Want To Speed Up Your Sales Process? Maybe It's Time To Slow Down Your Sales Process?

Slow down in order to speed up? At first this may seem to be contradictory but for sales teams, slowing down the sales process may be exactly what's needed to close more deals at a faster rate.

Let's step back for a second to define a 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. It's a series of repeatable steps, or stages, a seller guides a potential client through in hopes of closing a deal. The basic framework of a sales process consists of the following stages: 𝟭) 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝟮) 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝟯) 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝟰) 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟱) 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝘁.

But again, the above is just the basic framework. What truly makes a sales process effective & efficient is clearly defining the critical steps that must occur at each stage level 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧 to advancing a prospect to the next stage. Advancing a prospect prematurely through a sales process isn't good for anyone, not for the prospect & not for the seller. Most likely this leads to wasted time or missed opportunities.

Here is an example. A sales person has been contacted by a potential customer & they appear very interested in what the sales person is selling. In fact, the prospect requests a proposal be immediately sent to them as the seller's product is exactly what they are looking for. The sales person is feeling pretty excited & sends over the proposal, thinking this is the easiest sale they have ever done. But the prospect goes into radio silence. Later, the seller discovers that the prospect decided to move forward with a competitor's product. What just happened? The answer is the seller moved too fast & failed to conduct a proper discovery meeting by thoroughly reviewing what the prospect's needs were, their current challenges, the costs of not addressing those challenges, when they will be making a buying decision, who all the decision makers are, & the size of the budget they are looking to spend. Also, the seller didn't sell through their product's value proposition & how it would best solve the prospect's needs. The seller just went for a quick sale & ended up losing out.

If any of this sounds familiar & you're having trouble getting your sales team to perform at a higher level, in need of building a sales team & structure for growth, or having trouble recruiting high-performing sales professionals, direct message me here, or email me at dflynn@skyhawksales.com and we can discuss further.