Before starting my first job in sales, a mentor gave me one of the most valuable pieces of advice I’ve ever received: “Follow a process. I don’t care what the process is, just get one and follow it.” His point was that following a process is more important than having a perfect one; however, over the past 30 years, I’ve obsessed about designing the most optimal process salespeople can follow…and I think I’m pretty close.
A great sales process isn’t just about closing opportunities; it is about creating a repeatable framework of activity that builds a perception of expertise, grows a pipeline, and drives long-term relationships based on competence. Here are my five stages of the optimal sales process for selling to end-user accounts – note that after the second stage, this process is an ongoing cycle that gets repeated with many clients:
1. Plan.
Before picking up the phone or sending an email, you need a plan. Who are your target customers? What industries are you focusing on? Who are your primary current customers, and what’s your cadence of working with them? How many prospective customers can you pursue? How many outbound calls per week? What day and time will you prospect during the week? How about customer relationship calls? All of these things and more need to be laid out and modified regularly.
2. Prospect.
Prospecting isn’t just about generating leads; it is about becoming perceived as a subject matter expert and getting invited into opportunities with new and targeted prospects – before the shopping for price begins. Prospecting is a methodical process of getting in the door of accounts with whom you are not currently doing business.
3. Impress.
In short, the goal of this stage is to impress your prospect to a point where they can’t imagine not working with you. Look at the process within the process: How do you prepare for a discovery call? How do you start the call or meeting? What questions do you ask? Do you have a basic but customizable presentation template? What are typical outcomes and action items?
4. Winning.
This is where you win the business…repeatedly. But winning isn’t just about signing a contract; it is about setting the stage for a successful partnership. This means being crystal clear about what happens next and setting a follow-up plan after presenting the proposal, including timeline, responsibilities, and how success will be measured. The more transparency, the smoother the implementation.
5. Nurture.
Most of a salesperson’s time will focus on nurturing relationships with current customers. The first step is to understand the top 20% of your customers that make up 80% of your business, and focus on proactive work with them. Continue to be professional and responsive to all customers and keep them satisfied, but proactively make your top-tier clients not only satisfied, but also successful. Bottom of Form
