In a nutshell, it is a pattern of minor steps or stages that are to be followed and completed towards the end goal of a closed transaction.

It could also be considered a gathering of sales process steps that are then arranged in a sales process flow.

Regardless of how the steps are carried out they generally fall into this flow:

●    Lead Development
●    Lead Gathering
●    Establishment of Communication
●    Determining the Lead’s Needs
●    Determining the Lead’s Economic Capability
●    Within the last Several Steps the Lead becomes a Prospect or Not
●    Determining the Lead’s Time Frame
●    Establishing all Parties Required for Approval or Decision Making
●    The Ongoing Process of Objection Handling and Data Provisioning
●    Negotiation of Terms
●    Any Bi-Lateral Approvals
●    The Close
●    Follow-up and Prospecting

With some tweaking and adjustments this would suit most sales processes.

The most common focus would be upon building out how each step is done. In other words, what are the action steps and technology required to make each step executable and duplicatable across the team.

That is not a small venture, in fact the subject fills thousands upon thousands of books, web pages, seminars, DVDs, teleconferences and so forth. It is an overwhelming sea of information ready to drown any sales manager in its sheer volume and endless horizons.

So swim to the shore and take an uncommon look at it all, a different take on establishing a successful sales process and consider this view:

Success depends not upon finding the holy grail of sales but in how well and how deeply your sales reps know your sales process and its connections to the bigger scene.

And second, any sales process will only succeed to the degree that the means and methods of ONGOING, CONTINUAL AND TIMELY management systems are in place to monitor and maintain its execution.

Chances are that your company or endeavor already has some workable sales tech and a fundamental process can be put into place following the above. CRM solutions such as Salesforce abound and are relatively simple to implement.

But without the backing of a system to monitor, maintain and manage a process then it rapidly degrades and disperses into a dizzying mess as salespeople tramp off into multiple directions. That is human nature and it is of little use to ignore that factor or pretend it does not exist.

Instead build your process against how it will be run and managed and you will have the foundation for success.

Written by
Thomas Soracco
Real Ability Software and Management Systems
www.realability.com










 

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