Iām a big fan of having a sales process. However, often times salespeople just get stuck in the same old sales process, lead comes in, qualification call, demo, proposal, negotiation (addressing customers concerns) and either closed won or closed lost.
CRMs have not made this easier by any means. If you look at a conventional sales funnel, it looks pretty standard.
Rows and rows and rows filled with deals in different stages of the pipeline.
That uniformĀ way of looking at leads is great from a numbers perspective and gives you a proper insight towards how your sales team is performing. However, itās also making salespeople less willing to go out of the process to accommodate prospects that might not fit in the traditional sales funnel.
A perfect example of this is that I recently booked a demo for a tool. A few hours later, I got an automated (slightly personalized) email, where the CTA was to get me on the phone (so they can qualify me). Fair enough!
I get the need to qualify, there are so many prospects coming through, you want to make sure that you spend time on the ones that actually have a chance of converting into paid customers. I didnāt have time for a phone call, so I asked him if we can converse via email, the guy was persistent that the phone call will better help him understand what Iām looking for and to see if there is a mutual fit.
That right there is aĀ BIG MISTAKE.
Every sales person needs to have the ability to adapt to changes, fast. Itās is called adaptability.
Canāt get on the phone, thatās fine. Letās exchange emails, hell I can tweet you if you want. I know itās not orthodox but thatās what suits me, that sales rep should be willing to adapt to how I want to proceed forward.
The bad in the sales process
I utterly dislike the BANT strategy, thatās where a salesperson is trying to determine whether I have the Budget, Authority, Need and a Timeline, essentially branding me as either qualified or not.
A better way of approaching this is by trying to determine what exactly is it that your prospects are looking for, what their needs are and whether your tool is exactly what they are looking for. If there is a āmutual fitā.
Overselling, overpromising and piss poor attempt at getting a customer is all that is wrong with sales today. I love this profession, however, we have to move away from being process-centric to customer-centric.
If a client or a prospect is not comfortable going on the phone, thatās fine. Iām happy to answer any questions they might have via email. I usually ask what are their requirements, how quickly are they looking to go ahead with a vendor.
Now, most peopleās argument is that eventually, they will have to get on the phone, for a demo at least. Yes and no.
Demos are not necessary in every case. Sure with large ticket sales (>$5K ACV), it makes sense to have the whole team sit through a demo. But you donāt have to do the demo every single time, it increases the sales lifecycle, you have to exchange emails to find the right day/time and then later comes the decision making process. All in all, it can add even up to a few weeks to the sales cycle.
I useĀ calendalyĀ to schedule calls/meetings with my prospects (saves a lot of time and the back and forth).
GIFs, screencasts, orĀ loomĀ is a great way to send short videos to your prospects. I do that all the time, they are interested in a certain aspect of the product, I just record a short video and send that over. They get back to me with questions and we plan the next steps.
You have to give your prospects some breathing room and let them control the pace of the conversation. Listen to them, accommodate their requests, make them feel at ease and theyāll be more inclined to go with your product than the competitors.
People buy experiences, not products.
Remember, donāt copy a sales process from another company and try and implement it at yours.Ā Define the sales cycle for your own business. For each of the phases, create easily accessible templates, checklists, and questions that your sales reps could use.
