The sales process: How to build a profit

When selling any product or service, it’s vital to have a good game plan. The sales process is the blueprint for selling your product. It’s a high-level outline that summarizes all the steps involved in putting your creation out there, with goals and specific instructions to reach them. As you can imagine, this is a lengthy process, but it’s easy to undertake when you follow these four sales process steps:

1. Create a sales management plan

Starting with a mission statement and an executive outline of your objectives, a sales management plan is the blueprint for your sales efforts. Here you compile summaries of all the processes you need to run your sales project, including marketing plans, inventory and staffing requirements, and an action plan.

2. Put together your sales team

When you have a good idea of what your businesses practices will entail, you can begin to assemble your staff. Look at online job search marketplaces like Indeed.com or visit job fairs to find qualified candidates. Not only must you find rock star talent for your team, but you must train them in the intricacies of your product and the policies of your company.

3. Define sales projections and goals

Using your market research, you can calculate how much you expect to sell. This will come in handy when you need to order inventory and plan schedules. You can set goals once projections are in because you will have a wider view of what you can reasonably expect.

4. Measure your success

Once you have your projections and goals organized, you can define the metrics that lead to your success. With figures such as total sales and net profit, you can create accounting documents and measure how close your company got to its goals. If need be, you can adjust goals if they went unmet or were set too low.

The sales cycle: Quickly converting leads with a precise game plan

Similar to the sales process, the sales cycle is a strategically designed plan to help your sales team streamline their efforts and convert leads more effectively. You create a sales cycle using the information you garnered from previous experience and sales of your product, and it will evolve as your product and market environment changes.

Seven steps to better sales

When you are ready to move your product or service into the client’s hands, there are seven steps in the sales cycle to guide you:

1. Prospect for new clientsThe first step to initiating a sale is to discover your target market. You can compile lists of names to email and cold call, or you can go into your community to find your market. Get referrals from everyone you contact, and build your social media presence to increase your visibility in the market.
2. Reach out to your clientsOnce you have a list of numbers, set your team into action, calling them systematically. If you’re going to use a script, now is the time so you can streamline the process. Typically, cold calls convert to sales 2% of the time and are among the most common ways to find new clients, so make sure to schedule cold call days for all sales reps.
3. QualifyYour first qualifying factor is need—making sure the product fits into your customer’s life. No matter how excited a potential buyer is to find your product, you won’t be making any sales if they don’t have the household authority or funds to buy your goods.
4. Pitch your product Educate your client on the finer details of your product, making sure to focus on the points that will add value to your particular customer. Research shows that consumers have an attention span of about eight seconds, so keep your pitch short and sweet.
5. Handle objectionsEven when you have an amazing product that checks all the boxes, the typical customer wants to be absolutely certain of their purchase and will have many reasons to turn down a sale. Handling objections is an everyday part of sales work, so approach a “no” with confidence and back it up with facts. Determine why a person is rejecting the sale and adjust your strategy appropriately.
6. Close the deal A successful sales call will usually end in a sale or a commitment to buy into a service. Assuming the sale near the end of a conversation is a great way to initiate the closing of a deal, simply by using the power of suggestion to encourage a customer to make a purchase.
7. Follow up contact If you didn’t make a sale in your first contact, don’t worry because it takes an average of seven contacts to close a deal. Make sure to follow up in a timely but not too-fast manner—about 48 hours, though this can vary depending on your industry.Add value to the sale with every contact, such as relaying new research that affects the customer or offering incentives to buy.

Making a sales pitch

A sales pitch is a carefully constructed plan that involves educating a consumer about your product or service and encouraging them to make a purchase from you. When pitching a product, you want customers to understand why they need your goods and trust that you’re the expert on the subject. There are a few ways to deliver sales pitches, such as cold calls or when engaging with people while giving out free samples at events. You can craft your sales pitch to engage a new customer for any given situation.

First, make sure to thoroughly research your product’s competition and the specific value it would bring your customer so you can base your pitch based on facts and needs you can fill. Secondly, find a potential client and verify they’re the person in their household who will be making the purchase. Keep a toolbox of responses available for when you run into the inevitable objections, and always know the answer to any question they might have.

Effective salespeople, even the most experienced professionals, know how to control the flow of their conversations with customers and often follow a script. You can do some online research to find a company that focuses on writing scripts, or you can create a winning sales script yourself by following some basic sales script guidelines.

• Introduce yourself and your objectives, and begin to develop a rapport with the customer. Ways to establish a connection include showing your authentic personality and practicing active listening. Mirror a client’s visible demeanor and tone, and make sure not to rattle off too many facts or details because that can bore and overwhelm a person.
• Show your goods alongside any research you have about how it will benefit the customer. When you do adequate research into the needs of your target market, you can speak directly to the ways your product fills those needs better than the competitors.
• Use a positioning statement that shows your services align with their needs, such as mentioning the typical clients you work with and how they’re similar. This is a good time to tell your story, whether it’s a personal and inspiring tale about the service or goods you’re offering or a testimonial of another client. A good story can be key to connecting with your client and grabbing their interest.
• At the end of your conversation, invite the client to share their thoughts and discuss pricing as needed. Closing statements should include a call to action requesting the customer to make a commitment and an invitation to follow up. Once you’ve finished a conversation with a customer, make sure to follow up and maintain contact to secure this and future sales.
• Always initiate a follow-up conversation if the client doesn’t contact you in a short window of time. The length of time before following up depends on your target market, but two days after your first touch is a common practice. When a client tells you their communication preferences, take note. You don’t want to call someone who has indicated they prefer text or email communications. Follow-up conversations should include a check-in with the client and an invitation to make a second purchase if it applies. Add value with each contact and avoid unnecessary communication, as that can annoy a customer.

Keep your team on track

Keep your reps well-versed on the ins and outs of your sales cycle plan, particularly any sales scripts that you’ve discovered work well to convert leads. Following proven methods that work consistently is the key to success when you have a large team of representatives working in unison to sell your product.

Scheduling activities is critical to the success of any large endeavor such as a sales project. Determining how much of any particular activity must be completed to reach sales goals is part of the sales cycle and the sales process, so schedule those activities appropriately. Scheduled activities for sales cycles include:

• Cold calls, emails and finding outreach opportunities should be scheduled to guarantee the leads keep coming in.
• A follow-up schedule is helpful when there are many clients to manage, and you can track adherence to the requirements set by a schedule to measure performance for employee reviews.
• Schedule regular team meetings to compare sales, discuss company news and exchange ideas.

You can make metric tracking much easier when sales representatives have common goals and a scheduled time of completion, such as placing cold calls on a Monday. Employees may even be encouraged by a little friendly competition. For example, you can track the calls placed and leads converted and discuss your findings at the weekly team meeting.

Using the combined power of a well-thought-out sales process plan and adhering to it, combined with consistent practices, can make your company’s success skyrocket. As your company grows, your needs will change, so don’t be afraid to adjust your sales process and the details of your sales cycle.

Sales Process vs. Sales Cycle FAQ

What factors contribute to the length of a sales cycle?

Various factors, including the length of time it takes before customers make new purchases, your sales representative turnover rate and the cost of your product, have an effect on the sales cycle.

How much time should my sales process encompass?

It’s wise to think ahead, and you can have multiple plans for short- and long-term goals. Not only does this help streamline your focus, but creating goals over a 2-5 year period provides the opportunity to plan relationships with customers, thereby increasing your market value.