Managing the Sales Proccess to Produce Faster Results

To make a purchase decision, each individual, department, or company goes through a predictable set of steps. The time required to complete those steps, or move through the sales cycle as we have come to know it, is typically determined by factors such as who is affected by the decision, the effort or time needed to change, the cost of the decision, and even the risk associated with the decision.

Today companies are still going through the same process they did several years ago to make decisions, especially capital purchases, but their decisions are being made with much more care and the time to close the typical order is lengthening. Decision-making authority has even been elevated to higher levels in hopes of reducing risks and controlling expectations. Purchases that are approved are becoming bottlenecked by tight budgets which limit the number given the green light in a specified period.

To accelerate sales, an organization or salesperson must clearly define the sales cycle and uncover potential obstacles that must be overcome to enable the sale to progress faster. Issues that were only minor in good times can become stumbling blocks if not identified and addressed by highly skilled, proactive, well-managed salespeople. These obstacles can block sales and reduce the organization's all important revenue flow.
How can we manage the sales process to produce quicker results? It has been known for years that the effectiveness of an individual, or an organization, is determined in a large part by interacting two key factors. They are sales skills and sales activities. You might even use the Formula, Sales Skills X Sales Activities = Results To Predict Output.
First, let's look at sales activities. How often an individual or group is engaged in key selling activities such as prospecting, needs analysis, presenting proposals, giving demonstrations, or closing, determines the number of orders closed. An adequate quantity of activities is essential. If a person doesn't ask the prospect to make a decision which will lead to a commitment, a sale cannot occur.

Second, let's examine sales skills. The effectiveness of an organization or salesperson is also determined by how well he or she is able to move prospects from one step to the next through the sales cycle. The quality in converting prospects to orders and clients will have a significant effect on the number and quantity of sales each month. The skills that are critical in most situations are prospecting questioning techniques, uncovering needs, relating benefits and value, handling objections, presenting and proposing solutions, demonstrating products and lastly closing for commitment.

To improve results some organizations focus on increasing sales activities, while others focus on building sales skills. What should you stress in today's uncertain recovery to boost sales?

Even if a salesperson is highly skilled, but generates few key sales activities such as prospecting calls, presenting a proposal or demonstrating a solution, a consistently poor sales performance will result. You may have seen a salesperson with poor sales skills who feverishly engages in prospecting activities, only to uncover relatively few prospects and to close even fewer. However, the individual with excellent sales skills who consistently develops an adequate amount of prospects, because of a healthy level of sales activities, will consistently be a high performer.

Let's look at focusing on sales activities as a method for increasing sales results. It naturally follows that increasing the number of qualified prospects with whom a salesperson is working will increase sales results. Since each territory and individual is different, it is important to determine the specific sales cycle through which prospects move before making a purchase decision. By determining the success rate at each step of the sales cycle, it can be determined how many prospects it will take to close a sale. The level of prospecting activity required to increase the desired amount in sales can even be determined.

For example, if an individual is currently making 50 calls either in person or possibly by telephone to generate ten qualified prospects, which results in five demonstrations or proposals and one closed sale, he can increase his results by 20% by simply increasing prospecting activity by 20%. This activity should generate 20% more qualified prospects which will flow through the normal sales cycle at the same rate, resulting in 20% increase in sales.