If all trees are considered alike then a forest becomes an indistinguishable mess.

So can the communicating of a new sales process appear to managers and sales reps alike. A mess of product information, CRM software, customer scripts and sales process flow charts that confuse staff and wreck havoc on existing systems.

The result? Intensive training sessions that deliver poorly duplicated sales processes which continue to degrade in implementation and quality over time.

The solution? The solution begins at an obvious yet often skipped place - the starting point.

Square One

Most sales processes are judged and selected based on the system itself. Yet even a powerful and proven system will fail to meet expectation if two elements are overlooked:

●    Building understanding, which must start with defining a sales process and the why behind using one at all
●    Gaining acceptance of the system within the group

Both of these points come together at the starting gate and are almost universally overlooked, setting up the new sales process for almost certain failure.

The first step of defining a sales process is rarely taken up, it is naturally assumed that everyone already knows.

If done at all it is usually covered with a dull and rote definition pulled out of Wikipedia and rapidly passed over. Shed that approach as useless, it is a waste of time and breath.

A sales process must be defined and understood in terms of action not just words and descriptions.

This starts with the sales management side and then engages the sales team. What is a process and why would one use one? What solutions and benefits does it bring? What problems is it meant to tackle and what problems does it create? What are its benefits and to whom? What systems and processes are already in use and how will the new process affect those?

With a definition and real understanding of what a sales process is, why they need one and how they are going to use it the new sales process is now set up to succeed.

The goal of this step is to attain a team-wide understanding of what a sales process is, why it is used and how it benefits the activity. It is time well spent and properly done will deliver a fertile ground for the communication of the new sales process.

This leads into the acceptance aspect and will be looked at in Part Two of this series.

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