Oct 10, 2008
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Sales Processes
Categories: Closing Skills, Prospecting, sales-strategy
Written By: SOCOM Sales
There are quite a few pieces to the sales performance improvement puzzle - face-to-face selling skills, management style, coaching, account strategy, and so on. One piece that doesn’t get much attention is the sales process. The simplest definition of “sales process” is “a linked group of tasks that together create customer value.”
by Maxey
Some sales processes are more effective than others. In his book, Rethinking the Sales Force, Huthwaite founder Neil Rackham asks seven questions that can help you evaluate your organization’s sales process:
| 1. | Does your sales process reflect your customers’ acquisition process? If it doesn’t, it’s working against you. |
| 2. | Is your process self-correcting? Good sales process learns from real-world feedback. |
| 3. | Does your process create value? Good sales process adds value for the customers, for the sales organization, and for the salespeople themselves. |
| 4. | Does your process increase efficiency? If your process has made your selling cycle longer, it’s time for a redesign. |
| 5. | Does your process allow mortals to succeed? Nevermind the top performers - a good process should allow average salespeople to get better results. |
| 6. | Is your process scaleable? The test is whether your sales process is a growth enabler or a growth inhibitor. |
| 7. | Are your milestones objectively measurable events? Good process is based on events, not on activities. |
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October 12th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I always preach that sales and marketing are one process, it’s nice to meet another rare person who gets the importance of that!
David - Chicago’s last blog post..Speaking Of Facebook - It Needs Change Management of Customer Service
October 18th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
In marketing and sales I have always found that the “after sales”part is where most businesses fail. What marketers don’t get is that keeping a client is much cheaper than going out and getting a new one.
James’s last blog post..Protecting Assets with Business Liability Insurance
October 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Fantastic list. I’m justing getting into sales and it’s certainly more difficult than I first thought. Thanks for the tips.
Nyla’s last blog post..Dog Tapeworms - An Overview
November 7th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Great article, and even better points! Very useful!