According to an estimate, approximately more than 13% of the employees in the US are working in the field of sales. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an experienced person or a newbie; sometimes it’s difficult for you to close the potential sales deal. You must know about the product whatever you’re selling; because you’re going to explain it to the customer how your product or service is better to serve their needs.
Business and marketing books usually outline the 7 steps of sales process, and these steps provide you the basis of sales. But you have to customize it according to the needs and requirements of your business sales.
As it is said that learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. Once you have successfully learned the process of the sale, then you’d be able to apply it in every field by molding, breaking and creating those steps to get the job done.
Also Read: What is Sales Process?
These seven 7 steps would help you to find and locate your potential customers; close the sales deal, and most importantly ask for the reviews and follow-ups. So that they would refer your product in their circles, here they are;
Step 1. Prospecting
Prospecting is the process of finding a lead or generating a lead, but it begins with a lead. Companies and businesses use various marketing methods of prospecting your lead. It can be through social networking, live streaming on some event, trade shows, referrals, cold calling, and shout outs.
In simple words, prospecting involving finding and recognizing your customers whom you perceive that they have shown interest in your product and service. Your offer would probably interest them based on their industry, demographic and other characteristics.
Step 2. Preparation
It doesn’t matter whether you have the right lead or not, your salesperson would have to take the first step of breaking the ice. It can be through email, phone calls, or social media. The purpose of the contact is to find out relevant information that whether your prospected lead is the right match of your product or service.
The matching criteria of your lead could be their need, budget or timeline. If the lead qualifies and falls within the criteria, the next thing your salesperson should do is to find out the needs. It doesn’t mean that you have to do it right now; you can have another phone call, or live meeting focusing on their needs and requirements.
Step 3. Approach
Now, you approach potential customers of your target market with a series of pre-decided questions. Questioning them would serve two purposes; first, it would make them look, professionals. Secondly, it would help you to know the important details of their needs.
It’s better if you have open-ended questions because it would lead them to talk. The focus of the sales staff should be on listening to their needs and requirements rather than talking about the product.
Once you know and understand your customer’s position, and where they are standing. Then this information would you in the marketing stage of creating your marketing and sales pitch. Don’t forget to ask the objectionable questions like;
- What problem they expect from our product or services.
- The thing the like or dislike about previous service providers.
- Their current situation
- If the new product would solve their issues, then how it would be like.
The sales staff should rephrase the answers to make sure that what they heard is right. If they have to ask some other questions to clear the gap, then they should.
Also Read: What is Cross-selling? Cross-Selling Vs Up-selling
Step 4. Presentation
When you’re going to present your product or service to your target market; then you should communicate the effectiveness of your product that how it’ll add value in their lives. The easiest way to do that is to create a bridge between customer’s needs with the features of the product or service.
That’s why the sales staff needs to be very careful in the need assessment stage while approaching and talking to the customers. Make sure that your sales pitch includes all those features that were the needs of the customers of your target market. At the end of the presentation, you should announce the launching date mutually decided by you and the customers.
Step 5. Addressing Objections
It would be ideal that you present your product or service to your targeted audience, and they don’t have any questions or objections. It’s because you base your product or service by the need assessment of your sales staff, and sales reps focus on delivering the best possible product. But sometimes there’s a difference of definition between your version of best, and their version of best.
If there are any objections and there will be some, then note down all of those reactions, thoughts, and objections. Answer their objection carefully, and share this information with your team that how they should handle such questions.
Step 6. Closing
If your lead prospect is convinced with your presentation, then he’d buy your product. Otherwise, he won’t. It’s the final and most important step in the sale process. It would be successful if you have completed all the previous steps with caution.
There are many key points to remember to close the deal like; handling objections, discounts and agreeing on the price, and presenting the product’s description well. When everything goes well, you’ll close the deal.
Step 7. Follow-Up
After closing the deal, it doesn’t mean your job is done. You should be in contact with the customers to talk about their experience. If the customer is happy, then he would share his experiences with his friends. Such referrals would increase your sales. You should also keep them informed about the latest updates, products, and services.
If you are not getting the desired results, then repeat the above sales process steps.
Conclusion
Different businesses are manufacturing different products and services. Therefore, sales process steps may vary from business to business. Sometimes, they would be short, skipped or lengthen out depending upon the situation.
Photo by Lukas
We can further divide these steps into pre and post-sale. The four pre-sales steps are Lead Evaluation, Initial Contact, Needs Exploration and Closing/Negotiation. The post-sale steps are Initial Engagement, Account Management and Expansion.
Lead Evaluation:
Lead Evaluation consists of all the actions that a salesperson completes before making the first contact with the lead. The purpose of these actions is to qualify the lead and verify their business potential. The outcome of this first step is to gather information about the lead to help decide if they are worth pursuing.
Initial Contact:
Initial Contact describes the first contact a salesperson makes with the lead. It is typically a one-way communication with the aim for the lead to say "tell me more". The outcome of this stage is that the lead becomes a prospect allowing the salesperson to start the actual sales process.
