Now that you understand the benefits of a streamlined sales pipeline, it’s time to learn how to implement one in your company!
That said, there are seven steps to a sales process, including the following:
- Prospecting
- Qualification
- Demonstration
- Quoting
- Negotiation
- Closing
- Nurturing
Let’s look at these steps in-depth, ensuring you understand how these processes work!
Step 1: Customer Prospecting
The first stage of the sales process is searching for new customers.
It is best to create a buyer persona and ideal customer profile to find prospects most likely to buy your products and services.
Observe your company’s sales history and note the types of customers who previously purchased things from you.
Are there any patterns? Did customers respond to a specific pain point?
Once you identify the best strategies for prospecting, create a document for your sales representatives to follow.
Step 2: Customer Qualifying
The next stage is determining which prospects will most likely need or want your company’s products.
Therefore, representatives should conduct a discovery call, asking questions such as:
- Is your budget compatible with our products/services?
- What are the decision-making processes in your company?
- How are you currently handling the challenge our product can solve?
These questions (and others) determine whether your prospect is sales-ready.
If a prospect fits your criteria, a sales representative can move on to the next stage. If not, it’s critical to rethink pursuing the client to ensure they don’t clog your sales funnel.
Step 3: Demonstration
After determining whether a prospect is qualified for a potential sale, you must demonstrate why your product or service is better than your competitors.
Depending on your company’s expertise, an agent can schedule a call and explain the features of your product or service and focus on how it will help the client overcome their challenge.
On the other hand, social media is an excellent tool to demonstrate your products and services features and functionality without calling each customer.
Instead, marketing teams can create content on a widespread scale and potentially secure more sales opportunities.
Step 4: Customer Quoting
The fourth step is pretty simple. At this point, your agents must provide the potential customer with a quote for your products or services.
The quote can vary based on certain factors depending on your business offers.
Other times, everyone receives the same price point.
Fortunately, most CRMs can create professional templates for sales quotes, which is one of several time-consuming tasks the software can do for you!
Step 5: Customer Negotiation
Occasionally, customers try to negotiate the quote a sales rep presents.
Again, it’s up to you as a boss whether you accept negotiations.
I’ve found that negotiating can lead to stronger customer relationships and more long-term clients.
One thing to ensure about any negotiation is that you aren’t losing money on a deal to make a customer happy.
Step 6: Customer Closing
Closing a sale means your team has successfully turned a prospect into a paying customer!
Sometimes, this stage demands contract signing, service level agreements, and payment negotiations.
Still, closing deals means your sales team did its job effectively, and that’s something worth celebrating!
Step 7: Customer Nurturing
Although it may seem like closing a deal is the final step in the sales process, nurturing is!
Customer nurturing is a step I’ve seen several companies forget about or disregard completely.
However, nurturing builds customer loyalty and encourages customers to return to your business because people are more likely to buy products and services from a company multiple times if their experience is pleasant.
Nurturing can consist of the following actions:
- Follow-up emails or phone calls asking about the customer’s satisfaction
- Surveys
- Email marketing campaigns to push additional products or services
Follow-ups ensure your customer base feels like you still remember them and that their business means a great deal to you (because it does)!
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