If slow sales are keeping you up at night, it’s time to re-think your process.

As the economy slowly begins to turn around, companies are gearing up for growth. Forward-thinking organizations have prepared by instituting client-focused sales processes that integrate best practices and real-time Web 2.0 technologies to accelerate new sales. Has your company done the same?

The migration from a traditional, seller-focused sales approach to a more client-centric, consultative process is nothing new. What’s missing for many organizations is a disciplined, measurable and consistent sales process that leverages best practices and social media to drive results.

Reality check: Is your process truly a process?
As I work with clients across the nation, I am repeatedly surprised by the number of companies—both small and large—that lack a defined and documented sales process. Although many clients claim to have a process in place, it often consists of procedure sheets and flow charts, or is completely outdated. The lack of a systematic, measurable and well-managed sales process results in disparate methodologies, inconsistent messaging and unpredictable performance across the company. It’s a costly, slow and ineffective way to develop business.

On the other hand, a systematic sales process streamlines, enhances and standardizes business development activities that drive revenue growth. It is aligned with the client’s buying cycle, focuses on the client’s needs and goals, and integrates best practices, technology and tools throughout. Most importantly, a well-crafted process arms your sales team with the knowledge, resources and leading-edge practices needed to capture and grow sales.

Process optimization takes time, discipline and management commitment
Implementing a new or revamped sales process doesn’t happen overnight. It requires thoughtful planning, collaboration and analysis. It begins with an examination of current selling capabilities:

• Is your selling approach aligned with how your customers buy?
• Does your sales team have the knowledge and tools to prove your unique value to the customer and clearly differentiate you from the competition?
• What are the best practices within each sales team?
• Do you have baseline metrics (e.g. average sales cycle duration) that allow you to gauge the effectiveness of the process?

Once you’ve done your homework, the real work begins. The best approach for bringing process discipline to your sales organization is to:

• Determine if you develop the process internally, purchase and customize an off-the-shelf sales process, or develop your own with the assistance of a sales process expert
• Identify an executive sponsor to support and drive the efforts to affect companywide change
• Create a cross-company advisory team to provide input and ensure process validity
• Build buy-in from the entire sales team by eliciting best practices, tools and techniques
• Conduct a comprehensive, objective assessment of how your customers buy so that your process aligns with the way they prefer to be sold to
• Incorporate Web 2.0 tools to simplify research, lead generation and relationship building
• Establish measurements and key performance indicators to determine what’s working
• Routinely evaluate the process and make adjustments so it stays relevant

Integration of Web 2.0 tools and techniques is a must
Gone are the days when cold calling and pounding the pavement were the sales tools of choice. Today’s savvy buyers have raised the bar. They have no desire to speak with you unless you’re able to see the business through their eyes and understand what is important to them. So how do you gain that knowledge?

Strategic sales organizations are using market intelligence and leveraging personal and professional networks to replace high-volume prospecting activities with high-value prospecting activities. They’ve done this by integrating a variety of Web 2.0 tools and techniques—InsideView, Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Spoke, Jigsaw and netprospects, to name a few—into their sales processes. These tools enable them to:

• Narrow their prospects to high potential clients that meet their demographics
• Determine the right person at the right level to contact
• Gain market intelligence that helps pre-qualify prospects and conduct sales calls that speak directly to the customer’s challenges or goals
• Leverage personal connections to turn cold calls into warm calls
• Identify compelling events that trigger business opportunities

You can’t manage what you don’t measure
The biggest challenge with adopting a new sales process is getting everyone to follow it. Sales management must continuously reinforce the process, hold salespeople accountable, and monitor and measure performance against benchmarks to ensure the process is working.
In order to provide this oversight, there must be an automated means for capturing, managing and sharing vital customer information. 

On-boarding: The oft-overlooked step
Another mistake I’ve seen clients repeatedly make is not integrating the new sales process into their sales onboarding process. Reviewing the sales process and practicing critical sales skills with new employees not only accelerates their assimilation into the organization — it jump starts their success.

A high-value endeavor
At its core, sales process optimization is about developing and institutionalizing a methodology that aligns sales strategies with company business objectives and customer needs. When this process is managed, monitored and continuously improved, your organization will reap measurable results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs and sustained competitive advantage.

So tell me, what is your company doing to optimize its sales process? Do you have any best practices worth sharing?

Kathy Dooley
Marketing Director
ClearEdge Marketing

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 4:52 am and is filed under Sales Best Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.