Sales Process Management — An Ultimate Guide to Sales Success
Things get easier when we follow a well-defined process to do or achieve something. It provides a clear direction to function. When you first went to deposit money in a cash deposit machine, weren’t you wondering what do you need to do with this machine? However, as you inserted the card and followed a systematic process, your cash was successfully deposited.
All you did was followed few simple steps, and your work was done. It works in sales too but to succeed you need to manage this process smartly.
The core focus of a sales driven organization is apparently ‘Selling.’
Selling a product has various steps from approaching a prospect to successfully converting them into your customers. This process from contacting to transforming needs to be systematically managed to take the prospect successfully from the beginning stage to the closing stage.
“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing”-W. Edwards Deming
A sales process is a plan of action that involves the sales personnel, prospect and well-defined sales cycle intended to increase margin and make more sales. To understand how to manage the sales process, you need to define a sales process explicitly.
The sales process is divided into various stages that include lead generation, lead qualification, meeting, proposal, negotiation, and closing. You need to stringently manage this process to meet your sales quota and augment the revenue figure of your company.
For successful sales process management, you need to observe your sales rep performance, monitor each move of your deal and track the time taken to close the deal.
Below are few important points that need your attention while managing a sales process: -
Sales cycle length
The length of your sales cycle is an important metric that can affect your sales process. A long sales cycle indicates that something is wrong at some stage and if the issue is not resolved immediately, it will keep changing your deal’s velocity. For a smooth sales flow, you need to identify the blockage points in your pipeline. Analyze the amount of time a deal spends in your sales cycle. Create an average of each stage to evaluate the size of your sales cycle. This metric will not only be useful in closing a deal but also help when you create targets for a new rep. You can track the speed of the sales rep and know if their performance is up to the mark.
Data capture
Data is closely linked with your sales process, as you might need it at any point.
For example: Viewing the call logs or creating historical reports for sales management.
Sales reps need to be regular in capturing data as it is essential while creating sales strategies. However, capturing data can be very time-consuming, so it is better to embrace automated tools like CRM that not only automatically captures data but also systematically manages it. It spares sales rep from manual data entry and saves time to sell more.
Reason for prospect’s movement
Be a good observer and try to notice what causes a prospect to move from one stage to another. Their continuous movement shortens the sales cycle and augments the close ratio. So, define the reason for prospect’s action to have a clear idea of factors that are contributing to the progress of each deal. Doing this will be very helpful while tackling with new prospects and even improve your sales process.
The Past, Present, and Future of Sales
To successfully manage a sales process, you need to look at the past, present, and future of your sales. Looking ahead and anticipating the potential sales opportunities in future is necessary to plan the sales strategy. However, for forecasting, you need to evaluate the past closure rate of each stage. This historical closed deal data can be beneficial in predicting the future sales amount and setting current sales target.
“Set Goal | Make plan | get to work | Stick to it |Reach Goal” -Anonymous
Use Sales CRM For Better Sales Process Management
Using tools like Salesmate CRM for sales reps helps you streamline your sales process at one place. Salesmate CRM provides features like sales pipeline for better sales tracking, sales automation to avoid manual data entry, sales forecasting tools that lead you to close more deals faster. So, avoid doing manual data entry tasks and save more time for your business productivity.
The bottom line
Sales are complex; you might get entangled in the sales process. However, never lose hope, be focused and determined to keep the deals moving in the sales pipeline. Monitor each action of your prospect and sales rep to reach your sales goals quickly.
