What is a Sales Process?

A sales process defines the steps that need to be followed by the sales team to sell a product or service.

Few key terms in a sales process

Lead

A lead is a potential customer or a client who may or may not be interested in your product or service.

Customer or Contact

A customer is someone who has done business with you. The difference between a contact and a lead is that a lead is a potential client, but contact is typically a current one.

Deal or Opportunity

A deal or opportunity is a certified possibility that has a high likelihood of turning a prospect into a client.

Organization

A corporation, institution, or organization with whom you do business.

Sales Stages

Sales stages denote a customer’s journey from a lead to a paying customer.

Sales Life Cycle

The sales cycle refers to the steps that a company takes to sell a product to a consumer. It includes all actions related to the sale's closure.

Sales process steps

Establishing a sales process benefits every company that offers a product or service. It is effectively a blueprint that streamlines the sales process in your company. It allows you to close more deals in your sales pipeline and assists your team members in meeting their sales goals faster.

Below are the most common sales steps that a sales team follows:

1) Prospecting

The process of identifying and qualifying potential buyers is called Prospecting. With prospecting, you identify leads, establish if a prospective buyer has a need or desire that the firm can meet, and whether the potential client can afford the goods.

2) Preparation

It entails being ready for your first interaction with a potential consumer. You'll need to gather and analyze essential data such as product descriptions, pricing, and competition information. You'll also have to work on your initial sales pitch.

3) Approach

When a sales associate meets with a customer for the first time and discovers what the consumer wants and needs. It also involves gathering data that will help in persuading the customer to commit.

4) Presentation

Understanding a client's requirements and making presentations are an integral parts of a sales process. It involves carefully responding to a prospective customer's requirements and desires and exhibiting how your product or services can match those desires.

5) Handling objections

It is a crucial step in the process. Objections help sales teams to focus their attention on dealing with a client's worries. Professional sales associates understand how to overcome objections by planning ahead of time and having the necessary facts on hand.

6) Closing

It entails determining the prospect's closing signals, which indicate when it's time to make a choice and signing agreements. It is normally referred to as ‘Closing a Deal’. In this step, the customer agrees with a sales team to buy products or services under certain conditions like price, delivery dates, after-sale services, etc.

7) Follow-up

A sales does not always end with the closing of a deal. To establish a long-term relationship with a client and to increase customer loyalty, regular follow-up meetings are required. For instance, you may call the consumer after delivery to ensure that the goods were received and are in excellent working order. Again, the goal is not to sell at this point but to build a connection for future sales.

Why do you need a sales process?

In sales, we must consider all options available to convert a prospect into a paying customer, which is not simple. To understand a customer’s needs and make a sale, you need to interact with them regularly, know their likes and dislikes, and sell your products or services at the right price. If they are already your customers, you need to nurture the relationship with follow-ups and update them about new services or goods. It can all become overwhelming and hectic.

A sales process gives your efforts more structure resulting in a greater success rate and shorter sales cycles.

Your sales team follows a series of consistent actions to turn a prospect into a customer. A well thought out sales process:

  • Enhances your sales strategies.
  • Effectively screens out low-potential leads and finds prospects who are most willing to buy your goods.
  • Makes training sales representatives fast, straightforward, and practically flawless.

How to measure and improve sales?

It is essential to measure and analyze the sales team's performance and progress in order for them to generate growth.

The efficiency of a sales process is the measure of speed with which a sales team completes it tasks. However, speed isn't everything when it comes to sales efficiency. It's also about ensuring that sales effort are appropriate — that is, following the firm's corporate performance targets or sales goals.

Setting sales team goals

It is best accomplished by including your team in the process. As a result, your targets will be more attainable, and your team will be more energized and invested in achieving them.

Using dashboards pipeline management

Creating a visual dashboard that reflects each stage of the pipeline and the current status of tasks helps you manage and monitor resource allocation and the sales process better.

Regular meetings with the team

Weekly sales catch-up sessions can be used to examine any new or recurring concerns. You may provide debugging solutions to the group, and each person can contribute any alternatives or solutions they have discovered.

Performance metrics

Short-term task completion and long-term performance are both emphasized by measuring performance metrics.

Choose Vtiger for building a successful sales process

With the help of Vtiger Sales CRM, the sales team can streamline day-to-day operations and standardized sales process, give structure and accountability to sales activities, resulting in higher profitability and sales.

Try Vtiger Sales CRM to Improve the Sales Process

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