns
- Sell more efficiently
- Generate more accurate sales & revenue reports
- See which stages take the most time and find ways to move prospects forward more quickly
- Create better literature and tools
- Improve your campaigns
- Minimize the amount of time your sales reps spend on estimates and forecasts
What does this mean, exactly? Here are three hypothetical scenarios. Do you see your company in one of them?
Best case
You have a well-designed process that truly understands how your prospects buy your product.
You deliver the right amount of information prospects need at each step, which helps them make decisions more quickly and move to the next stage.
You have accurate reports covering the number of prospects you have at each stage, how long they stay in each stage, and the revenue your entire pipeline represents.
You’re able to identify prospects who are “stuck” at a particular stage, then find potential solutions. For example, certain sales reps may need coaching at that step, or you may need better tools & information to help overcome objections.
You can create more successful marketing campaigns because you can predict how many leads will become customers and what those leads are worth financially to your company.
Neutral case
You may or may not have a defined sales process. You generally follow the same steps to close a customer, but there’s a big variance in the amount of time it takes to close. In fact, even your strongest reps have trouble closing certain types of prospects.
You have a basic idea of how many customers a particular marketing campaign will generate and what you can spend to acquire them. However, you wish those projections were more consistent.
Your forecasts are probably all manual and generally accurate, but you wish you had a thorough snapshot to show exactly how many accounts are at a certain stage and what you need to do to close.
Worst case
You don’t have a process or use one that doesn’t match how prospects want to buy.
You deliver all of the information about your product but then seem to lose control of the prospect. Some prospects end up buying, but you don’t know why the others don’t.
You’re never quite sure what a lead is truly worth financially, so it’s difficult to create marketing campaigns that produce the right number of leads at a measurable, acceptable ROI.
Your sales team often spends valuable time creating manual reports instead of selling, which further hurts your revenue.
It’s a constant battle to figure out how many real prospects you have and what they’re worth.
Does it sound like a documented sales process is valuable? It definitely is. It helps you improve your entire sales & marketing process and grow your revenue as a result.
Documenting your sales process helps you grow revenue - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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A sales process is a defined series of steps you follow as you guide prospects from initial contact to purchase. It’s essentially a flowchart that explains:
- Each distinct step a prospect takes in the journey
- Knowledge the prospect needs to move from each step to the next
- Information & tools you can provide to help the prospect move forward
- The length of time a prospect needs at each step
- Conversion rates: the percentage of prospects who move from each step to the next
When you document this process, you have a powerful tool that enables you to:
- Estimate the revenue and return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns
- Sell more efficiently
- Generate more accurate sales & revenue reports
- See which stages take the most time and find ways to move prospects forward more quickly
- Create better literature and tools
- Improve your campaigns
- Minimize the amount of time your sales reps spend on estimates and forecasts
What does this mean, exactly? Here are three hypothetical scenarios. Do you see your company in one of them?
Best case
You have a well-designed process that truly understands how your prospects buy your product.
You deliver the right amount of information prospects need at each step, which helps them make decisions more quickly and move to the next stage.
You have accurate reports covering the number of prospects you have at each stage, how long they stay in each stage, and the revenue your entire pipeline represents.
You’re able to identify prospects who are “stuck” at a particular stage, then find potential solutions. For example, certain sales reps may need coaching at that step, or you may need better tools & information to help overcome objections.
You can create more successful marketing campaigns because you can predict how many leads will become customers and what those leads are worth financially to your company.
Neutral case
You may or may not have a defined sales process. You generally follow the same steps to close a customer, but there’s a big variance in the amount of time it takes to close. In fact, even your strongest reps have trouble closing certain types of prospects.
You have a basic idea of how many customers a particular marketing campaign will generate and what you can spend to acquire them. However, you wish those projections were more consistent.
Your forecasts are probably all manual and generally accurate, but you wish you had a thorough snapshot to show exactly how many accounts are at a certain stage and what you need to do to close.
Worst case
You don’t have a process or use one that doesn’t match how prospects want to buy.
You deliver all of the information about your product but then seem to lose control of the prospect. Some prospects end up buying, but you don’t know why the others don’t.
You’re never quite sure what a lead is truly worth financially, so it’s difficult to create marketing campaigns that produce the right number of leads at a measurable, acceptable ROI.
Your sales team often spends valuable time creating manual reports instead of selling, which further hurts your revenue.
It’s a constant battle to figure out how many real prospects you have and what they’re worth.
Does it sound like a documented sales process is valuable? It definitely is. It helps you improve your entire sales & marketing process and grow your revenue as a result.
Documenting your sales process helps you grow revenue - To learn more about this author, 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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