One of the most common problems I encounter with my clients who want to grow their businesses is that they struggle to convert as many leads as they want because they lack a sales process.
A sales process is a series of repeatable steps that a business or salesperson follows so they can convert prospects into customers.
Effective sales processes boost conversions, turn more potential customers into closed deals, and ensure you provide customers with a positive and consistent experience — no matter who you’re talking to.
However, your sales process doesn’t have to be complicated! You can create a practical and easy-to-follow process by breaking it down into manageable steps. Here’s my step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Prospecting
The first step my customers always take is to get 100% clear on their ideal client. Next, I help them understand their clients’ real pain points and challenges. This then helps feed into their marketing but, more importantly, their sales process.
The next step is to find out where these ideal clients hang out (online or offline) and then put together a strategy to engage with them. This could be as simple as joining a networking group, direct messaging people on LinkedIn, or advertising on Google.
Step 2: Qualifying Leads
Once you’ve identified potential customers, the next step is to connect with them and qualify their interest in your product or service. You can do this through phone calls, emails, questionnaires or in-person meetings.
During this process, you must develop your own set of killer questions to deep dive into your prospects’ needs and better understand what they are looking for, plus what is important to them. This is known as a “Needs Analysis” and typically covers questions regarding their goals, expectations, budget and timeline.
The type of questions we ask them helps us pre-qualify them. This means that we can clear up very quickly if there is a good fit. If not, we can move on. If there is a good fit, we can continue to engage with the prospect.
Questions depend on your ‘non-negotiables’ when you’re selecting a client. For example, if you only operate within London, it would be really useful to determine if they’re based in that area first. You could also add a question to determine who the decision-maker is in their organisation.
Step 3: Research
Before you pitch your product or service, it’s essential to do your own research about the company you are pitching to. According to recent data, top sellers spend an average of 6 hours every week researching their prospects.
Comprehensive research helps you understand their needs, pain points, and how your product or service can help them. You can use various sources to research the company, including its website, social media, and industry publications.
For B2B offerings, browsing the prospect’s website is really simple, so this is usually the first port of call.
Step 4: Give an Effective Pitch
Philip Chantry, Business Coach
Once you’ve connected with the customer and qualified their interest, it’s time to give a compelling pitch. An effective pitch should include three key elements:
1. A tailored approach that focuses on the benefits of your product or service and how it can solve the customer’s problem or pain point.
2. Social proof. Use case studies or testimonials from previous clients to demonstrate your expertise and the results you’ve delivered.
3. Active Listening. This communication technique involves focusing on, understanding, and responding to your prospect and paying attention to their tone of voice, body language, and underlying emotions to understand better what they are saying. Active listening requires concentration, empathy, and an open mind. All of which are essential to building solid relationships.
Step 5: Handling Objections
Typically, a customer will have objections or concerns about your product or service during the pitch. It’s essential to listen to these objections and address them effectively. Objections shouldn’t be viewed as negative – In fact, it’s an opportunity for you to empathise with the customer, to clear up what makes you different and provide a solution or alternative. Truly understanding how to handle objections confidently is the key to winning and retaining more business.
In certain cases, customers may not voice their objections upfront. Therefore, it’s important to ask targeted questions to uncover any concerns they may have and set clear expectations.
Great objection-handling questions differ from offer to offer, but my favourites are:
1. So when you say you’re not interested, are you saying “never” or just “not now”?
2. So what I’m hearing is that the investment is the sticking point… so if our offer was free, would you proceed? (This helps isolate the real objection – really important to get to the truth.)
3. If you’re too busy now to press ahead, what are the consequences of delaying your decision?
Step 6: Closing the Deal
Once you’ve addressed the customer’s objections, it’s time to close the deal. I recommend closing with confidence and clearly stating the terms of the agreement. This will reassure the client and set expectations. You may also want to create a sense of urgency. Time-sensitive offers, or deadlines can encourage potential customers to make decisions quicker.
An example of this is to “go for no!”… People prefer to say “no” rather than “yes”, so one way of turning this to your advantage is to ask a question that needs a “no” for you to be successful!
For example, “Having heard what you’ve had to say, would it be a silly idea to get started next week?”
Now, this style of question is only suitable in some cases and for some people, but it’s a great closing question that can work really well.
Step 7: Nurturing
The sales process doesn’t end once the deal is closed! Nurturing relationships with customers is key to retention and referrals. The key ingredient here is consistent communication. This will also help you identify whether you can upsell additional products or services to the customer over time.
I practice a simple 5-minute exercise with my clients to help them nurture more leads. Follow these steps:
1. List your top 10 customers.
2. Next to each customer, put them into one of the four brackets:
(a) They’re getting the product or service they expect from you and are happy with what they’re receiving. At least one staff member in your organisation has a great relationship with them as well… or…
(b) They’re getting the results they want from working with you, but your relationship with them is purely transactional… or…
( c) They have a great relationship with you, but they’re not really getting the product or service they were hoping for… or…
(d) They’ve neither got the relationship or the results they’re looking for from working with you.
3. Then, for the customers in brackets B, C and D, write an action point next to each one… in other words, something simple you can do to improve either their results or their relationship with you.
Once complete, you’ll now have a level of visibility and clarity as to what you need to do right now to ensure your customers not only stay with you but refer you to others.
Ensuring a smooth and effective sales pipeline is easy when you keep these seven essential steps in mind. At each stage of the process, though, you MUST put your prospects’ needs first.
Remember, as well, your sales process should always be constantly tested and measured for optimal results.
If you’re looking to hone your sales skills and systems even further, join me, Phil Chantry, award-winning Business Growth Specialist, for my all-day Sales Masterclass on the 30th of June 2023 to help you win more business and sky-rocket your profits.
Click here for more details.