Needs Exploration:
Needs Exploration is the stage in which the salesperson evaluates whether the prospect has a need for the business service or product. The outcome of this stage is that the salesperson knows enough about the client's needs, and the client knows enough about the product or service to enable the salesperson to make an offer.
Closing/Negotiation:
By Closing, we refer to the phase when the salesperson presents their offer, and the prospect responds to the proposal. This can be a short phase, but it might be longer if multiple iterations of the offer are required, and some negotiation is needed. The outcome of this stage is that the prospect decides to move forward.
Initial Engagement:
By Initial Engagement, we refer to the stage when the client is experiencing the product/service for the first time. The client is not committed to the continuous usage of the product/service. Instead, they are looking to see whether or not the salesperson keeps their promises made during the previous phase. The outcome of this stage is that the client makes a repeat purchase.
Account Management:
Account Management refers to the phase when the client feels comfortable using the product/service and continuously places new orders. The client is using the product/service for the initial intended purpose. Therefore, sales increase by the client placing orders more often and/or by placing larger orders.
Expansion:
By Expansion, we refer to the stage when business with a client expands to new departments within the client organisation or the client purchases more of the product/service than they originally bought. The client becomes more dependent on the provider, and the business with the client is not dependent on one product or one buyer within the client organisation.
Why is a Sales Process Important?
There are plenty of reasons why a sales process is important. Most significantly, B2B companies that implement a formal sales process experience 18% more revenue growth than companies that don't. The benefits of a sales process go beyond the bottom line. Here are the top five reasons why a sales process is important.
- Improved strategies: When the entire sales team follows the same process, you can identify which steps regularly pose challenges and provide value. This reliable data allows you to anticipate challenges, identify sales training opportunities, provide actionable coaching to your team, and continually improve your sales process.
- Increased sales: Maximising revenue is the primary objective of a sales process. Salespeople know what they need to do to support customers throughout the buyer journey. When correctly designed and implemented, a sales process makes it easier for your company to generate revenue.
- Efficiency: Sales processes increase overall sales efficiency by eliminating unnecessary sales steps and tactics and focusing exclusively on effective strategies. A sales process will ensure your reps exit unwinnable opportunities sooner and do not waste time on unqualified leads. Establishing a set of repeatable steps for selling is crucial to improving your team's efficiency.
- Onboarding: Onboarding and training new salespeople is a simple task with a sales process. You can ensure your new sales team members understand the strategies and expected outcomes of each stage of the sales process. They will also know what they need to do step-by-step to complete a sale.
- Forecasting: If your sales process is repeatable, there will be an element of predictability at each stage. You can use this predictability to help you improve the accuracy of your forecasting and revenue prediction. Having a more accurate picture of your win rate allows you to forecast how many sales you'll likely close from a given number of leads. This data helps sales managers set realistic quotas.
How to Create a Sales Process
An initial sales process is straightforward to create. Your organisation's unique sales process should align with your sales funnel, buyer journey and provide a roadmap for your sales team to follow. Once you have created the initial sales process steps, you should continually analyse and refine it.
There are typically four steps to consider when creating a sales process.
- Review the sales funnel and set related tasks
- Create a list of internal activities for each stage
- Set the timing of activities
- Make your sales process measurable with metric
Firstly, to create an effective sales process, review your sales pipeline and buyer journey to help identify the larger groupings of tasks. Secondly, convert the activities required of each part of the pipeline into actionable sales process steps. Some steps may have several activities, and others may only have one or two actions. Thirdly, set the timing of when each action should occur. Such as how long to wait before another outreach attempt. Setting timings will help you understand your real conversion time. Finally, create a system to measure each step of the process. Consider metrics such as total values, conversion rates, and averages to quantify your sales process.
Remember, the best sales processes are continually analysed and adjusted. Once your sales process have been in place for a while and all your salespeople have experienced using it, you'll ascertain the effectiveness and adjust accordingly.
How to Improve the Sales Process
The sales process should be fluid and reviewed periodically to ensure it remains relevant and achieves the required outcomes. Here are our top five ways to improve the sales process:
- Align your technology to the sales process (i.e. CRM's and Sales Dashboards)
- Use technology to track and monitor progress
- Start forecasting your sales
- Use data
- Follow-up and measure performance
How to Assess a Salesperson's Fit to the Sales Process
The Sales Manager Assessment supports managers to drive sales performance by evaluating their salespeople's strengths and development areas in of the sales process stages.
The Sales Manager Report provides unparalleled insights into a salesperson's fit to the sales process. Using this information, sales managers can match their salespeople to a stage in the sales process that suits their strengths. Sales managers can use this to build winning sales teams, drive sales and ensure their customers experience a seamless sales process.
The Sales Manager report pinpoints a salesperson's match to different sales process steps based on their current competence level in the associated skillset. At every step of the sales process, the results reveal whether the competencies are a risk, small risk, medium impact, small strength, or strength to performance in that stage. The report assists managers and coaches in understanding why some salespeople may lose their way when following the sales process. It also highlights areas in which salespeople need extra development. This development is vital to reaching success at each step in the sales process.