Blue Printing a Sales Process

Why establish a sales process at all ?

What happens if there is no sales process

1. You need to rely on the heroic efforts of the few "natual" who hit the number
2. You will not have a good smell of which deals are real and which are wishful thinking
3. You will not see how the buyers are moving through the process
4. Your forecasts will be awry because the reps will go by instincts and history
5. The end of the month will always be a fire drill
6. Your reps will rely on you to sell complex deals (and not develop own capability)
7. New Reps will get inducted through trial by fire
8. This will increase attrition and also "time to get trained"

Companies with a formal sales process win 48% more business, have 37% shorter sales cycle and generate 2 times revenue per head. A major reason is the common language and common method they have to review their performance.

Benefits of Sales Process Blueprinting

A Sales Process produces  an improvement in forecasting accuracy, repeatability of successes and the sales managers being able to drive performance by acting as coaches. Otherwise sales managers become only administrators. Sales process means that you

• have an understanding of the customers' buying process 
• know status of each suspect, prospect, engagement, close, delivery, payment
• can describe your process (pre, during, after) in this language
• know the information, skills, tools, equipment, FAQs needed at each step
• know the script of performing each stage successfully.
• know workflow, go-no-go statements, responsibility, procedure and tools 
• have a checklist of what not to forget for each customer at each stage
• know how to measure /accelerate journey from one milestone to other
• know the pipeline needed to achieve a given sales target
• know how batons get passed between sales, marketing, call centers, service, office
• know not only sales processes but also back office processes
• know how to increase the time in front of the customer 
• Create a shorter sales cycle
• Enabling greater interaction with qualifying prospects
• know how to improve sales forecasting
• know how to avoid stagnant prospects

How to do Sales Process Blueprinting

At the very least, it must be based on collecting data and information to identify best practices  and then documenting and codifying these best practices so they can be repeated by all sales team members.The first step in creating a model sales process means looking no further than 20% of your top sales performers who get 80% of your revenue.  Isolate and document how they drive the revenue and then codify them  into "best practice" (not recommended model) for a trainable, scalable, monitorable, repeatable, and sustainable process.  There are 3 main categories :

1. Selling Operations : the starting point - the “gut” - around which everything revolves
2. Business from current customer base : Customer Satisfaction maintainance
3. Sales Support : how all departments play their roles to make it happen

Sales operations

• Identify opportunities
  To whom might I sell my products/services?
  How do I determine which are my best prospects?
• Gain access and attention How do I get the decision-maker's attention
  How do I get the decision maker to recognize I have useful products/services?
• Establish interest
  How do I engage the prospect in my products/services?
• Conduct discovery
  How do I find out what does the prospect want
  How do I customize my presentation to him
  How do I justify the use of my products/services and get his/her buy-in?
• Present/propose
   How do I package my complete value proposition for delivery to the prospect?
• CloseHow do I reach final commitment?

Customer satisfaction

• Deliver/implement
  How do I assure that my products/services are properly delivered
  How do I assure that my products/services are properly used by the customer ?
• Support customer operations
  How do I monitor and ensure continued customer satisfaction?
• Develop relationshipsHow do I establish and continuously enhance the trust and confidence ?

Sales support

• Account and territory management Things to do to assure that time and resources are productively used? 
• Field operations supportWhat must the sales support staff do to help the sales reps
  What tools do they need?
• Human resourcesHow do I recruit, hire, train, motivate and retain sales personnel?
• Quality assurance What are the standards for performance of each sales activity?
  How do I assure that these standards are met?
• Process management and metrics How do I ensure continuous improvement?
  How do I measure all the activities in the sales process so I know how well I’m doing?

Sample Sales Process

1. Marketing distributes qualified lead to sales person.
2. Gathering and notification of new leads. Sales team members are automatically sent e-mail notifications of new leads they are responsible for. A sales person can follow a link in the notification to the prospect file for easy review, at which point they can accept or decline the lead, or hand it off to another salesperson.
3. Sales initiates contact with lead.
4. Follow up with future actions and forecasts. Automated notifications improve your organization's lead cultivation efforts and provide managers with an overview of their sales force's efforts.
5. The sales cycle occurs.
6. Share info and ideas with other people. Sales force and managers can discuss goals and tactics, as well as address common issues and questions about sales efforts.
7. Create, track and assign tasks to sales support. Quickly create and assign tasks to their sales force in the management of leads. Sales personnel are automatically notified of new tasks via email, and created tasks include a "respond by" date, ensuring the timely ownership of staff to their assignments.
8. Sales plans and tracks activities related to prospect. Sales staff and managers can quickly track prospect activity and make strategic decisions in relationship development.
9. Sales creates and tracks correspondence and conversations. Allows sales people to quickly generate pre-configured emails, letters, faxes and more.
10. Management reports for activities and future projections and pending actions. Offers work pending reports that track the activities of the sales force.
11. Sales utilizes marketing materials to enhance the sales cycle. Provides a central location to store your organization's marketing materials, allowing your sales force to quickly access marketing documents to support their efforts. This centralized storage ensures your staff is using approved, up-to-date materials.
12. Proposal is written and submitted to prospect. Create and centrally store sales documents and templates, enabling your sales force to easily access the tools they need when they need them: proposals, correspondence, questionnaires, risk assessments and more.
13. Contact/Purchase order is generated.