Talk to any top sales professional and you know that their success comes mainly from a well-executed sales process. Providing step-by-step guidance, a sales process is essentially a road map and guide for sales professionals to ensure they do not miss a crucial step in the sales cycle. It is a complex process that a sales professional uses to achieve sales objectives and turn a potential prospect into a new customer.
This cycle involves a series of seven distinct steps – Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling Objections, Closing and Follow-Up. By experimenting with these seven different steps, a company can start replicating a customised sales process to market their unique products or services, or track the pain points faced by the sales professional at different stages of the sales cycle and give guidance on resolution.
The pandemic has caused many companies to implement temporary changes to their sales processes whereas other companies might just choose to redesign their sales processes to better compete in the “new” business environment. This means putting some thoughtful planning, imagination and modifications into place. Let’s take a look at how this is done.
How To Redesign The Sales Process?
With the recent pandemic, redesigning the sales process proves to be the new trend that some companies are following avidly. However, there are companies that fail to execute this step due to the fear of change. In fact, a well-orchestrated change can be achieved by any company just by using a combination of these practices:
- Outlining the buyer’s journey for your target persona
- Defining the prospect action that moves them to the next stage
- Defining exit criteria for each step of the sales process
- Measuring the sales process results
These are the four best practices key decision-makers use to improve the impact of their sales processes across their teams and customer bases. Similarly, these practices can be applied in your sales process to gain new insights into how you can redesign the way your sales are conducted.
Each step of the sales process should undergo stringent evaluation to see what can be improved. A well-designed sales process helps your team to maximise their time and effort in the long run; thereby boosting their productivity and increased business growth.
Other than the sales process, one key challenge remains – putting customers at the centre of your strategy and enhancing the customer experience or engagement. This is a critically important issue for brands because so much of the customer experience or engagement happens online due to the use of social media hence re-thinking how to use these online platforms to enhance the sales experience is understandably crucial.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and look into the various pain points or gaps in the customer experience, you will be able to better create value and provide differentiation with customers to make the whole customer experience more engaging.
How To Enhance The Customer Experience?
Making an important buying decision can be exciting or intimidating. This is particularly true, considering the trend of shoppers from brick and mortar to online platforms. Yet, for any company relying solely on the online platforms to drive revenue – this presents an opportunity to improve and be more proactive in customer outreach, creating a brand new and engaging customer experience.
There are a few ways to enhance the customer experience:
- Consider giving prospective customers all the information and options they need to arrive at the right decision. With a good website, it is easier than ever to upload and update your products and/ or services for customers to see real time. Always gather customer insights such as reviews and feedback. Quickly respond and offer endless support with empathy.
- Know when to roll out new features and improvements as they become available. This approach positively influences customer experience and increases conversions.
- Offer customers subscriptions that align well with their spending behaviour. Use business intelligence tools to keep track of customer behaviour and their spending habits. Based on the business insights, offer customised subscription packages for each group of buyer personas, eliminating the need for tough decision making from “Should I” to “Which package should I go for?”; making the customer experience a smoother and interactive one.
In summary, closing sales continues to be a challenge for many companies who are looking to increase business growth. As the sales cycle becomes more multi-channel and virtual-based, organizations have to constantly reimagine and redesign the sales process and customer experience to drive business turnover.
Do you need to create an effective sales process and enhance the customer experience to drive business growth in your organization? Write to us at info@businessacademia.co
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