Any company’s sales process has to evolve but with the rapid change
in the buyer’s journey many sales leaders are finding the processes need
to go through a fine tune. A good builder relies heavily on the
architect. They provide the expertise to make a building strong and
beautiful. In addition, they have defined steps in the building process
for the builder to follow to ensure it gets built according to
specification.
When something goes wrong, they can work together to determine what
did not go according to plan and what needs to be improved. This process
plays a critical role in construction projects all over the world.
Selling or sales should work in a similar way. Every business or
sales team usually have a defined sales process (formal or informal)
they follow to make sure they are successful. But what happens when
sales slow or the rate of customer acquisition declines?
Maybe the buyer and the buyer’s journey are different from the buyer
the original sales process was created for. As buyer habits evolve in
selecting vendors maybe your process needs to evolve too?
Here are some signs that your sales process may need tuning and some suggestions on what you can do to give it a boost.
Rely too heavily on cold leads.
The major obstacle to scaling a business is the over reliance on cold
leads and a lack of warm leads entering the sales pipeline. In the more
traditional selling model, agents had to rely on bought in data or
lists to generate leads, or more likely source cold prospects from
social networks like LinkedIn based on their titles rather than some
expression of interest. These increasingly ineffective sales strategies
have the effect of slowing down the sales process and extending the
sales cycle. Why? Because agents are doing “interruption selling”, that
is trying to sell to prospects that have never expressed any
consideration of engaging with your company, they might not even be
aware of your company. So these cold calls are fighting the tide of
buyer non interest in your product (in fact they may not even need or
benefit from what the agent is selling).
Sales process is about better ways of selling and making sales peoples efforts more productive
Would not a more productive process be for the agents to engageprospects based on what they do, not who they are. Let me expand this
out further, who do you think is closer to considering a purchase, a
buyer who has never visited your company’s website, never read one of
your blogs and has no idea who you are, but has the title “CEO” on their
LinkedIn profile or a purchasing manager who has liked some of your
articles and checked out your LinkedIn profile in the past few days?
Well?
CRM tools and lead generation tools can make agents life a lot easier
and can be a critical tool in identifying buyer interest. For inbound
marketing tools like Hubspot and Marketo are great, for CRM and pipeline
management try Pipedrive, for automated lead generation try Connectors
Marketplace.
Poor prospect connect rates.
As much as we might fight it, the reality is cold calling is
declining fast. Interruption marketing and selling has lost its place in
the pecking order to acquire new customers. Studies show that now only
approx. 2% of cold calls result in a meeting. And it takes up to 8
attempts to get to speak to the prospect!! If agents are making 800
calls, talking to 100 prospects and only securing 2 meetings, that might
suggest a malfunction in the sales process.
Think Social Selling. Sharing great articles and using these to
developing rapport and engagement with a prospect online before reaching
out is maybe a step in the sales process companies should consider.
Armed with articles and white papers, agents can identify where
prospects hang out online then engage buyers in social conversations,
have constructive debates based on content shared, and gradually begin
to add value. This means that when the agent tries to connect on
LinkedIn or makes that call their name will be familiar to the buyer,
leading to far higher response rates.
Provide “Value Touches”.
Anyone who just sends out email after email of worthless follow up
emails are most likely wasting everyone’s because in today’s digital
world, buyers seek out value (awareness and consideration phase in
buyers journey) from the seller. When a potential customer receives
constant “just touching base” emails, they fail to see a return on the
time they are being asked to invest and statistics prove they most
likely will not respond.
Smart sales agents will focus on providing value in the form of
relevant content and materials to the prospective buyer as well as
guiding them (not interrupting them) through their individual buying
journey on their timeline. There are numerous ways to provide value in
email and social media communication such as case studies, customer
reviews, market research or mutual interests.
Every buyer has a deciding point, when they either consider or
discount your product. So bearing this in mind, make sure each and every
customer touch provides value.
A great source of new customers is from existing ones.
This is a well worn sales tip but never goes out of fashion. Ensure
sales agents are proactive with engaging with existing customer
database. Being proactive means soliciting feedback and staying in
regularly contact which pre-empts any issues. By engaging with customers
often and ensuring that all is OK, sales people can build a level of
trust that leads to the customer staying a customer.
Next, enlist existing customers help to generate leads. A referral
program when implemented correctly as part of the sales process can
bring a steady flow of warm leads, which we know close at higher rates
and quicker than cold prospects.
Any sales team is only as strong as the sales process they work with.
As the modern buyers journey changes, so does a company’s sales
process. The sales rules are being rewritten and a new way of selling is
emerging. Businesses and agents who focus on building relationships,
sharing, educating, utilizing social selling and guiding their prospects
and customers are moving clear of the chasing pack in winning more
sales.
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