Phil Lauterjung

As the recession wears on more and more companies are trying to find sales nirvana.  The number of articles, postings, tips, tricks, and short cuts are increasing every day.  But, once again, reality bites.  Point-of-the-post alert!! – There are no short cuts, only hard work!!

A report released a few months ago by Dow Jones and CSO Insights on Sales Performance Optimization noted that the number of companies using a formal or dynamic sales process decreased this year.  The reason they concluded that happened was that it required hard work.  An astounding 63% of the companies surveyed only had a random or informal sales process in place.  I hope I don’t need to tell anyone that those companies had worse sales results than the 37% with a formal or dynamic sales process.

For those that aren’t familiar with what comprises a sales process here’s a diagram of what one might look like.  In this particular case there are 6 steps (yours might be fewer, or more) along the left side of the funnel, and stage-matched selling actions along the right side of the funnel.  The point is that you need to invest the time to develop a process specific to your company and, very important, how your customers buy.

Here are a few elements of a typical sales process that might be helpful.  These are adapted from a recent presentation by Mark Sellers, author of “The Funnel Principle”.  You need to learn and understand the five variables in every sale in order to develop the most effective process strategy and tactics.

1. The Problem. That would be the customer’s problem, not yours.  You need to understand the economics, scope, and reach of the problem.  Then help build a business case for resolving the problem.
2. The People. Determine who is feeling the pain.  Find out the person with financial authority in the company.  Do they know the costs of the problem?
3. The Money. How does the person with financial authority feel about spending money to fix the problem?
4. The Motivations. Who’s motivated to act?  Will they agree to be the internal champion for your solution?  Who’s not motivated to act, and why not?
5. The Alternatives. Does the company have other, higher priority, problems?  Can you elevate the priority of the problem you’re trying to solve?  Are they considering any alternatives to your solution?

Each of these areas need to be addressed in the sales process.    Get some of your top reps involved in this;  even really good sales reps need a road map (the sales process), with the proper sign posts along the way, to get to the destination of a closed deal.

This is an issue that requires way more than one particular post, but if I can get you moving in the right direction that’s  a start.  If you have additional questions please post them in the comments below.

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