Many sales leaders work hard to institute what they believe is a simple, effective, and easy-to-follow sales process. It's no surprise that they are frustrated when their sales reps aren't following it. While the sales leader believes their plan is clear, actionable, and repeatable, it misses the mark from the sales rep's point of view. In this blog post, we will discuss tips on building your sales process, ensuring that your sales reps adopt it, and evaluating sales staff performance to give your sales team an edge in the market.
In other words, don't over-engineer the process. It's best to keep the process to as few steps as possible so that it's not cumbersome to adopt. The best way to do this is to start with a skeleton representing the critical points that align the process with the company's goals and objectives. You can add detail as needed.
Taking an iterative approach to building out your sales process reduces waste. It gives you and your team the space to try out tools, techniques, and strategies to see what works best. As you see results, you can fill in the blanks. Just be cautious of adding too much detail, as you want to leave room to remain agile enough to pivot and modify as necessary while avoiding creating another cumbersome process that negates the progress you've already achieved.
Once you have your process outline with a little more detail, you essentially have your sales checklist. The checklist provides alignment on your sales reps’ responsibilities. However, it also gives you the template for automation. Sales automation frees up your salespeople from tedious, manual, administrative tasks to give them back time for more value-added selling.
Technology gives your team a way to improve sales results by more effectively utilizing their skills and optimizing their time. Sales reps are free to spend time prospecting, following leads, building relationships, and finding solutions for their customers. When your highly skilled salespeople are allowed to do what they do best, you not only improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience but increase employee satisfaction.
The most successful sales reps know that they are there to add value for their company and their customers. Unfortunately, an astounding 58% of deals in the pipeline are at a standstill at any one time because reps are unable to add value. Having sales collateral be a game-changer. Collateral that gives quantifiable results for suggested solutions can help move your client through the decision stage.
Adopting a sales process should be part of a continuous learning culture. It isn't a one and done, set it and forget it proposition. The sales environment isn't static, and neither is your team's performance. Learning how to evaluate sales staff performance involves conducting regular assessments and getting feedback from your sales reps on the challenges they are facing.
No one wants to feel 'sold.' It's also not an effective way to build and maintain a long-term client pool. The best possible solutions are those that benefit both the buyer and the seller. Focusing on the buyer's needs and finding solutions for their pain points shows the customer that you are there to consult, advise, and find mutually beneficial solutions. Customer focus ultimately delivers better results for the seller.
There are a couple of approaches that sales managers in the alcoholic beverage industry can take. One is relationship selling, where you take the time to build long-term relationships based on trust. The other is fact-based selling, where you use data and insight to tell a compelling story. While one appeals to emotion and the other logic, they are both highly effective in building lasting sales relationships.
Designing a sales process shouldn't be too cumbersome; you don’t want it to be too complicated for your sales reps to adopt easily. Concentrate on the most critical points to give your sales team the guideposts to keep them on track while keeping it flexible enough to alter if you don't see the anticipated results. Automate where you can to free your talented salespeople from necessary but manually intensive administrative tasks so they can concentrate on the critical aspects of their jobs, like building relationships, finding solutions for their customers, and increasing sales. Providing an easily adoptable process gives your team a competitive edge.