Sales process or sales passivity?

When I conduct an initial conversation with a potential client, one of the things that I ask is whether they have a clearly defined sales process, and further, whether it varies by segment or customer profile. Quite frequently there is a moment of awkward silence and hesitation after I ask this question, and if there are multiple leaders in the meeting, they usually exchange a slightly embarrassed glance and wait for each other to start talking.

There are several reasons for having defined sales processes, and further refining and differentiating those processes by segment, customer profile, and/or target industry. But the most important and basic reason is that if you do not have a sales process that you are proactively and prescriptively following, then by definition you are being passive. Being passive in turn means that you have ceded the responsibility for closing the deal to your prospect. And ceding that responsibility is a recipe for longer sales cycles, lower close rates, slower growth, and less revenue.

So what does it mean to have a sales process that you are proactively and prescriptively following? First, it means that you have discerned all the necessary steps for the evaluation and purchase of your product or service. You know what value proposition has to presented, what influencers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders need to be involved, and what steps have to be followed for the evaluation to be complete and to have earned the right to ask for a signed contract. Perhaps most importantly, you have clarified the minimum steps that have to be taken, the minimum engagements that need to be completed, in order to ask for the business, so that you are minimizing the average sales cycle length. Second, once you have clearly defined your ideal sales process, you are guiding your prospect from one step in that process to the other, proactively suggesting the appropriate next steps, who should be involved on both sides, and what the optimal timeframe is for that next step. Finally, it means that you never conclude an encounter with a prospect without defining and scheduling what happens next.

Many in the sales profession will object to the notion that they are ‘passive’ in their approach to their sales opportunities. But the reality is that, if they are not following the formula above, they are tacitly locked into a cycle of asking their prospects, in effect, ‘What do you want to do next and when would you like to do it?’ I have seen many early-stage companies, and many individual sales professionals, dramatically improve their results simply by moving from this passive/reactive approach to following a true sales process.

Another important consideration, as noted briefly above, is whether a single defined sales process will work for your organization, or if you need multiple processes. If you sell into multiple segments (small business, mid-market, enterprise, and/or global organizations), you will want to design a distinct sales process for each segment. The same may be true if you have prospects in different industries or with separate and distinct business models. Sometimes these varied sales processes can differ dramatically from each other. For example, a product that can be sold into all the segments mentioned above may have a sales process for small businesses consisting of a short discovery call and demo, a free trial period, and a single closing conversation with the business owner. But the same product being sold into the enterprise segment will likely require ongoing discovery, multiple demos with different teams, a security review, and the involvement of the finance, IT, legal, and procurement teams of the target company, in addition to the operational users and executive decision-makers. Crafting the appropriate sales processes for different industries and segments then leads to important organizational questions: Will you also segment your sales team? Should territories by defined by industry rather than geographically? etc.

When you’re in a rapidly growing early-stage company, and perhaps wearing many hats, taking a ‘pause’ to think through all these questions and carefully design sales processes may seem a bit tedious, or even a ‘distraction from selling.’ But like all good planning, there is a very significant return on investment in this upfront effort. With defined, proactive sales processes, your sales cycles will be shortened, your unqualified prospects will be more quickly identified and therefore cause less lost time and effort, your close rates will go up, and your revenue growth curve will be steeper.