Imagine a car factory with a well-designed assembly line. Each worker has a specific task, and the process flows smoothly from station to station. Cars are produced efficiently and with high quality.

Now, imagine a chaotic workshop where tools are scattered, workers are confused about their tasks, and materials are disorganized. Production is slow and inefficient, and the quality of the products is inconsistent.

Much like what happens in a factory, a sales process needs to be well-organized and fine-tuned over time to function correctly and produce value for the company.

A well-organized assembly line produces high-quality products. Similarly, a well-oiled sales process leads to higher-quality customer interactions and consequently, more sales and revenue. Your goal should be to create a well-designed process for your sales team, leading to increased efficiency, improved quality, and higher conversion rates.

What is a sales process?

Let’s start with the basics: a sales process is a series of possible actions and guidelines that a sales team follows to move potential customers from initial contact to a closed sale. It outlines the activities involved in qualifying leads, building relationships, addressing objections, and closing deals, and provides sales people with support materials and advice to respond to customer expectations and needs along the way.

What are some of the most common sales process mistakes?

If you find that opportunities are slipping through the cracks, you may have an unstructured or unnecessarily complex sales process. Here are some of the most common mistakes we’ve identified in our sales process improvement work:

Lack of preparation. When sales people don’t have the support, resources, or time to do proper client research, they can lose the prospect from the first interaction. 

Talking too much! The common perception that sales people are naturally gregarious and can “talk a fish into buying a bicycle” is just wrong. The best salespeople are accomplished listeners. 

Lack of personalization. It’s hard to get excited about companies that send generic pitches, newsletters the prospect is not interested in, or communications that fail to address their pain points and needs.

Chasing after the wrong customer. As Andrea Hill (CEO and Founder of the WeRX Brands) says, “You don’t need all the customers. You just need the right customers.” Too many sales organizations waste time and resources on low quality prospects, which leads to low close rates and sales rep fatigue. 

Focusing on price. If your salespeople are leading with price instead of value, that just diminishes the worth of what you have to offer.

So let’s take a look at some simple ways to avoid these mistakes and improve your sales process.

What are the steps to take when improving your sales process?

Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

A good sales process starts with a clear definition of your ideal client. The ICP is usually created using  firmographic, technographic, and demographic insights.  For example:

• Are you targeting firms with less than 10 employees or more than 25? 
• Does your ideal customer have a sophisticated business structure, or do they tend to be mom & pop organizations? 
• Does your ideal customer embrace technology or avoid it?
• Does your ideal customer regularly invest in their company or product offering at the price of investment necessary to work with you?

Understanding which prospects are most likely to value what you offer and the price at which you offer it is the first step to ending up with the right customers! The ICP becomes your sales and marketing teams’ guide to whether or not you should target a specific account. Many companies create ICP maps and tiers to guide their sales and marketing tactics. Your ICP will help you do a better job of focusing on the accounts that are potentially of the greatest value to your business.

Analyze your current sales process

If you don’t have a customer journey map, start there. The customer journey map helps you identify the stages of your sales process from the customer’s perspective. If you compare your current sales process to the customer journey, you are likely to see gaps and opportunities where your prospects need something from you. That something could be answers to questions, information about ROI, guidance about how to work with you, or how your offering compares to your competitors. One of the most important characteristics of an excellent sales process is anticipating what customers need at each stage of the buying process, and ensuring your sales people have the answers to those needs at their fingertips.

In addition to matching your sales process to the customer journey, you must also make some internal decisions. For example, you should be clear about your definitions of “lead.” That’s right … A lead is not just a lead! How do you decide which leads fit your ideal customer profile, and are therefore qualified to remain in your marketing efforts? Do you differentiate between leads that are qualified to market to but not yet qualified to sell to? What determines the point at which a lead crosses over from marketing qualified lead (MQL) to sales qualified lead (SQL)?  Sales mapping helps you both visualize the entire sales journey and focus on the right customers at the right times.

Then, gather data on key metrics such as conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, and customer satisfaction. This information will help you identify bottlenecks where leads may be getting stuck or where sales reps are experiencing challenges. Finally, ask feedback from sales representatives, customers, and other stakeholders to gain insights and identify areas for improvement. This can be done through surveys, interviews, or focus groups.

When you customize your marketing and sales efforts to the right customers, and provide them what they need at each stage of their buying cycle, you will increase the number of prospects that get all the way to conversion.

Measure, Measure, Measure!

If you don’t know what success looks like, you won’t achieve it. So as with any significant business initiative, you should start with clarity about your goals. Are you looking for increased revenue, and if so, how much? Are you trying to improve conversion rates? Do you need to improve post-sale customer satisfaction? Are you trying to shorten your sales cycles and increase cash flow?  

Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to guide your efforts and measure if the actions you're taking to change your sales workflow are producing the desired improvements.

Train your sales team

Equip your sales team with the skills and knowledge they need to effectively engage with prospects and close deals. Provide sales tools, like playbooks, product demos, and case studies to support their conversations with customers. Encourage your sales reps to listen attentively and support them in developing strategies to overcome common objections and address customer concerns.

Leverage Technology

There are several sales enablement tools out there that can make your sales team life easier and your customers happier. A CRM system is a good place to start. A customer relationship management system with a sales component can help you manage customer data, track interactions, and automate tasks, while delivering a personalized experience to your audience.

Measure and Analyze Results

Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, and customer satisfaction, and use this data to identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes. Continuously improve your sales process and make ongoing adjustments based on your goals.

Much like a well-designed assembly line, by improving your sales process and removing friction for your buyers  you will be on your way to improving your sales performance, creating continuous, sustainable growth for your business.