I often see businesses run out to purchase a CRM system with the expectation that the system will provide them with “Best Practices” for their sales team. Although a good CRM system can provide you a structure for your and give management vision into how process is working, it will not dictate what that sales process should be. You must be able to map out your own sales process.
How to get started building a sales process:
First Step – Always start with desired results in mind. Can you clearly define the reasons for having a sales process? Start with identifying what the absence of a sales process means to the business, means to coaching new reps, means to determining how to optimizing territory performance, means to achieving sales growth goals. Questions such as “What is needed to have a reliable sales forecast?” will come out of your reflection.
Second Step – Asking what type of sales process you want. CSO Insights suggest that there are four types:
- Random Process – No single process so every rep does their own thing.
- Informal Process – Sales reps have been exposed to a process that they are expected to use, but the use is neither monitored nor measured.
- Formal Process – Sales reps are trained on a defined sales process and periodic reviews are conducted to see how effective it is, with changes made based on analysis.
- Dynamic Process – Company has a system in place to monitor and provide continuous feedback on sales reps’ use of the formal process. The company is proactive in modifying the process when market conditions change.
Other Steps – As you work through mapping out your sales process you will encounter other steps such as defining a common language, determining what is important from the customers’ buying process, establishing monitoring check points, and using practical tools to help the sales reps be more productive. It is in these areas that has a valuable role to play for both capturing information and becoming the ‘one data truth’ about customers and process results for the sales reps and managers.
Just remember that having a CRM system doesn’t mean you have sales process. A CRM system is for tracking and measuring how the process is working as you monitor and measure all interactions with customers and prospects.
by InfoGrow
