How a Sales Process helps your sales team sell better, faster

sales-process-helps-your-sales-team-sell-better-faster
The most current and effective iteration of the modern sales profession has been around for the last 15-20 years i.e. client centric solution selling, and yet, most salespeople still learn how to sell by default, not design.

The perpetual whinging by various CEOs and sales leaders of ‘Why can’t my average sales performers be like my top performers?’ or ‘It takes too long to get my new sales recruits up to speed and selling’, or ‘Only some of my team are hitting our quarterly numbers, what’s wrong with the rest of them?’ is simply unacceptable.

‘Just be like Fran, she is amazing…’ is often what new sales recruits get given as their induction. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Instead of saying ‘Be like Fran’, we need to look at what Fran and other successful salespeople do, and how they do it, then we have a much better chance of showing new sales recruits how to replicate their successful behaviours, skills and activities.

The Selling Function has a process. It is a process that can be taught, trained and coached to. It can and has been mapped many times over. At Barrett, we map, design and refine sales processes every week so our clients’ sales teams can sell better faster.    

Like any good manufacturer has a production process, your sales organisation or team ideally follows a specific and transparent sales process. But what is the actual purpose of the sales process, other than giving your sales team guidance on what steps and tasks to pursue along the way? How do you leverage its potential to the fullest? These are only a few examples:

  • The sales process provides everyone with details around the knowledge, skills and mindset necessary for each step. It creates clarity around what is expected for the respective sales roles. It gives everyone the confidence necessary to do the right things and be successful in their roles.
  • It provides sales management criteria and benchmarks for sales coaching, support and the development of the team.
  • It’s the key resource for any sales and service training, providing the roadmap for any initiative to improve sales performance.
  • You can connect each step and task along the sales process with all the other tools, protocols and roles in your organisation, for example your CRM system, quoting templates, compliance protocols, marketing and sales documents, and other sales supporting functions within the organisation.
  • It helps everyone in and outside sales to understand the buyers’ journey with your organisation, where your customers are coming from and going to in terms of the steps they need to take.
  • It’s the core element for your induction process.

Forward looking organisation are now starting to build their operations around the sales (or buying) process in a shift from an inward focused perspective (traditional internal processes and protocols) to an approach that puts the customers and their journey with the organisation at the core of everyone’s orientation.

This is how you get your sales teams selling better faster.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Related topics:

Where have businesses been exposed during the crisis when it comes to Sales?
Adapting the sales strategy & processes of your business to sell better in the New Normal
The power of Sales Process Maps to deliver best sales practice

A year ago

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