Many B2B companies don’t take the time to lay the foundation for building a defined sales process that lasts. Even a decade ago, Harvard Business Review mentioned “an 18% difference in revenue growth between companies that defined a formal sales process and companies that didn’t.”
With the kind of revenue growth you can gain from tending your key accounts, how can you afford not to invest in a proper sales process?
That leads to the next question…
What Is A Defined Sales Process?
Here’s how a typical sales process unfolds – from that first contact to closing the deal:
- Prospecting
- Qualification
- Consideration
- Decision
- Close
However, it’s important to define your own to suit your circumstances. If you don’t want generic sales performance, then don’t use a generic sales process!
Having a defined sales process means having clearly delineated standardized stages and milestones that are understood by everyone from your sales leaders to front line sales reps.
And because your company is unique, each team member needs to be able to get on board with your unique process.
The process you define guides your sales team about
- where a particular deal is in the process and
- how they should be managing deals in each stage, for your specific organization.
[It’s worth repeating our usual mantra that this needs recording in your sales playbook!]
How to Create a Defined Sales Process That Drives Results
For your sales process to be effective, it should align with how your customers move through their buying process with you.
For example, there might be a different process between someone buying a new fork lift truck and someone subscribing to agentic AI via SaaS. Find out what the buying process looks like for your customers.
So – to create a great sales process, start from the perspective of the customer.
Answering these questions will give you a benchmark from which you can make decisions when laying the foundation:
Who is my customer?
- What are their pain points?
- What are the gains for which they would pay?
- Does my value proposition solve their pain points?
- Does my service or product offer features that will add value to their businesses?
Next, look at your customer’s unique buying process. In their simplest form, most buying processes look like this:
The buyer:
- Defines a need
- Does an information search
- Evaluates choices
- Makes the purchase
After identifying the steps your buyer takes in their own process, determine in detail what they do at each stage. They might, for example, mostly read reviews online before assembling a shortlist of possibles.
To discover this, get feedback from your sales team, and even clients, to verify your target customer’s buying attitudes and define the main decision points.
When you know this, you can spot the right moment to
- bring your strengths to the table and
- use the most appropriate “story” about your offer.
Now that you have a thorough understanding of your customer and their process, it’s time to work on creating your sales process.
What Are the Four Steps to Create an Extraordinary Sales Process That Lasts?
1 Define sales stages that are specific to your company.
2 Define objectives for each stage based on targeted outcomes and measurable goals.
3 Choose appropriate actions for each step that will promote the customer to the next stage in the buying process.
4 Choose the tools your salespeople will need to achieve their goals.
Your whole team can repeat this process efficiently – and start seeing results faster. Of course, you’ll need to evaluate the process regularly and tweak as needed.
This is why we recommend at least weekly and monthly. In the current economic climate, you all need to be aware of even small changes in the market and in people’s preferences.
In addition, ask your sales teams for feedback to continually improve your process.
This gives them freedom to bring forward suggestions about what they’ve experienced and what might solve an issue. Your sales processes then become more agile and your teams empowered to show innovative thinking.
Although a B2B sales process takes a while to master and will require modifications along the way, it will deliver results for your business indefinitely.
How do we know? Because we work with business large and small all year to increase their margins with more efficient sales processes.
360 Consulting Can Help You Build a Defined Sales Process That Lasts
Need someone to look at your sales process from a new perspective? Or maybe help you get started on creating one? Let’s talk!
Book a free consultation and find out what a high-performing sales process could do for your margins.