8 years ago
July 6, 2016

5 Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Your Sales Process

If your sales process isn’t 100% effective, here are some simple changes you can make to improve it. Keep reading to learn more.

Rhys Metler

It’s a competitive world out there. If you don’t have an effective and repeatable sales process guiding your sales people’s actions, then you could get eaten up and left in the dust. You could lose out on tons of sales opportunities that your competitors will swoop in and steal.

Your sales people need effective direction and guidance. They shouldn’t be using a hit-or-miss approach when it comes to sales. And they shouldn’t be following an outdated sales process that doesn’t work. They need a current, relevant, fresh process to follow.

If your sales process isn’t all that it could be, then use these tips to improve it.

1. Get to Know Your Ideal Buyer

It’s nice to think that everyone wants what you’re selling, but this thinking is simply unrealistic. The fact is there’s a very specific clientele who is interested in buying your products and services, and this is who you should be targeting, not every John, Joe, and Larry.

If you’re just buying lists of names to cold call or compiling your own lists without knowing anything about the companies you’re contacting, your sales people will end up wasting a lot of time and resources and they won’t get many sales.

What you need to do is create your ideal buyer profile—understand what company would be most in need of your solution, as well as its size, budget, industry, geographic location, and other attributes that would make them more likely to want what you’re selling. Then, ask qualifying questions when you get leads in order to ensure that they’re realistically potential customers who might buy. Ensure that they match your ideal buyer profile, and make sure they’re currently active in the buyer journey.

The better you know your ideal buyer, and the more you get to know about your leads, the better you can target your sales efforts on the right buyers.

2. Prioritize the Customer Experience        

Customers don’t want to feel like they’re just a number. They don’t want to feel like your sales people only care about their quotas and commissions. To improve your sales process, you must prioritize the customer experience. Make sure to put the customer first in all interactions. Increase response time to inquiries. Make sure your sales people are helpful in offering advice and recommendations when prompted. Make sure they have an arsenal of valuable content to offer customers. Make the customer experience a priority, from the beginning to the end of your sales process, and you’ll benefit.

3. Ensure Customization

Your sales people won’t make many sales if they’re offering the same one-size-fits-all sales pitch to all prospects. This is an outdated sales technique. Instead, they must ensure customization in their sales pitch. Instead of being sellers of products or services, they must become sellers of solutions. They must research their prospects to learn more about their needs, wants, and challenges. Then they must take the time to create custom solutions that exactly match their needs. Don’t allow one-size-fits-all presentations at your company.

4. Automate

For your sales process to be as seamless, effective, and efficient as possible, it should be automated as much as possible. Using a customer relationship management software can help your sales people keep track of client data, including their contact information, their preferences, and their interactions with your brand, which can help build customer satisfaction and chart progress and future growth.

5. Assess the Process

In order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales process, introduce KPIs and sales performance metrics. Continuously examine the process to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Test different approaches and strategies, eliminating the ones that don’t work and keeping the ones that do. It’s vital to monitor the process in a timely matter and optimize it to achieve the desired outcomes.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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