Sales: A Guide to the Sales Process from Start to Finish
Have You Ever Wondered Why Some Organizations Excel in Their Sales?
No Doubt They Would Have a Well-Defined Sales Process.
Unless organizations possess a proper sales structure, sales results can suffer.
Efficient sales process is the lifeblood of sales organizations. With an effective and efficient sales process, organizations can increase their chances of converting prospects into customers and close deals faster.
The reason many organizations fall behind in sales can be the lack of a proper sales process that consistently woos customers.
This guide leads you to properly understand “what the sales process is” and “why your business needs to create one.”
Understanding the Sales Process.
The sales process covers various steps.
Identifying potential customers (potential leads).
Identifying potential customers is the initial step.
Leads that have expressed interest in purchasing your products need to go through the sales process.
Leads can be identified through online searches, events, referrals, identifying website visitors, or via social media responses to your product pages or content.
“By actively engaging with content on the website or participating in community discussions, you can become familiar with customers who resonate with your voice or opinions. This approach allows you to effectively identify potential leads.”
Remember that prospecting (identifying prospects) is part of a sales representative’s job.
Initial connect.
The second step in the sales process involves initiating a connection with the potential customers to gather information.
This step, otherwise known as “lead qualification,” determines whether the identified leads are suitable for your business or likely to purchase in the future.
Sales representatives can ask questions to identify the prospect’s interest in your business by contacting them by phone or email.
It helps sales agents better understand prospective customers and identify whether to move to the next stage of the sales process.
Assessment.
The next step is evaluation. Here, representatives gain a comprehensive understanding of prospect’s problems (challenges) and needs.
This helps agents customize their sales approach.
Sales reps can dig out more information with a tailored approach—by asking questions across the prospect’s needs, challenges, and interests.
This helps deliver a personalized solution, improving the chance of converting prospects into customers.
Presentation.
In this process, the sales agent presents a demonstration of your product or service for the prospective customers.
Qualified leads are valued here.
Because, when the sales pitch is focused on qualified leads rather than covering all leads, the probability of conversion will be higher. This prevents sales agents from spending too much time on unwanted leads.
With the information gathered from the previous step, you can customize each presentation to match the varying needs of prospects.
Manage customer objections.
During the sales process, sales agents may encounter objections when engaging with prospects.
Sales agents must be ready to deal with such situations. They can gain insights from objections which you can use for sales pitch leading to successful sales conversions.
Being more attentive to prospect’s concern enables sales agents to personalize their approach to selling.
Closing the deal.
In continuation to the previous activities, here, the agents approach the prospective customer to guide them toward making a purchase.
And this is what a sales agent wants to achieve, successfully closing the deal.
This could involve sending a sales quote or proposal, making a sales agreement, or placing an order.
Follow-up.
What comes next after a successful deal are follow-ups. Follow-ups are vital in ensuring customer satisfaction and resolving any post-sales issues. This also involves constant communication to ensure you still value them after the sale.
Ongoing communication opens doors to up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, as well as opportunities from customer’s friends or relatives.
Why should you build a sales process?
Sales Process is effective in turning prospective customers (leads) into customers. It provides direction to agents for efficiently achieving their goals.
Deploying a systematic “sales process” also enables less experienced sales agents to efficiently deal with the various stages of selling.
How can you effectively coordinate the various stages of the sales process?
Managing leads, follow-ups, and maintaining communication and relationships can be quite hard without proper sales software.
At this point, sales automation software or CRM (customer relationship management) becomes valuable.
Many sales automation software is available in the market. Choosing a solution that is suitable for all enterprises and easily adapts to the dynamic business nature is essential.
Microsoft’s Sales Software
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales can be a preferred choice for creating an effective sales process. This sales software covers the whole stage in the sales process, from lead generation to lead management and achieving closures.
Microsoft offers different licensing plans for different sales scenarios. It includes Dynamics 365 Sales Premium, Dynamics 365 Enterprises, Relationship Sales, Dynamics 365 Sales Professional, and Viva Sales.
You can get more information about the industry-leading sales software by contacting Microsoft Dynamics 365 partners. Their professionals can provide guidance through proper consultation and help you with D365 implementation, customization, integration, support, and training.
Microsoft has a large partner ecosystem under its belt. If your business is in any of the Middle East(UAE, Qatar, Oman, KSA), Asian, European, African, or North American regions, there are a few Microsoft Partners whom you can trust.
Connect with experienced Microsoft partners and move ahead.