Sales
Processes
Just to clarify, we say that suspects
are people who may need your services and when
they are qualified as someone who does use your
services they are then prospects.
One of the greatest challenges that a sales person
has is the ability to have an unending list of
suspects or prospects.
A reluctance to compile such a list often exists
as well as the manner in which we do it. Probably
the easiest and most overlooked method is the
networking method.
Networking needs to be part of the daily routine
and you need to be handing out your business cards
religiously. Wherever you are you need to be introducing
yourself and letting everyone know what you do.
Collecting information and subtly finding out
who people are, what they do and also “who
they know” as well.
The other manner of collating lists of suspects
is by researching. Using the Internet, phone books,
finding lists of associations buying databases,
reading trade articles, can do this.
So one of the keys to your success is how you
utilise these lists. You now need to embark on
a process of pushing these suspects throughout
the sales pipeline, and by that we mean the process
of calling them, qualifying them, arranging an
appointment, offering your sales presentation,
and offering a proposal.
The speed and thoroughness which you conduct
this exercise will depict the rate of your success.
The only possible way of doing this quickly is
by creating a sales process, and then by entering
these leads into a CRM contact database and letting
the system guide you through the follow up process.
We talk about sales processes and yet we have
not clarified what they are.
A sales process, is the manner in which you plan
to win a sale. Sales Processes can vary from person
to person and commodity to commodity, even within
the same organisation.
For example we stated above that a sales process
for a suspect is the process of qualifying them,
calling them, making a time to visit them and
so on.
A telephone enquiry coming into your organisation
may have different sales process assigned to it.
An enquiry for your service department may have
a different sales process. In fact it would be
normal for each type of sale category in your
organisation to have a different sales process.
Because of the nature of sales we will have many
processes of pipeline activities happening each
day, and so it is normal to have a really full
diary of activities.
The best way of coping with this volume is to
set these processes in a CRM system, which not
only reminds you of when you need to do things,
but also allows you to measure your activity.
For example the number of phone calls you make
and the number of face-to-face contact hours.
Sales Processes are the thing least talked about
in sales and yet are the cornerstone of your success.
Sales Processes:
- Must be written into the sales plan
- No sales processes, no success
- Include a loyalty component in the sales processes
- A CRM system is the only real way to track sales
processes
- Allow the sales team to track and report on
success
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