Encapsulating business routines and activities into a process can streamline any task. Sales is no exception. A sales process that fits your business, reps, customers, and products increase conversion rates while also making everything trackable.

Sales is a set of tactical steps that bring a customer from considering the product or service to buying it. Here are a few reasons why the right sales process steps are imperative for a growing organization.

1. Get rid of waste – While it is true that sales are to some degree intuitive, over time companies can see what works and what does not. Creating a structured sales process enables you to know what doesn’t work and get rid of it.
2. Staying on course – A sales process creates clear steps and goals that enable a rep to make sure they are on the right track. This tells them where they are, where they need to be, and how to get there.
3. Identify Stalled Sales – A sales process allows you to identify stalled sales and how to jumpstart them. The process will tell you what action items are pending and from whose end. The sales rep can then decide how to proceed from there.
4. Find more qualified leads – A good sales plan enables the reps to find qualified leads faster. This means that they can focus their efforts on the right people and in the right direction.
5. Improved forecasting – When a sales process is implemented, you will be able to track every lead and opportunity. This, in turn, will enable you to create a forecast of expected sales in the next time.
6. Better Customer Experience – A sales process allows reps to see at what stage in the sales cycle, a customer is and how to improve the chances for a successful closure. This, in turn, means a better customer experience and better conversions.
7. Simper to onboard new talent – As sales grow, so does the number of reps. With an established sales process, it is easier to have new reps accustomed to the change in the environment so that they can start churning out deals faster.

A Typical Sales Life Cycle

Salesforce enables users and companies to create sales process steps for their organization by giving them a standard template that can be customized to almost any extent to fit a business need.

Terminologies

Term Description Example Lead A prospect. Someone who is just aware of the product. Typically an output of marketing campaigns John Doe from Acme Inc is interested Account Company name of the customer Acme Inc Contact person from the company John Doe Opportunity The sales opportunity Acme inc wants 200 products Quote Estimate. Proposed Contract Order After the close of the sale. Products Services and Offerings

A new lead can be acquired from multiple sources, including cold calls, inbound marketing, contact forms from the website, etc. Once a lead is received, they can be contacted through an in-built email feature within Salesforce, and meetings can also be scheduled. Salesforce allows reps to record the status of each rep and directly convert them into lead, contact, and opportunity. Once an opportunity has been created, the sales rep is again able to communicate with the customer through emails and phone calls, and also set up meetings with them. Salesforce also allows reps to track each and every opportunity in what stage it is in to make it more trackable and serve as a guide to each rep. Using customizable email templates, reps can send emails to a customer just with a few clicks.

Salesforce also allows sales managers to track their team’s performance and compare it with their sales quotas. Managers can also report on the existing pipeline, which enables them to create a pipeline forecast of upcoming sales and new projects and work orders.

Structured sales process steps go a long way in enabling you to know the right thing to be done to close your sales faster. With standardized sales process steps, the managers can stop worrying about manually tracking their reps and sales and focus more on planning, distributing leads, and managing time and workload.

To create well-defined sales process steps that everybody can stick to which give valuable data, a CRM like Salesforce is essential. Salesforce enabled robust and scalable sales process steps that automate sales stages and also prompt what actions need to be taken. It tells the reps when to follow-up, when to send information, and when to start practicing their sales pitch. It allows you to automate stages and document all communication. This helps in customers creating a successful sales strategy as well as finding out what works and what doesn’t.

A sales process keeps evolving over time. As the business grows, so does the need to adapt to the changing world. It is, therefore, essential to review your processes at each and every step in time and move forward with the market. A scalable and flexible CRM like Salesforce ensures that you do not worry about the right CRM or modifying the systems. You can focus on the most important thing - growing your business and churning out deals.