Standard Sales Process

The standard selling process consists of seven steps:

Prospecting

• The first step in the sales process is identifying and finding potential customers. The most of sales success depends upon the kind of customers that we approach. If we focus our target on everybody and anybody, we will face disappointing failures, because all customers won’t buy our product. So, we have to be very clear about our company’s marketing strategy which focuses on some specific types of customers. The sales team must make efforts to find more and more such customers.
• In some companies, leads are received by the back office in the company and then forwarded to the salespersons. Here, prospecting part is taken care of by the back office. When the company does not supply the leads and the salespeople have to find their own leads, they need to have prospecting skills to find their own leads. There may be many sources for prospecting e.g. Internet search, directories, walk-ins, trade database portals, referrals obtained from existing customers and various other sources etc.

Qualifying

• Not all inquiries or leads convert to sales because leads may not be real or potential sales.
• On following up with the leads received, it may be discovered that the caller does not really need our product or service or does not have money or inclination to buy.
• So, first of all, it is necessary to check and confirm whether the lead is real, i.e. whether the lead really can be a prospective customer or not. This is called “qualifying” a lead.
• Many a times, the caller may have “just called up” to know more, with no firm buying intention.
• Sometimes, people call many suppliers to find the “market rate” of something, even when they have made up a decision of buying from somewhere.
• In other cases, some online or telephonic directories or databases pass on junk leads to suppliers which are completely irrelevant. They do such things to show that they completed their quota of promised leads to the advertiser client.
• E.g. suppose on such a search database or directory, someone makes an inquiry of “Job work agencies for plastic injection molding”, it may send this inquiry to “Plastic injection molding machine manufacturers”. When the machine manufacturer contacts the caller, he may discover that the inquiry was not for a machine, but it was for job work only. This is an unqualified lead. In short, qualifying is to find out whether a lead is a real, genuine inquiry or not.
• Qualifying is a skill salespeople must be good at. They should be able to quickly sort the good and bad leads.

Pre-approach

• After qualifying, if the customer is found to be genuinely interested, the salesperson should try to find out more and more information about the customer.
• Pre-approach is more relevant for B2B, where long term or big value sales which have complex sales process (e.g. Enterprise software, some machinery etc.) are at stake.
• In case of a B2C sale, if the prospect has visited or called our company, we can ask the relevant questions to find out more about her needs. There is not much that the salesperson can do before the customer enters the store or calls up. Detailed pre-approach is not possible or worthwhile for small sales transactions.
• In case of a B2B sale, the salesperson must try to find out the information about the prospect through other sources like their web site, social media, directories, industry literature etc.
• This is required to help the salesperson to research about the prospect and to prepare a suitable approach.

Approach

• This crucial step happens when the sales person meets the prospect or speaks on the phone, introduces the self and sets the agenda.
• This step should be handled carefully because it sets the tone of the sales meeting and a lot depends on the beginning of the interaction.
• The sales person must focus on listening to the customer to find out more about her.

Presentation and Demonstration

• In this step, the salesperson shows or demonstrates the product or service or its brochure or literature and explains all its features, advantages and benefits to the prospect.
• Here is when the salesperson explains the “value” of the product or service.
• Here is when the customer should see that the product or service is useful and it can solve some of her problems.
• At this step, the salesperson must clarify the doubts in the mind of the customer.
• Here, the communication skill of the salesperson is tested.
• Salespeople must deliver their messages in more engaging and compelling ways.

Handling Objections

• Before making a buying decision, a customer may have some doubts or may want to make some clarifications.
• This comes in the form of their questions or reactions. This is called the objection.
• The salesperson must try and find out the real reason for the objection, in the most positive manner without offending the customer in any way.
• Sometimes, some more information, credentials, testimonials and convincing data can help overcoming the customer’s objections.
• Handling objections is the most difficult part in the sales process and every salesperson needs training and practice in handling objections.

Closing

• Once all the objections of the prospect are handled, the salesperson tries to close the sale.
• During the sales interaction, the salespeople should know how to recognize the closing signals from the buyer, including physical actions, comments and questions.
• Sometimes, after all the presentation and demonstrations, the salesperson simply does not ask the prospect whether she wants to buy the product or not? This may be because of lack of confidence or not understanding the right signals from the prospect.

Follow-Up

• A sale does not end when the customer buys and pays for it.
• The salesperson should ensure that the customer is satisfied of the purchase.
• For this, he should contact the customer and check whether all that was promised during the earlier steps of sales process has really happened or not, whether all promises are fulfilled or not.
• This may give insight into some problems in our sales process or in the product or service.
• Successful follow-ups result into long term relationships of the customer with the company.

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(Expert advice to GROW your business wherever you are, whenever you want.

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