What is a Sales Process?

A Sales Process is a set of repeatable steps that a Sales Professional utilizes to ensure a prospective client is not only engaged, but a willing and eager participant.

In fact, the best Sales Process is one that can be utilized at any part of the Sales Cycle to keep conversational goals in mind, ensure conversations stay on track, ensure all Decision Makers or Stakeholders are present, uncover their problems, and help you weed-out those that are not a fit for your solution or services.

Simply put, the Sales Process should be a journey for a prospective client. But, to the Sales Professional, the Sales Process serves as a roadmap.

Studies by TAS Group, Harvard Business Review have also found that companies that implement a sales process outperform companies that do not.

For example,

• The TAS Group, with reference to the Dealmaker Index Study, states that 70% of the companies that follow a structured process in sales are high performers; over 70% of business forecasts were accurate for the companies with a defined sales process.
• A study by Harvard Business Review (HBR) showed that businesses with a standardized sales process see up to a 28% increase in revenue as compared to those that do not.
• In another research paper, HBR reveals that 50% of high-performing sales organizations admit having “closely monitored, strictly enforced or automated” sales processes. Meanwhile, 48% of under-performing organizations have non-existent or informal sales processes.

What these numbers show is that three main sales parameters – revenue, performance, and forecasting accuracy – tend to go significantly up when a company adopts a standardized sale process.

Yet, according to the Objective Management Group, a whopping 68% of all salespeople do not follow a sales process at all!

So, it’s fair to say that more companies could do better at sales process management.