The New Solution Selling

Characteristics of sales process

As any other process, a sales process has some characteristic that ensure that the process is efficient. These characteristics are

• Repeatable
  The process is not created for a specific situation. Rather it can be used over and over. You can establish this by rewarding sales people for constancy instead of reaching their numbers by peaks during the year.
• Predictable
  Make the sales process predictable by defining milestones. Milestones help to get an overview over the status of opportunities and can help answering the question if the planed figures can be met.
• Scalable
  The process has to be scalable to fit for organizations with one sales person as well as hundreds of sales people.

Failure of traditional approaches

Many people think that sales is a mystery because it can’t be managed as easily as other departments. A good sales process can help.
Often managers think it is enough to organize training events for their sales employees to establish a sales process but this has only little impact on the sales culture. Change management is the key to focus on and you should consider to change your management since this has the most impact on creating a sustainable HPSC (high-performance sales culture)

Successful sales process implementation

As we learned from the failures changing the organization should be preferred over training events. This requires good change management which should consider the people affected by the change and how to free resources to control the change.

The implementation of a sales process can look like this:

1. Analyze organization to detect barriers

1. Complete transformation of sales function = extensive
2. Improve control = less extensive (maybe only review is required)

1. Get commitment of management and executives to increase project’s sucess
2. Integrate sales process with existing systems like CRM tools , company’s rewarding system and hiring practices
3. Implement new sales process through training (e-Learning, coaching, other methods)
4. Coach managers to sustain process → training, introduction of CRM tools
5. Measure impact of project by metrics identified during management alignment

Establish HPSC as value system

A company has no sustainable value if it doesn’t attract and retain profitable customers. A sales process should do just like that. It has less value to create a sales process for short-term gains often realized by aggressive selling. Instead of focusing on quick sells it is better to develop a sales process that builds strong customer relations by understanding their needs and therefore create sustainable relationships and satisfied customers. A good implemented HPSC can lead to: higher customer satisfaction, increased productivity, more profitable enterprises