Improve Your Sales Process
Improve Your Sales Process
Identify pain: A person within the company determines that they have a pain. It may come at annual planning time when a goal is established and the company realizes that it needs help.
Validate pain/ gain support: The person who identifies the pain begins the process of gaining support to find a solution. May identify other areas that are affected by the problem.
Research solutions: The person begins to research potential solutions. S/he person may reach out to selected companies for informational purposes.
Vendor/supplier discussions: The company begins to talk with vendors/suppliers: formal introduction, gather literature, initial meetings, etc.
Identify leading vendors: The company selects one or more leading vendors/ suppliers. The leading vendor is the “benchmark;” the buyer will typically engage in more detailed discussions with the leading vendor than with the “supporting” vendors.
Formalize bidding process: The company sets its formal objectives, budget, and parameters for the project, then seeks bids/proposals.
Review bids: The company reviews the bids/proposals.
Negotiate with finalists: The company narrows down to 2-3 finalists and negotiates terms.
Choose solution The company identifies its solution and notifies the winner.
Negotiate contract: If the buyer and vendor must negotiate a contract, it’s done at this time.
Result: Execute contract/purchase. When the contract is executed, the initial sales process has concluded and you’re ready to fulfill the contract.
Result: Lost to a competitor. Customer purchases from your competitor, but is willing to keep up a relationship with you for potential future business.
For each product/service and sales channel, think about the steps your prospects take from the time they feel pain to the time they buy from you. If you don’t have historical data to review (especially if you’re a new entrant to the market), be extremely conservative – in many business-to-business sales processes, it takes prospects weeks to move from one step to another. Build your marketing plans with these assumptions, and if you underestimate, your marketing and sales efforts could fall dramatically short.
If your company is already established and the sales process mirrors the buying process, you can use historical data to estimate the actual time it takes to move prospects forward. You can also ask your sales reps to give you an estimate and/or to talk with customers to obtain this information.
Next identify what you can deliver to the customer to help move them forward based on their needs. What literature, tools, or information can you provide to meet the customer’s need at each step? Tools are items that aid the salesperson convince the prospect to purchase. For example, product demos, samples, case studies, savings analyses, ROI calculators, news articles. Who from your company should be involved at which steps?
Finally, estimate the percentage of prospects that move from one step to the next. Calculate each percentage independently, not cumulatively – OF THOSE who made it to a particular step, what percentage move on? For example, if you generate 10 proposals for consulting services and six move on to the negotiation stage, your conversion rate from proposal to negotiation is 60% (6/10). If you end up signing three contracts for service, your conversion rate from negotiation to contract is 50% (3/6).
Improve Your Sales Process - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
No pain felt: Business as usual – the company (the potential buyer) has no pain.
Identify pain: A person within the company determines that they have a pain. It may come at annual planning time when a goal is established and the company realizes that it needs help.
Validate pain/ gain support: The person who identifies the pain begins the process of gaining support to find a solution. May identify other areas that are affected by the problem.
Research solutions: The person begins to research potential solutions. S/he person may reach out to selected companies for informational purposes.
Vendor/supplier discussions: The company begins to talk with vendors/suppliers: formal introduction, gather literature, initial meetings, etc.
Identify leading vendors: The company selects one or more leading vendors/ suppliers. The leading vendor is the “benchmark;” the buyer will typically engage in more detailed discussions with the leading vendor than with the “supporting” vendors.
Formalize bidding process: The company sets its formal objectives, budget, and parameters for the project, then seeks bids/proposals.
Review bids: The company reviews the bids/proposals.
Negotiate with finalists: The company narrows down to 2-3 finalists and negotiates terms.
Choose solution The company identifies its solution and notifies the winner.
Negotiate contract: If the buyer and vendor must negotiate a contract, it’s done at this time.
Result: Execute contract/purchase. When the contract is executed, the initial sales process has concluded and you’re ready to fulfill the contract.
Result: Lost to a competitor. Customer purchases from your competitor, but is willing to keep up a relationship with you for potential future business.
For each product/service and sales channel, think about the steps your prospects take from the time they feel pain to the time they buy from you. If you don’t have historical data to review (especially if you’re a new entrant to the market), be extremely conservative – in many business-to-business sales processes, it takes prospects weeks to move from one step to another. Build your marketing plans with these assumptions, and if you underestimate, your marketing and sales efforts could fall dramatically short.
If your company is already established and the sales process mirrors the buying process, you can use historical data to estimate the actual time it takes to move prospects forward. You can also ask your sales reps to give you an estimate and/or to talk with customers to obtain this information.
Next identify what you can deliver to the customer to help move them forward based on their needs. What literature, tools, or information can you provide to meet the customer’s need at each step? Tools are items that aid the salesperson convince the prospect to purchase. For example, product demos, samples, case studies, savings analyses, ROI calculators, news articles. Who from your company should be involved at which steps?
Finally, estimate the percentage of prospects that move from one step to the next. Calculate each percentage independently, not cumulatively – OF THOSE who made it to a particular step, what percentage move on? For example, if you generate 10 proposals for consulting services and six move on to the negotiation stage, your conversion rate from proposal to negotiation is 60% (6/10). If you end up signing three contracts for service, your conversion rate from negotiation to contract is 50% (3/6).
Improve Your Sales Process - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to John's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| 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. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Customer Retention / Attraction Referral Networking Solution Telemarketing Success PIPS Power Book Effective Art Of Networking |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Niche Blogs 2009
Top 50 Niche Blogs 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Debt Blogs
Learn To Get Out Of Debt | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
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!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||