The Secret Ingredient To An Effective Sales Process

A sales process is a predefined set of several repetitive steps sales teams follow to maximise every opportunity by conducting the right actions at the right time. There are internally focused activities as well as customer facing actions that must be taken to ensure prospective buyers and stakeholders remain engaged from the early opportunity stages right up to when the deal is closed and beyond.

A good sales process will ensure both the customer as well as doing what’s necessary to effectively run your business are at the centre of its design. According to a study conducted by Vantage Point, defined and executed effectively, a sales process has been shown to increase sales revenue by 18%.

The next question that has to be asked is, how exactly does it do that? The secret ingredient to a good sales process is something we like to call ‘Verifiable Outcomes.’ While there are multiple factors to a well defined sales process, verifiable outcomes will be one of the most vital components to get right. You

may have heard the term ‘Sales Stage Exit Criteria’ it's the same thing.

Verifiable outcomes are the critical seller and customer facing activities that must be completed before a deal is moved to the next sales stage.

Why Verifiable Outcomes Matter?

Firstly, they are leading indicators that create a predictive view of sales activities allowing for course correction if the exit criteria are below expectation or incomplete.

Second, they are verifiable which means they can be documented, captured in a system or are visibly completed actions that inform sales managers whether or not the criteria has been achieved.

Third, they boost pipeline confidence. Consistent execution and measurement of verifiable outcomes gives sales managers and business leaders confidence that an opportunity is viable and winnable.

And finally, verifiable outcomes capture customer engagement. True leading criteria must include some reaction from the customer that either confirms or changes the status of an opportunity.

What should you do now?

Take a look at your sales process and ask, for each stage across your opportunity lifecycle, what actions must be completed by your sellers and buyers before a deal can move to the next sales stage? Here are some examples to get your started:

Sales Verifiable Outcomes

• Opportunity qualified based on chosen qualification methodology (ANUM, BANT, etc.)
• Confirmed the customer buying process
• Resolved final procurement objections

Customer facing verifiable outcomes:

• Customer confirms a need or desire to address issues
• Customer confirms business value and proposal meets commercial and business requirements
• Customer provides all final signatures

Think of the verifiable-outcomes-driven sales process like Waze or Google Maps, not only do you know where you’re going but how you’re going to get there, how long it may take, what obstacles may be on route and how likely you are to arrive on time.

Aside from increased revenue, an exemplary sales process multiplies the number of new customers acquired; there is improved communication between the sales team, the customers, and the company is able to measure and predict its business effectively.

Do you have a well defined sales process? Reach out to us if you want to talk about creating a sales process or strengthening an existing one.