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5 Reasons Why Sales Processes Improve Sales Performance

Sales is an occupation that typically offers a great deal of independence. This sense of freedom is part of its appeal. The unstructured nature of a sales career extends to how salespeople interact with prospects, with 68 percent choosing to skip a formal sales process. (1)

While this may not sound like a big deal, the fact is, organizations that implement a defined sales process benefit significantly:

  • Seventy percent of companies that follow a standardized process in sales are high performers. (2)
  • Organizations that institute a formal sales process enjoy a revenue increase of up to 28 percent. (3)
  • Half of the companies that perform well in sales use a “closely monitored, strictly enforced or automated” sales process. (4)

So, what benefits does a defined sales process offer? These are the five reasons why every business needs a standardized process for pursuing and closing sales.

  1. Better Qualified Leads

 When a sales process is thoughtfully laid out, it gives salespeople the tools they need to identify high-quality leads and quickly eliminate unqualified leads. A structured process achieves this by providing salespeople an organized framework for every phase and virtually any situation they may encounter.

  1. Positive Buyer Experience

When it comes to B2B sales, closing a sale will take time. Buyers need to feel confident that they are making the right decision regarding investing or spending money with a business.

A defined sales process ensures that buyers will get the time and pace they prefer. Executing the process in a randomized way often leads to buyers feeling rushed or pressured. Why? A planned-out sales process considers the stages of the buyer’s journey and how prospects move through it.

  1. Clearly Marked Milestones

People in every occupation can benefit from a sense of organization when it comes to doing their job. Having a roadmap to follow, with clearly marked milestones, gives salespeople an advantage over competitors who lack one. In fact, being presented with an effective path to follow can even reduce stress and save time!

  1. Improved Sales Forecasting Accuracy

When the sales team consistently wins deals, which a standardized sales process empowers them to do, companies can generate a win rate. And with a solid win rate, businesses can accurately forecast the number of sales the team will close from a given number of leads. Sales managers can use this information to set realistic sales quotas, and, perhaps more importantly, leadership can leverage it to project future revenue.

  1. Perfected Sales Methods

Getting access to measurable data is one of the primary ways sales teams can improve the methods they apply. A defined sales process not only gives management the structure they need to collect data, but it also clearly demonstrates which methods yield desired results and which methods fall short.

These valuable insights allow sales teams to consistently perfect their sales methods, thereby setting themselves up to convert more leads.  It is repeatable, measurable, and because of this, it demonstrates its value over and over again.

Standardizing the sales process gives salespeople helpful tools that will improve their performance, make buyers feel at ease with their decision and ultimately result in more sales. Businesses that invest time and effort in creating a structured sale process will reap these rewards.

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SOURCES:

  1. https://www.objectivemanagement.com/
  2. https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-process/
  3. https://hbr.org/2015/01/companies-with-a-formal-sales-process-generate-more-revenue
  4. https://hbr.org/2015/01/what-top-sales-teams-have-in-common-in-5-charts

 

Jim Bozzelli
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