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Sales

"How Standardizing Your Sales Processes Using Contact Management Software Can Increase Your Sales Revenues By 50% or More in Less
than One Year"

Oreste “Rusty” D’Aversa, President -Skyrocket Selling

 "Sales can no longer be a random event in any business organization.  Sales, arguably the most important function in the company, drives everything from employee hiring, production planning to downsizing."

Generating consistent sales revenues must be a standardized process within your business, that is, with the appropriately hired and trained sales personnel, will produce a constant revenue stream.  Gone are the days when you can go to the management team and say to them “I feel pretty good about closing that deal I’m working”.  Rather if certain milestones are not met in The Sales Cycle it is high unlikely you will be bringing in the deal.  More and more businesses are implementing standardized sales practices to make the sales function uniform within their companies.  Be it a small business or international corporation, companies who implement standardized sales processes coupled with contact management solutions are recognizing consistent “bankable” sales revenues, greater productivity from their sales forces, and everyone speaking a common “sales language”.

 Advantages of Standardizing Sales Processes

Standardization provides uniformity and replication.  You find many companies using these basic concepts to duplicate their success over and over again.  Take for example, any of the major fast food franchises.  Few people are quick to say they really like the food, the main thing about these restaurants is how consistently the food tastes in all of their establishments.  Whether you order an item in the east coast or the west coast it is prepared, presented and tastes the same.

The same concepts must hold true for your sales processes in your organization.  If you are looking to consistently generate sales revenues you must have standardized methodologies in your sales process specifically in the areas of: Sales Cycle Management, Sales Forecasting Guidelines and Sales Pipeline Reporting.

The Sales Cycle

The Sales Cycle, the steps that are followed, in exact order, to close a deal.  The Sales Cycle is the backbone to standardizing all of the sales processes.  Each step of sales cycle needs to be documented and agreed upon by all parties in order to have a common “sales language” within the organization.

A basic Sales Cycle might look like this:

Step 1: Meaningful Conversation – basic qualifying questions are asked and answered (e.g. are funds available, decision date, etc.)

Step 2: Presentation – of your company, products or services.

Step 3: Demonstration – of products or needs analysis to determine services.

Step 4: Proposal Submission – how much is it going to cost.

Step 5: Contract – negotiation of proposal to finalize the offering.

Step 6: Signed Contract – a closed deal.

Usually the more expensive the item or service the more lengthy and complex The Sales Cycle.  As you can plainly see it is highly unlikely that a sales person will go from Step 1: Meaningful Conversation to Step 6: Signed Contract.

By standardizing The Sales Cycle everyone from the CEO, Vice President of Sales, Sales Manager and Sales Person in the entire company will be speaking the same “sales language”.  This eliminates the confusion of where you are in “working the deal”.

 Sales Forecasting Guidelines

Now that The Sales Cycle has been identified we can now establish Sales Forecasting Guidelines.  These guidelines are percentages on how probable a deal is going to close. Later in The Sales Pipeline Report section there will be a  discussion as to  when it will close.  Let’s use same Sales Cycle that was previously discussed.

            Sales Cycle Step                            Closing Probability Percentage (%)

Step 1: Meaningful Conversation                                  10 %              

Step 2: Presentation                                                         60 %

Step 3: Demonstration                                                     70 %

Step 4: Proposal Submission                                         80 %

Step 5: Contract                                                                 90%

Step 6: Signed Contract                                                   100%

Since this is simple sales cycle the percentages are a bit skewed.  By simple observation one can see that if a deal is at 90% all the previous step were completed and there is a high probability that this deal will close soon and is a  “bankable” deal.

 Sales Pipeline Reporting

The Sales Pipeline Report is a weekly sales management report produced to monitor the progress of each potential deal (sales lead) by a sales representative.  It is a critical report to the very survival of a company.  Providing the management team with a wealth of business intelligence.  You can identify slow or stalled deals, top producers and never have a deal “fall through the cracks” without being provided with a valid reason for it’s demise.

Below is a simple Sales Pipeline Report.  Notice all the information that is captured on this report and how at a glance you determine the amount and date when revenue is projected to close. 

Sample Sales Pipeline Report

ACME CAR DEALERSHIP

 Sales Pipeline Report for Week Ending Friday, February 20, 2004

Sale     Prospect          Item     Amount            Projected         Pipeline %       Pipeline%       

Rep      Name               Name   (Dollars)           Close Date       Last Week        This Week

 

ABC     Sally Smith       Car       $25,000                2/27/04             80%                  90%

ABC     Bob Jones         Car       $20,000                3/19/04             70%                  80%

ABC     John Booker      Car       $35,000                2/20/04             90%                  100%

 

DEF      Eve Adams        Car       $25,000               4/02/04             60%                  70%

DEF      Harry Treat        Car       $15,000                3/19/04             80%                  90%

DEF      Sam Lamper      Car       $25,000               3/12/04             70%                  80%

 

GHI       Ernie Accu        Car       $25,000               5/07/04             10%                  10%

GHI       Mary Tyree        Car       $25,000              2/20/04             10%                  10%

GHI       Tammy Papp     Car       $25,000              4/30/04             10%                  10%

Based on this business intelligence an organization can project sales revenues and make other business decisions based on anticipated revenue.  If you had a strong pipeline for goods or services you could better plan negotiations with vendors, order more materials, hiring more personnel and so on.

 Contact Management Software and Sales Productivity

As you can see by standardizing The Sales Cycle, creating Sales Forecasting Guidelines and a producing a weekly Sales Pipeline Report a wealth of information is produced, collected and analyzed giving you (the CEO, Vice President of Sales or Sales Manager) very powerful business sales intelligence.  Here is where the speed, analysis and reporting of Contact Management software shines.

Once the initial analysis of your sales processes are completed, the Contact Management software is implemented and data entered (or imported) monitoring your sales revenues will be much easier.  Reports, graphs and other types of sales analysis can easily be performed.  Sales intelligence to the management team will be updated weekly and will be as accurate as the data entered. 

Conclusion

            Coupling standardized sales processes with contact management software will greatly enhance your sales productivity and profitability.  Without standard sales processes you will find most contact management software useless.   Make the investment in some consulting to analyze and standardize your sales cycle.  Together with contact management software you will manage your sales team in a whole new way.  You will spot trends quicker, see where weaknesses lie, make adjustments faster and easier.  Sales in not a random event but rather a series a proper executed processes to generate consistent sales revenues for your organization.  Properly design your sales cycle and couple it to some contact management software and watch your profits skyrocket!

About the Author

Oreste "Rusty" D'Aversa has more than twenty years experience in: sales, sales management, software, technology, professional services, support, training,  customer service and public speaking. He has managed, trained and mentored sales teams generating millions of dollars in revenue.

From selling complex technical solutions to selling basic products and services, Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Rusty has the ability to adapt his sales methodologies and deliver proven sales techniques that can be duplicated by his clients insuring their success to close more business immediately!

The founder of Skyrocket Selling, Rusty has worked with companies like IBM, American Express, Foster-Wheeler, ADP, UPS,  Bank of New York, BMW of North America, British Airways, Office Depot, and TyCom amongst other Fortune 1000 organizations, as well as small-to-medium sized companies and entrepreneurs in all phases of the sales and customer service process.

Delivering real world experience as a business owner, sales manager and "bag carrying" sales person, Rusty has appeared on radio and television on a range of related topics. He regularly holds public seminars featuring practical solutions for increasing sales revenues and enhancing employee productivity in the new economy.

Rusty's well-rounded background also includes experience in Accounting, Information Technology, Human Resources, Outplacement Services and Recruiting.

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