By Pete Brown
If your organization is on track to meet your sales plan, your new business pipeline is full of qualified prospects, and you aren’t waiting on answers to bids and proposals… then you don’t need to read any further. However, if your business situation is less optimistic, it’s probably time to examine your sales process.
When asked to define their current sales process, most executives struggle. Why? Because organizations without an effective process fail to think of their selling efforts as a process. Or, if they do have a process, many companies are not optimizing the system due to a lack of reinforcement.
Answer these questions:
• Is your sales cycle longer than you’d like?
• Is forecasting a guessing game?
• Are prospects demanding – and getting – costly price concessions?
• Do you lack a common language and methodology by which to manage your sales team?
• Are you producing costly proposals that seem to never close?
• Do you hire salespeople that don’t work out?
• If you answered “YES” to any of the above, you would benefit from a more effective, efficient, systematic sales process.
Let’s clarify a few definitions. A selling “system” is the process by which you develop an opportunity from start to finish, whether that finish is closing the sale or closing the file. An “effective” system is one that enables you to consistently achieve a desired outcome or set of outcomes. An “efficient” system is one that allows you to achieve those outcomes without wasting resources.
So, how does your current sales process compare in definition? Rather than make you feel uncomfortable about your lack of an effective, efficient process, Iet’s talk about what a good selling system can do for you and your organization.
An effective selling system can reward you with these benefits:
1. You maintain control over the sales process if you use a system that defines specific behaviors and actions.
2. You save time if you use a system that enables you to qualify or disqualify an opportunity early in the process.
3. You can stay on track if a system facilitates an understanding with the prospect about exactly what will happen and when.
4. A selling system enables you to recognize problems before they become major roadblocks.
5. A good system allows you to focus your energy on your prospect rather than worry about what is going to happen next.
6. When a system has specific action steps – what to do and in what order - you can recognize and duplicate successful behaviors and eliminate unsuccessful behaviors.
7. When your team uses a system that has action steps described in specific terms, you can more easily strategize and debrief sales calls.
As a Superstar Instructor to the PDCA, my experience tells me a disciplined, formal sales approach is lacking in our industries. Yes, many organizations have used processes like Miller-Heiman, Huthwaithe, and IMPACT, but what differentiates successful companies is the reinforcement of learned behaviors.
I train people using the Sandler Trainingsm system, the leading provider of on-going reinforcement training. If your selling system is not meeting your needs, find one that will. But, when evaluating your present system, make sure your organization takes a look in the mirror. Too often, I find business leaders who are reluctant to admit they “bought” a sales process, but failed to fully incorporate it, use it, and live it.
What might a failed training investment look like? Do you have a CRM that isn’t meeting the goals you expected for the dollars invested? Or, has your team been motivated by a training session and then quickly fallen back to old habits because your managers were so busy they couldn’t coach and follow up? Or, are you saying “training…. what training?” You get the point.
As you evaluate and investigate sales processes, I suggest you talk to industry leaders to learn what selling system they advocate. Or, contact your local Sandler Trainingsm office for an assessment to determine if your company is a fit with our approach. Whatever avenue you choose, I urge you to act! Every day you continue to operate without an effective selling system is a day lost to the “pains” listed above.
Good selling and managing!