In order to keep your business development humming along you must have a solid sales process in place. A good sales process is not complicated. Rather simplicity is key here. I call this the Sales Path. It comprises all activity that fills the sales funnel (marketing, lead generation etc) through to winning and delivering the sale. In this post I’m going to explore the three secrets of a Killer Sales Process.
- Development
- Qualification
- Pursuit
Secret 1: Development
The first stage includes a cycle of activities around the development of relationships within your target customer base. Your Tactical Action Plan or CRM will direct this activity. Particularly around who to reach out to and at which cadence. Coffee meetings, networking events and feedback phone calls all play a part. As do your other marketing efforts generating and developing leads.
The secret here is consistency. You must be in regular contact with both your existing and future customers. Let them know what you are doing. Ask them about their problems, listen to their answers and work out how to serve them best. This needs to be done again and again. You can’t stop. Ever.
If you don’t get consistent on the development stage customers wont remember to ask you to solve their problems.
Secret 2: Qualification
During the continual cycle of the development stage leads will show interest in your offering. However, Not all leads are created equal. This is where the qualification comes in. Having an efficient way to determine whether a lead can be considered worthy of pursuit is crucial. This focuses your effort is spent on real opportunities with potential to yield revenue.
The secret here is consistency! Having a strict set of qualification rules and following them for every lead is essential. If you don’t have consistency here you might as well chase every shiny opportunity that crosses your desk. You’ll be busy. But, you won’t make money.
Secret 3: Pursuit
The third stage, pursuit, contains the series of actions to follow once you have qualified a lead. Each action is designed to engage with the customer, learn what they really need, and respond appropriately.
The secret here is . . . you guessed it: CONSISTENCY! Each opportunity that travels down the sale path must be treated the same way. By having the discipline to follow the process you will give each opportunity the highest chance of success.
One More Secret: Consistency is Key
One point to bear in mind is that the sales process for your business should be the same regardless of the sales cycle time. Long and short sales cycles, should be following the same process. This ensures consistency in the way customers are treated. Consistency in qualifying which leads to pursue further, and consistency in pursuing opportunities. This all funnels into spending your time on activities that have the strongest chance of bringing revenue into your business.
Final Words
I realise that this post provides a broad overview of the killer sales path. I really want to put it into context for you before doing a deeper dive into each of the three sections. Later posts will lead you through each process and give you the tools to implement these in your own business.
My new book Business Development Begins Here has more on the Systematic Sales Path and puts it into the wider business development context. Check it out here.
As always I’m keen to hear your stories. Touch base and let me know how you’ve had success using a systematic sales path.