What is the sales process?
A sales process refers to a series of steps and activities that a sales team or salesperson follows to close a deal with a potential customer. This process typically includes prospecting, lead generation, lead qualification, needs assessment, presentation, negotiation, and closing.
A clearly defined sales process helps sales teams identify and address potential roadblocks, stay on track, and ultimately close more deals.
Businesses need to build a sales process for many reasons, including:
- Increased Efficiency: A sales process helps sales teams work more efficiently by identifying the most effective strategies and tactics to close deals. This can lead to shorter sales cycles and reduced sales-related costs.
- Scalability: A sales process can be expanded to meet the needs of a growing business. By documenting the process, sales teams can replicate successful strategies and tactics, and train new salespeople more easily.
- Metrics: Sales processes allow businesses to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure the effectiveness of their sales strategies. This can help identify areas for improvement and improve a business's sales process over time.
- Increased customer satisfaction: A sales process that focuses on customer needs and provides a consistent experience can lead to satisfaction.
- Consistency: A clearly defined sales process will provide a consistent approach to selling. This ensures that every salesperson follows the same steps, which can lead to better predictability and higher success rates.
7 steps professional sales process
Step 1 - Prepare a specific plan
Planning is the foundation for your business's future sales process. The more you prepare, the more you can avoid risks and mistakes later. To make a specific plan, you need to:
- Understand the product/service: Identify the advantages/disadvantages and benefits to the customer.
- Identify potential customers: Use the 5W1H system to identify factors such as age, personality, needs, etc. For example, cheap hosting services target customers who need to build a website. Therefore, hosting providers will focus on identifying the portrait of customers who need to use these services to exploit and approach.
- Prepare sales documents: Including introduction papers, sample images, quotes, business cards, etc. for both online and offline sales.
- Set up a business plan: Set out specific times, locations, and sales formats.
Step 2 - Find potential customers
This stage involves finding and identifying potential buyers or customers. You need to determine if they have a specific need or want that your business can satisfy and their ability to pay.
This process involves researching to identify your ideal customer, creating a list of potential customers, and screening them based on criteria like whether they are business owners, homeowners, or whether their average monthly income matches the price of your product. This will help you narrow down your buyer persona to a specific customer base.
Prospecting will narrow down a certain group of buyers.
Step 3 - Reach your target audience
This is an important step in the sales process that salespeople and managers need to prepare for. In this stage, you will make the first contact with the prospect. The goal is to get them to interact with you by personalizing the meeting or establishing a relationship. Ask questions to engage the customer in the conversation, thereby building a connection and a deeper understanding of their needs.
Step 4 - Introduce the business's products and services
At this stage, you have a good understanding of your prospect’s individual needs and wants. You can present your product through in-depth presentations, using examples and slideshows, or simply chatting to establish rapport and answer questions. To do this effectively, focus on personalizing and framing your product as a solution to their problem.
Introducing the business's products and services as the solution to the customer's problem
Step 5 - Make a quote and convince the customer
After you have spoken to and gathered information from your customers, it is time to convince them to buy. Often, customers will object to the price. The most effective way to convince them is to emphasize that the benefits of the product far outweigh the costs. It is important to ask the customer directly if they want to buy and to make sure they fully understand the terms of the transaction. However, different types of customers will have different ways of convincing them. For example:
- For customers who are price sensitive, you can apply preferential policies, promotions, etc.
- For customers who value appearance, convince them by talking about product quality.
- For customers who are still hesitant and comparing with other units that also offer similar products, you can convince them by solving their difficulties or meeting their desires.
The most effective way to persuade is to emphasize that the benefits of the product far outweigh the costs.
Step 6 - Answer questions and close orders
If the customer still has doubts about your product/service, consult them to see clearly that the product meets their needs and is worth the cost. If this step is done well, the possibility of the customer closing the deal will be very high, this is the decisive step in the business's sales process.
Once you have successfully closed the sale, you can use upselling techniques to sell additional products, upgrades, or premium versions. After the transaction is complete, always thank the customer and do not immediately disconnect. Salespeople can use tactics to entice potential customers, such as offering gifts, free service sessions, creating a sense of urgency, or asking for the customer’s preferred payment schedule.
Step 7 - After-sales customer care
Many people often overlook the customer care step, but this is an important step to help you build a loyal customer base and increase your chances of attracting potential customers. According to research, a loyal customer can recommend your product/service to three other people. So, don't ignore customer care after they buy and use your product. This is the final but extremely important step in the sales process.
Don't ignore customer care after they buy and use your business's products.
Difficulties in building a standard sales process
Businesses may encounter many difficulties when designing a standard sales process. Because each employee has a different sales method, leading to different approaches and sales process construction. Standardizing the sales process for the company will encounter many different opinions from members of the company.
In addition, there are many diagrams and theories surrounding the construction of a standard sales process. Choosing the theoretical basis that is suitable for the current business situation requires a lot of time and resources.
To increase the usability of the sales process, it is necessary to integrate complex customer behavior and analytics. This makes building and maintaining a sales process map even more difficult, specifically:
- Customer behavior and needs change constantly.
- The emergence of new marketing channels.
- New technologies can be used to standardize and optimize the sales process.
Replies to This Discussion