Minimizing Risk in your 2015 Sales Process

www.pipelinersales.com

Sales Process Webinar

Overview:

This webinar will cover:

How to optimize your sales process & minimize risk in 2015

How to make your sales process buyer-focused

How to more effectively manage your sales process



best-in-class companies were far more

likely than were their industry average or

laggard counterparts to, in fact, have a

formal, well communicated, and broadly

adopted sales process. And more than

half of them had specific activities, steps,

and tools to help reinforce the value as

part of that sales process.

ZS Associates "Value-Based Selling: Building a Best-in-Class

Capability for Sales Effectiveness" study.

Why is a Sales Process Important?



High performing sales organizations are more likely to:

Guide salesperson activity with formal sales processes

Ensure salespeople understand the sales processes they

implement

Provide salespeople with adequate training in sales processes

Routinely assess the effectiveness of sales process




Poll Question 1 Results



We Already Have a Sales Process…

“57% of the purchase decision is complete before a customer even calls a

supplier.”

“67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally.”

Buyer behavior is changing – has your sales process

changed with it?



Align With Your Buyer’s Buying Process

Your selling process should reflect how

your buyer wants to buy

Otherwise you are misaligned

You are communicating that you do not

understand them

Your are wasting valuable time, money &

resources

You are likely providing a contrast with a

vendor who does understand their process



Action Items:

4. Select a cross-section of your existing customers (small,

medium, large)

5. Interview the them, ask them whether their buying process or

habits have changed

6. Reach out to some of the late stage prospects you lost

6. Interview the them, ask them directly about how well your

selling process was aligned with their buying process

1. Select 3 or 4 of your recent successful sales

1. Review how the sales unfolded, looking particularly at how, when & who

from the customer engaged with you

1. Interview the new customers, ask them to walk you through their buying

process



Poll Question 2 Results:



What’s Next?:

Sales Leadership Marketing Leadership

Review data & begin process of defining/revalidating sales process



What are the components of an effective sales process?

Effective Sales

Process

Clearly Defined Stages

Buyer Validated Actions

Target Advances

Value-add Resources



Clearly Defined Stages:

A stage should denote significant progress

in a sales cycle

Make sure significant progress is defined

by the buyers journey

Or can lead to having too many stages which becomes unwieldy, hard to

manage and loses its power

Ideal number of stages is between 4 & 6 depending on the complexity of the

buyer’s journey

Marginal or ill-defined progress leads to stages being interpreted differently by

different sales people



Clearly Defined Stages:

Marginal or ill-defined progress leads to stages being interpreted differently by

different sales people

Sample 6 Step Process



Buyer Validated Actions:

There is a big difference between interpreting &

validating

Example: Salesperson has interpreted that budget

will be made available vs. buyer stating that

budget has been made available

Insisting on Buyer-Validated Actions in your sales process is the antidote to

“Happy Ears Syndrome”



Buyer Validated Actions:

Stage One: Qualify Points

Spoken live with Prospect (Meaning: I have actually spoken live with the prospect) 2

Email contact (Meaning: I have had direct email contact with the prospect) 2

Confirmed interest in software(Meaning: The prospect has informed me why they are interested in our software or software like it)

2

Signed-up for Trial (Meaning: I have confirmed with the prospect that they have signed-up for a trial or I have persuaded them to sign-up for a trial and confirmed that they have)

2

Minimum points required to complete stage 6

“What gets measured, gets managed”



Target Advances:

Advances vs. Continuations

Build Suggested Advances into the Process:

1. Prospect agrees to demo, sets a date/time

1. Prospect agrees to invite other key influencers to demo, and agrees

to confirm their attendance with you.

1. Prospect agrees to perform some tasks in software before the demo,

including setting up their own account, inviting other users & inputting

some data



Value-added Resources:

Identify Resources that are appropriate

for different stages of the sales cycle

e.g. Whitepapers, Case Studies,

Presentations, Proposal Templates



Poll Question 3 Results:



Action Items:

8. Sales & Marketing leadership now need to sit down and review their current

processes against the information gathered from the reviews

9. Define stages of sales process by identifying significant advances in the

sales cycle

8. Ensure each stage has buyer-validated actions defined (optional but

recommended: scoring)

9. Identify target advances for each stage to avoid continuation loops

10. Identify & create value-added resources to support each stage of the sales

process



Managing Your Sales Process:

Sales Management should be predictable

Always focusing on the same core fundamentals

The sales process enables this focus

Where should you focus – beginning of process or near the end?



Poll Question 4 Results



Assessing whether opportunity fits the ideal target

customer profile

Brainstorming different approaches to the opportunity

Looking for where the opportunity might be expanded

to include more products/services

Early Stage is Where You Create Value:

Identifying possible roadblocks and pitfalls

Helping to map the key players within the

customer’s organization and what role they will play

Role-playing scenarios with the sales person to

ensure they are prepared for their next interaction



More effective sales people who are better at identifying and qualifying

the right opportunities

Achieve better forecast accuracy due to the pipeline being populated

with opportunities that have a better than average chance of closing

Reduce opportunity cost by not investing resources and time in

opportunities that should not be in the pipeline

More time to invest in coaching and mentoring sales people

Early Stage Focus Delivers Results:



Help salesperson to draw conclusions about problems or opportunities they

should address (and the impact / cost of doing nothing)

Propose actions that will help them to achieve a positive outcome

Obtain commitment from the salesperson to take action

Following up to ensure action was taken and progress is being made

toward the desired outcome

Your Sales Process is a Coaching Tool

Example: Review Velocity



Put reviews & coaching on the calendar

Commit to them

Be predictable

Establish a Cadence

Where you focus is where your team will focus



Your Sales Process – A Trove of Insight

The more you look, the more you see:

You Can Identify, for example:

Openers vs. Closers

Hunters vs. Farmers

What stages individual salespeople or teams typically get

stuck in

Who is good at forecasting & who is not

Who executes the sales process properly & who takes

shortcuts



A Sales Process Is Dynamic…

Duration of Stages May Change

Number of Stages May Change

Weighting of Stages May Change

…Because Buyer Behavior Is Dynamic



Action Items:

13. Manage your sales process consistently – be predictable

14. Focus primarily on the early stages of the process – this is where you can

create value as a manager

15. Use your sales process as a coaching tool

16. Invest time in reviewing your sales process for insights

17. Tweak or change your sales process as needed – do let it become

stagnant, misaligned or redundant



Align with your buyer’s buying process

Create well defined stages

Identify buyer-validated actions

Define target advances

Provide value-added resources

Manage & coach using the sales process

Be consistent with pipeline reviews & coaching

Always look for additional insights from your sales process

Tweak & change as needed



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Minimizing Risk in your 2015 Sales Process

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