Last Updated on January 25, 2017 by Dave Schoenbeck
There are hundreds of sales experts that opine at great length about the most impactful tips and tricks to ensure sales success. Most of them have great techniques that small business owners can learn from. However, what is usually overlooked is a bit more fundamental and not very glamorous. Instead, I encourage you to first start with the design of a small business sales process. Believe me….this is the place to start.
What is a Small Business Sales Process?
A small business sales process is an organized, well thought-out list of sequential steps that every sales person should follow. The goal is to ensure that every suspect and prospect experiences the same “touches”, in the same way the owner has derived from successful past sales.
The beauty of a documented sales system is that it allows the business owner to step away more often from the sales role to work on strategy development. If that sounds appealing, pay attention.
- Step 1: Write down the specific sales steps that have proven to be successful in the past. Be sure to include a list for inbound leads and prospects and another one for outreach prospects.
- Step 2: Have another experienced salesperson or your coach/mentor look for gaps that should be included.
- Step 3: Convert the written steps, or milestones, to a flowchart.
- Step 4: Focus on the prospects that are noted as undecided and then develop a multi-week “drip” campaign that will bring them closer to you.
- Step 5: Plan out the time intervals between your drip outreach steps to the undecided.
- Step 6: Design the specific collateral sales materials that you need to effectively convey your message.
- Step 7: Redraw your small business sales process flowchart to include steps 5 & 6.
- Step 8: Select a simple CRM tool that can incorporate your sales process and allow you to carefully monitor the progress.
- Step 9: Put your plan into action by training your sales team and then closely watch their activities.
I hope you have amazing success with your new small business sales process. If you need more ideas to optimize your business, click here and read my other blog posts.
Coach Dave
Dave Schoenbeck is a professional business and executive coach who translates complex business methods, processes, and strategies into actionable plans to dramatically improve financial results. Read more about Dave here.
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