What is a Sales Process and Why Do You Need One?

So, what is a Sales Process, and why do you need one? I’m sure you have heard companies refer to their “Sales Process” but perhaps you’ve wondered what this actually is – is it just a concept, or are we talking about a real, documented process? And even if it is documented, does that mean every company needs one? After all, many people do believe sales is a natural gift that people either have, or they don’t. If that were the case, there would be no point in trying to document it.

It might sound simple, but a Sales Process is simply a tailored, step-by-step method that a company can follow to transition people (or businesses) off the street into being paying customers. Usually this process covers several steps that might include researching the customers’ needs, asking key questions, explaining the offering, giving a demonstration, presenting a price, and processing a sale. It might also include scripts for using the phone, emails, or following up on proposals. It should be fully documented for any person on the sales team to follow.

At Tenato, when we develop sales processes, they become detailed, company-specific sales manuals, used to train salespeople in the company’s best selling practices. These are found by interviewing the business’ owners and best salespeople, and integrating their techniques into best selling practices developed over decades in business.

Do You Need a Sales Process?

Consider this: Sales is one of the highest turnover jobs there is. According to Linkedin, Sales turnover is exploding, while still being one of the most in-demand jobs there is. Is that because there are so many bad salespeople out there?

Salespeople are like Front-Line Soldiers

In the competitive world of business, I liken the sales role to the front-line soldiers. They are the ones who have to move a company forward, expanding its territory. They are the ones putting their personal reputation on the line to make promises that the company can deliver. They are the ones who face the immediate backlash if the company fails to deliver, getting the “wounds” and having to band-aid relationships to prevent the company from bleeding out.

Just imagine any military force sending out soldiers without clear instructions or training. What if the soldiers had no boots, no helmets, no first aid kits, no weapons, and no idea of what to expect? Now you’re getting the picture as to why sales is such a high turnover role.

How a Sales Process Helps Your Business

As a role, sales can feel very undefined. This is because humans are quite unpredictable, and the salesperson must learn to react to many kinds of situations. 

Because of this, it can be difficult to know whether a salesperson is on the right track, especially if they are new. If they are selling something complex which typically takes months to sell (e.g. a proposal for ongoing catering services to a university), this is issue is further compounded, and months can pass before the employer has an idea that they’re making headway

Here are several ways that having a documented sales process can help.

A Sales Process Helps Ensure You Properly Represented

Ensuring proper representation is the most important reason for having a sales process. One of the biggest fears business owners have about salespeople is whether or not they will be faithfully, truthfully and well represented by the salesperson. Is the salesperson going to make unrealistic promises? Smear the competition? Give discounts or deals that will put the company out of business? Get caught not knowing the answers to important questions that customers ask? Any of these will reflect not just on the salesperson, but on the company whose business card they are carrying.

A documented sales process covers all aspects of sales training that pertain to the company’s needs – specific methodologies. For example, here’s how ABC Company wants you to describe its products/services, i.e., use these words, not these ones. Here’s how you demonstrate it. Here’s a nice metaphor to make it easy for people to understand. Here’s how it compares to competitors. Here’s how to answer these kinds of questions which we often get.

A Sales Process Accelerates Results, and Reduces Turnover

A sales process gets the salesperson moving in the right direction sooner. By avoiding the “blithering idiot” stage, they feel more confident, earn customer trust more quickly, and start getting results. 

Without this process and training, the salesperson risks looking foolish; and when this happens, most either lose motivation or quit altogether. And yes, while this seems obvious, a salesperson who loses confidence may not necessarily quit immediately (as it can also impact their confidence to find another job). They may just stick around, but not have much faith in the company or its products. This is where a company can end up with a whole team of underperforming salespeople.

A Sales Process Tells You If Your Salesperson is On Track

If you’ve built a sales process that, for example, starts with a phone call, then a meeting, then goes to a proposal, you can look at the metrics of these specific actions to see if the salesperson is on track.

Does it typically take 5 phone calls to get a meeting? If your salesperson needs 100 calls, there may be an issue with the way they are handling phone calls. Some training on how to make better use of the phone, and/or voicemail could help. 

This is the case with each step in the process. Identifying problem areas is also much easier when a whole team is using the same sales process, because you can find the team averages for various steps, and look for anomalies.

Using a Sales Process for Forecasting & Focusing

Rather than make a guess at what your salespeople are going to sell this quarter or next, you can take a look at what stages their leads are at versus your documented sales process.

If you’ve got a 7-step process to convert a lead to a customer, you could expect that perhaps the ones at stages 5 or 6 could close this month, where the other ones may take longer.

Or, if you see that all the leads are at stages 1 or 2, then you might also encourage your salespeople to focus on moving chosen leads further down the process so that cash flows in the door, instead of continually filling more leads into the start of the process.

A Sales Process Creates Clarity

The bottom line is that having a documented sales process creates clarity in an otherwise completely undefined job. You could hire, wait, and hope that a salesperson will make the money roll in. But what’s more likely is that you go through 5 or 6 salespeople to get a good one. Then the good one quits, and you have to go through 5 or 6 more to find another good one. There’s no need for this kind of pain – establish a process, and use it, and you’ll keep your company’s reputation and momentum intact.

If you’d like to get some help developing your sales process, click to book a free consultation, or contact us today.