Our sales engagements begin with the discovery and identification of one’s key business objectives and ends seven steps later at the Manage and Adjust process. In the sales team training exercises, we find that few sales reps can truly articulate the unique value of their company or products. This deficiency is significant and wide spread and is a key reason why sales reps have such difficulty in communicating value when prospecting or asking for an introductory appointment.
Net New Business
Because of this, sales reps work the easier path and thus live in their current accounts and lease renewal base. It’s a key reason why many companies within our industry don’t enjoy “net new client” business revenue. Sales reps who don’t have current accounts represent that portion of your sales team caught in the revolving door and typically don’t make it. Understanding this problem is so important because without the proper fix, your company is on decline. Most sales organizations I review don’t win every renewal opportunity. So, if you have some renewals you don’t win and your “net new” engine is broken, your business could be on a slow death march or shrinking, at least.
The fact is you just don’t win them all, which automatically demands that NET NEW BUSINESS REVENUE must be a priority. One might think that just training your sales reps to recite and memorize your value proposition will fix this problem, but it won’t. This problem is deeper than just applying a value proposition, although that’s a great start. To fix this problem you must develop and drive a sales process that supports your market strategy, one that’s sponsored from the top and one that everyone clearly understands through the lowest level.
Sales Process
The sales process doesn’t start at the execution stage where you do a rah-rah sales meeting and yell, “Hit the phones and dial!” It really starts back at the Value Proposition and Target Sweet Spot stage. For consideration of this article’s focus on sales processes, let’s just assume the value proposition is set and the target identified. Then the hardest work begins. Just like at the gym, you’re going to have to exercise your muscles to be fit, meaning your sales leaders will have to drive expert and comfortable presentation conversations with their sales teams until they have it down. This is KEY for success in what they’re about to do, which is prospect for net new business, and once they’ve set an appointment there’s nothing like blowing that appointment with worthless babble in the first five minutes. My observations support that if your sales team’s comfort level is evident to the prospect and they’re speaking at a high interest/high value level, it has the best possible chance in advancing opportunity while matching your benefits to the prospect’s needs and concerns.
No one is exempt from this workout; everyone must prepare for the push for new business. Even the sales reps that are always nailing quota have to participate. Here’s another thing; your sales leaders should be masters of your presentation and should be able to deliver that presentation best of all. Please pay attention to these next few lines! In almost every boot camp a sales leader or sales rep stands up and asks, “How can we create or show some sort of differentiation?” And when I ask them to share with me how they execute a first call and presentation with a prospect, they share that they walk in and start babbling about their company or technology and give it their best shot and then hand out a brochure! All I have to say is, “@!@#$%^&*^%$#@!” You scream for differentiation and you go in and hand out a brochure? Take your prospect to a different experience; ask for a conference room, present like a consultant and talk about how you and your company can create success in their business. Your first appointment presentation IS the beginning of your sales process.
Creating an effective sales process is more than mastering a presentation and entering notes into a CRM; it’s a series of learned and mandatory steps that completely defines the best possible path of activity your sales team should follow for pushing a sales opportunity to a deal. Defining this process should cover both sides of the relationship, meaning, you’ve defined what your sales reps should do, as well as you’ve prepared for the less than favorable things your target may do. Have the answers for the “what ifs!”
A great sales process is more than just a series of steps. It’s reviewing everything you know about the failure points of your deals and driving preventative activity and pre-objection handling communication into it.
If you note in this sales process illustration the best path and process is shown so that everyone clearly understands what to do. Some would say this is micromanaging and although I won’t argue that some sales reps may not need this type of guidance, it’s the sales leader who is ultimately responsible for KNOWING and REPORTING on his sales funnel what will really close. Only by defining these sales stages or phases can the sales leader present an intelligent picture to senior management as to what is closing, and how far out future business is.
Get this picture in your mind; a sales leader with just five or six sales reps, each driving five to ten opportunities in their funnel. That’s a minimum of 25 to 60 deals. Each deal is dynamically changing and pushing and pulling on time based on any one of a thousand reasons. How will they forecast this moving target without pushing each deal into a process of some kind?
I’m NOT TALKING ABOUT LEASE RENEWALS!! Our stats share that most dealers close approximately 90% of their lease renewals. Renewals aren’t the problem. I’m talking about a healthy sales funnel with a solid mix of net new opportunity blended with your renewal business.
So let’s look at the steps and attributes of the sales process in the illustration. Remember this is only an example. Services and hardware, especially with renewals, will have completely different sales processes and time lines, but, you should be able to identify them all.
- First appointment – Obviously you will have the opportunity to meet clients/prospects face to face and when that time comes, you must be ready. Best practice suggests that you do this in a presentation in their meeting room and it will not happen if you don’t train your team to set this up from the start. If the first appointment is rejected by the contact, plug them into your automated marketing process.(Time-line – two days max)
- Trial close. Across our industry I hear many sales leaders and owners talk about stalling or failed deals. This step is where you actually close for the first time. Assuming the contact showed interest and the timeline accepted, then this is where you get your NDA signed (trial close) and check credit. Once the NDA is signed then I suggest a Diagnostic Discovery so that you can assure yourself that this client meets the minimum standards for advancing your deal through the sales process. Make your Go/NO Go decision and communicate to your contact the news.
(Time-line – two to five days max)
- Assuming you are a “GO”, send your target an immediate email follow-up communication that includes a marketing piece that reminds them WHY they’re engaging this process and the possible values you’ll deliver. Set the second appointment (if not done on the first appointment).
(Time-line – two days max)
- Now you’re ready for the fleet assessment process, where you communicate with your contact and set up access to their facilities (we’ll discuss the best way to assess the environment in a later article). Remember some clients have security protocols so you have to address this now. Send your contact a sample email that they can use to communicate to their employees, sharing your assessment process so all will be ready. Send copies of your contract to their legal department (if necessary), so that they can review and identify any issues now vs. later.
(Time-line – 15-30 days max)
- Gathering costs, interviews, and mapping devices are done in many ways. The most important thing you should do while you are capturing the necessary information to build value is, COMMUNICATE! Many sales reps get buried in the assessment and forget to keep their sales hat on. The facts are when you leave them in the dark for long periods of time, you risk becoming a lower priority.Remember in every step of your sales process you should communicate two to three weeks in advance, always trying to expose ANY ONE who is disengaging. It’s always better to find out as early as possible so you don’t work your team to death for no reason. I suggest your proposal be delivered in a presentation form only; I don’t recommend you (like a copier) hand them a brochure and a proposal! Now before you tell me, “That doesn’t work,” I’ll tell you we successfully use this process everyday. We simply set it up in advance. This keeps them coming to you with any questions, so set up follow meetings to discuss any questions they may have. If you’re a paper proposal guy, you may not get this.
(Time-line – five days max)
- Once you’ve shared your findings, adjust your proposal and submit it for signatures. Remember as professionals your sales team should be expected to forecast accurately, so account for holidays, company events, vacations, etc. There is nothing like a blown forecast because you didn’t calculate holidays and I promise, no one will be mad if you bring in a deal sooner than your projected close date.
These steps are just examples and by no means am I saying they are the only possible steps within a sales process. I am saying that every step in an effective sales process should be your guide to lead your sales team to success. Each step should critique your target’s engagement level, resell your value and close, even if it’s just trial closes along the way.
I believe if you have 25 to 60 deals floating around without a sales process, you’re blind. EVEN IF YOU ARE CLOSING DEALS, without an effective sales process you’re not closing what you could close! We’ve helped sales organizations improve their sales forecast accuracy to above 70% simply by creating and driving a sales process that fits their deliverables. Build it and they will sell!
