better business blog

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How Good Is Your Sales Process?

8 December 2013

Process, process – everything is a process! If we have good processes we will get good outcomes. Sales work is no exception to this and if we are organised and methodical we will increase our chances of success. When we think of a ‘sales process’ it can help to map it and then to put numbers against each stage, so we can see how well our pipeline is filing up. We can also make sure that we don’t have a blockage anywhere, for example, are we spending too much time networking and not enough time writing up quotes, or following up previous referrals?

Think about your sales process…does it look something like this?

1. Go networking
2. Contact details added to database
3. New potential customer projects logged
4. Customer follow up work reviewed and updated once a month
5. Diary dates set for follow up work
6. Follow up customer visits or calls arranged
7. Ask for the order
8. Deliver work
9. Send invoice
10. Make sure invoice is paid

I found that I was doing really well at stage 1 and was getting a bit lost at stage 4 and 5 …so I changed my process to formalise the monthly review of the current pipeline, as this was the bit that wasn’t working for me. I made this change back in February and ever since that have noticed how business is getting steadily busier.

Could this change in fortune be down to an economic upturn? Or through bits of random luck? Or because I improved my process and stuck to it? You can decide.

This week take a moment to map your sales process from end to end and find out where the gaps are and where the paperwork is getting stuck. Then make one change …that one change could be worth many £1,000s to you, so it’s worth spending time on the process!

Have fun!

Next week: Storm proof business?