Sales Process Development
Improve Sales Force Effectiveness through Sales Process Design & Implementation
Historically, the dominant school of thought on sales process held that each sale is a unique event, that great sales people are born, not taught, and that the role of sales management is to find superstars, pay them well, and get out of the way.
A growing body of evidence suggests that the most successful sales people are effective less for who they are and more for what they do. Our experience reinforces that companies should study top performers, capture their success in the form of a sales process, and then train and manage all sales representatives to this standard. Clients who have followed this process have improved the average performance of their sales people by as much as 20 percent.
There is no one best sales process. A company may employ different sales processes in different markets, and two different companies may employ different processes in the same market, all yielding positive results. While the ideal sales process depends on a number of factors, all successful sales processes share certain characteristics:
- Create value for the customer
- Adapt to the customer buying process
- Specify roles and responsibilities for all relevant functions across the organization
- Provide a way to measure success and make adjustments if goals are not met
ZS works with client companies to design and implement a sales process framework that incorporates the best practices of the client’s most successful sales people, reflects the desired buying processes of their customers, and draws on industry best practices for sales process. The collaborative approach we employ ensures a robust solution, and one that is both well understood and endorsed.
Most projects begin with in-depth research of customer buying processes and of the selling processes of our client’s most effective sales people. ZS then develops a blueprint for the sales process and measurement program. Next, the blueprint is refined through a series of hands-on workshops with our client. From this point, we work with our client to implement a comprehensive sales process.