Beyond the CRM: 3 Reasons You Need an Effective Sales Process

If you’re not selling, you’re not growing – it’s as simple as that. The how behind selling is a bit more challenging, though. In many industries, the market has changed significantly over the past couple of years, and many businesses are struggling to keep up.

As your business grows, you’ll find that it becomes more challenging to keep up with your sales. Where once you could keep things running smoothly with a spreadsheet or simple CRM setup, you’re now finding you need a comprehensive yet streamlined approach. You need a full sales process based on systems.

In addition, the market itself has changed significantly over the past 3-5 years. A few years ago, outbound sales with little personal involvement worked well; now, most people expect a fairly personalized process. This requires a different approach, but it’s achievable with the right systems.

What Is a Sales Process?

Essentially, a Sales Process is a combination of systems that allow you to meet the needs of your prospective clients from first contact through onboarding.

Your Sales Process is essentially a map that leads your Sales Team through the process of turning prospects into clients. This set of systems allows your Sales Team to understand where your prospect is at and what they’re looking for at each stage of the journey to make it easier for your prospect to buy from you.

This process reduces friction points for your prospects, but it also streamlines a lot of things for your Sales Team. With the right systems, your team can quickly assess a prospect’s needs and understand how to address them.

Inbound vs. Outbound Sales

Today, having a Sales Process based on strong systems is more important than ever. With more and more businesses going online and providing marketing material designed to educate their audience and build community, expectations of buyers have changed.

There are three basic stages a buyer moves through when deciding to purchase a product or service:

• Awareness – learning about a company and what it offers
• Consideration – considering the options regarding which company to purchase from and which service or product to buy
• Decision – making the final decision and completing the purchase

Even just a few years ago, people entered the sales journey through a cold contact – a phone call, email, or DM. They expected to receive a scripted pitch and move through a scripted process when they decided to buy. They knew very little about the company at the point of contact and went off of advertising or word of mouth when deciding to schedule a sales call. If the pitch sounded good to them, they purchased.

Things have changed over the past few years. Today, most people feel a pain point and quickly turn to the internet and their network in search of answers. They research a number of companies and what they offer before deciding to contact anyone.

They move themselves through the “Awareness” phase and contact a company once they’re at least somewhat convinced they want to purchase. Instead of a scripted hard sell, they are looking for a trusted advisor who will take the time to understand their needs, answer their questions, and help them find the unique solutions they’re looking for.

This takes time – and as volume picks up, your team will need streamline systems to be able to offer that level of service.

What Buyers Are Looking For

Gone are the days of “build it and they will come.” Buyers today have a lot of ways to research you, your company, and your product or service before they even contact you. Your Marketing Team will handle your messaging, educating your prospective clients and helping to precondition them to want to buy from you. (This is why it’s so important to have communication between the two teams!)

Because of this, buyers are often already in the Consideration phase when they contact you. They don’t want a scripted pitch; they want confirmation that they’re purchasing from the right company. They want to speak with someone who knows your products well enough to help them make the right choices – someone who has their best interests in mind and can answer their questions.

Streamlining the Sales Process

This is where strong systems come in. By systematizing your Sales Process, you can weed out potential human error (i.e., missed opportunities) and free your Sales Team up to handle the needs of your prospects.

These systems cover everything from the Pre-Conditioning and Pre-Qualifying processes to timing your follow ups and ensuring that the client onboarding process runs smoothly. In turn, they equip your Sales Team to increase conversions and help you grow your company!

If you’re interested in getting the right Sales Process and Systems built in your company, we have a package that will help you fast track the build! (And if you have any questions, let us know – our Sales Team is happy to talk with you about your needs and help you find the right solution!)

Putting the right processes and systems in place is what will allow you to grow in a sustainable way – and what will let you live the life you want to live instead of being tied to your business 24/7. If we can help you do that, please let us know!