Sales Process

Synopsis

Need a more structured and efficient way to close leads? Our Sales Process presentation guides through a pipeline that can take any prospective buyer from the early stage of awareness to a closed sale. It includes slides for Sales Pipeline, Lead Status and Activity, Lead Qualification and Scoring, Sales Channels, and Ideal Customer Profile, plus many more.

Questions and answers

Can you provide real-world examples of companies that have successfully used a structured sales pipeline to close sales?

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Yes, there are several companies that have successfully used a structured sales pipeline to close sales. For instance, Salesforce, a leading CRM provider, uses a structured sales pipeline to manage their sales process. They track each lead from the initial contact to the final sale, allowing them to identify bottlenecks and improve their process. Another example is HubSpot, a marketing, sales, and service software provider. They use a structured sales pipeline to manage their leads and close sales efficiently. This approach allows them to prioritize their leads and focus on those with the highest potential for conversion.

What are some alternative strategies to lead qualification and scoring in the sales process?

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Some alternative strategies to lead qualification and scoring in the sales process include:

1. Predictive Lead Scoring: This uses machine learning algorithms to predict the likelihood of a lead converting into a customer based on historical data.

2. Behavioral Scoring: This method scores leads based on their interactions with your brand, such as website visits, email opens, or social media engagement.

3. Demographic Scoring: This strategy scores leads based on demographic information like job title, industry, or company size.

4. BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) Method: This traditional method scores leads based on their budget, decision-making authority, need for your product, and purchase timeline.

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Sales pipeline

Sales pipeline is a visual representation of the stages a potential buyer goes through in the purchasing process. The pipeline tracks how leads and prospects respond, engage, and perform as they move through the sales process. It shows how many people are paying attention and who is ignoring.

Here, the pipeline shows how customers respond when they are sent a special promotion via text, email, or through an app. ​​It offers visibility into which sales activities are giving the greatest return on investment. (Slide 6)

It can also be visualized as a funnel, as seen here. Sales managers can use data from pipelines to optimize the sales process. It also helps to identify any weak links that might make the funnel less effective. (Slide 7)

This slide provides a closer look at the data along each stage. It highlights the essential metrics under each sales touchpoint. Sales managers can enter the corresponding data in the table at the bottom. (Slide 10)

Sales channels

Businesses often look to experiment and expand through new sales channels. Deciding which channel to use can be difficult and even riksy at times. This visualization helps businesses list and prioritize their sales channels by the average return on investment over time. Channels are ordered from highest ROI to lowest ROI. The channels with the highest ROI should therefore be the highest priority. (Slides 18-19)

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Sales enablement plan

Sales enablement refers to any internal efforts to support the sales team in reaching their goals. Research found that with a strategic sales enablement plan in place, 10.6% more sales reps were able to meet their quotas.

Guide your salespeople through the process with any relevant materials at each stage. Each card here can link to internal sales tools, protocols, and documents that will help your sales team convert leads. (Slide 29)

The sales pitch cheat sheet will make it even easier for salespeople to do their job. In a quick pitch, it's impossible to cover everything. This slide will help salespeople identify the most important words and points to hit in the sales pitch. (Slide 32)

Lead qualification and scoring

While it's important to find the ideal channel to grow your business, it is just as important to identify the ideal customers. Studies indicate that companies with a strong lead qualification and scoring system can experience a 70% increase in lead generation. Lead qualification is a method to measure and predict the value of leads based on their characteristics and needs. This is especially useful for enterprise or B2B sales, as it pushes the sales team to only allocate resources on the most promising leads with the highest potential to convert.

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Lead scoring allows businesses to assign a value to each lead based on various criteria and adjust as the lead progresses through the sales pipeline. The criteria can be adjusted, and the leads that match all the criteria get the highest score and should be prioritized. (Slides 14-16)

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

To tailor their pitches, salespeople need to be aware of how their product can have a positive impact on a prospect's bottom line before reaching out to them. The key to achieving this is by creating an Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP. It identifies the characteristics of the most profitable buyers and helps salespeople understand who to target and why. (Slide 20)

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An ICP should take into account the budgets, pain points, roles, and business goals of the target market. It is also important to analyze your current customers and look for patterns in the largest deals. That includes customers that have been successfully upsold or had their contract expanded.