Bill Gluth, Creative Business Strategy Blog

What is the Sales Process?

With 294,000,000 websites talking about the sales process, it's easy for any small business owner to want to know, "What is the sales process, exactly."

The  sales process is not selling alone. It is a combined  strategy that outlines the steps a business follows to keep the sales pipeline full and the business consistently profitable. 

The sales process is the pre-planned strategy you follow to:

• Attract leads into the sales pipeline (marketing) 
• Convert leads into revenue (the system of selling)
• Continue to provide value to existing clients for backend sales (CRM or client relationship management)
• Profitably utilize internet marketing, social media marketing and content marketing strategies

Without a plan in place that addresses these four vital areas you are following the wing and a prayer sales process. 

And  if you aren't measuring where your results are coming from, you are flying blind in a fog of assumptions that are often wrong.

What is the cost of not following a sales process plan?

Over 90% of small businesses are not following a sales process plan at all. 

The cost of not planning, measuring and consistently executing a sales process strategy ranges, on average, from $1,000.00 to $4,000.00 for every $10,000 earned (10% to 40%).

That means that a small business that generates $100,000 in annual revenue is losing $10,000.00 to $40,000.00 of new revenue every year because they are not following a well developed sales process plan.

Is sales growth is your goal in Q2-2012?

If you are committed to seeing sales increases now and want a "strategic" plan to accomplish sales growth, then your business could be a great fit for our sales process development test program.

All of the details of the test program are at: http://www.billgluth.com/sales-process-test.htm

Trust Makes Sales

Recently, I needed a new, replacement keyboard for my Dell laptop. I searched online and found a few companies that sold them.

Then I checked Amazon and lo and behold, they had vendors who sold Dell keyboards as well. 

Who made the sale?

The company who was on Amazon.

Why?

Because I have purchased from Amazon in the past and found that the people who sell through Amazon deliver as promised.

Trust is a key to making sales work. But you have to establish that trust with each interaction.

For the first time buyer, deliver social proof that you do what you say so buyers feel comfortable making that first purchase from you.

That's something the other laptop keyboard websites did not do very well, while Amazon vendors excel at it. 

Image Courtesy: Scott McLeod

Wing and a Prayer Sales Process

When it comes to your sales process, marketing and business development do you tend to "wing it"?

The good  new is that  if you do, it means you probably tend to be more creative. 

I'm with you. But here's something I've learned many years ago about "winging" your sales process.

It costs significant  revenue because your results are unpredictable. If you're looking to grow revenues or ramp up a new business, a plan, testing and excution (creatively done, of course) are needed.

To be more creative AND profitable with your sales and marketing:

• Find a strategy that resonates with you.
• Create a sales process plan that's based on tested results. 
• Follow the plan daily.
• If you modify the plan, retest to see if the results improve.
• Implement improvement, discard things that don't work as well. 
• Continue for as long as you own your business. 

Yes, running your own business is hard work. It takes diligence, patience, perseverance and tenacity.

Success comes to those who break out of their comfort zone consistently, embrace new ideas, manage change and implement proven systems daily.

But if it were easy, everyone would be able to do it, right?

Image Courtesy: Bixentro

This is Your Responsibility When Hiring Salespeople

This always surprises me and occurs at even the largest companies.

Most of the time businesses that are hiring sales people do NOT have a well tested and effective sales process to hand to the new sales hire.

The fact is, most business owners and executives incorrectly believe that marketing, client attraction, the system of selling, client relationship management (CRM) and online sales lead generation is up to the new sales hire.

This fundamental misunderstanding costs businesses hundreds of thousand of dollars every year.

Developing a sales process, testing it and ensuring it works properly is the responsibility of the business owner. 

It should not be in the job description of the new sales department hire.

Set your sales team up for success from the beginning. Hand them a complete sales process strategy that is tested and proven to work. 

When you do this you'll see a 10% to 40% (or more) increase in your top-line sales results.

Image: Realtyworks

Sales is Lifeblood of Business

One adage in small business states that no one has ever gone out of business because they made too many sales. 

However, every small business who goes out of business does so because they did not have enough sales to survive, let alone thrive.

Based on these facts, it's reasonable to say that sales and marketing is the lifeblood of every small business.

But how do sales actually occur in a small business?

Sales, in the most successful businesses, occur from following a plan. That plan is called the "Sales Process." It blends marketing and sales successfully. 

If sales is the lifeblood of business then the sales process would be the heart that keeps the lifeblood pumping.

The sales process is the plan, outlined step-by-step, for attracting a prospect into your sales funnel (marketing), converting that attraction into revenue (sales system) and maintaining a relationship with that client ongoing (CRM).

In today's world, having a tested online sales strategy is also a large part of your overall sales process development.

If your website is a brochure that only tells me what you do, you're missing many opportunities for new sales. As a result, your website is not an effective marketing tool. 

When your website generates leads for your business, you are using online marketing effectively. 

Take a look at your sales process today. Think  through the steps you follow to:

1. Attract leads
2. Convert them into revenue
3. Continue to serve existing clients
4. Market your business and gain leads through your website

When you look at your sales process in this way you'll find gaps, which you can fill, to create a stronger and more profitable business.

Sales, Sales Process and Marketing's Role

Over the past few months I've been very focused on building sales processes. When it comes creating sales in a business through the sales process and understanding marketing's role in small business development it's important to utilize four distinct small business development steps. 

Step 1: Attraction: Marketing's job is to attract people to your offer. Your marketing plan should include a sales "soft-step", which allows interested people to take a small step toward you without risk. 

Step 2: The System of Selling: This is where the majority of sales training begins and ends. Your sales system (or sales presentation method) should allow you to convert attraction gained in marketing into revenue 1-in-3 to 1-in-5 times. That means, for every 3 to 5 sales presentations you give, you should create 1 sale.

Step 3: CRM: Client relationship management (CRM) are the processes (plural) you use to continue working with and assisting your existing clients. Most businesses miss this step completely and also miss opportunities for additional sales from existing clients. Remember, it costs far less to continue selling to existing clients than it does to attract new clients. 

Step 4: Online and Social Media marketing (attraction online): The majority of businesses never track their online and social media results. Without this information, countless hours are wasted on activities that do not accomplish the purpose of marketing, which is to attract sales opportunities. 

Lack of a well developed 4-step sales process strategy can cost businesses between 10% to 40% of revenues. 

That means that for every $100,000 in revenue earned, a small business can lose between $10,000 to $40,000 in revenues they would otherwise gain if they had a sales process plan in place.