Who’s on your dream 100 list?
People sometimes ask why a business should have a sales process
and it’s a good question.
I mean why can’t we just talk to potential customers ?
Won’t the ones who are interested just buy anyway ?
Well there are few key reasons for this…
Product dump mode
The first one is that in the absence of having a sales process, most
sales people simply go into product dump mode. Meaning they simply
recite the features and advantages of their product, and think that
they are actually selling. When nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t get me wrong, knowing your product is important and speaking
about it at the right time in the process is important, but not till
you’ve found out about your client and what they potentially want.
Roller Coaster Results
If there is no predictable sales process, what you typically get
is roller coaster results. You may have one sales person who can
get the results you want but if your team is simply order taking
and not using a predictable process, your results will rarely
if ever be consistently good.
Too reliant on one person
I have literally seen businesses held to ransom buy one sales
person who is the one bringing in 80% of the revenue. Naturally
this leaves the business vulnerable because if that person leaves
or gets sick, the business will almost definitely suffer.
Can’t scale or grow
Ultimately what this means is that the business can’t scale
up or grow.
Proper diagnostics
A great sales system allows you to properly diagnose a potential
clients situation to determine the best course of action for
them or ultimately, if you want them as a client in the first place.
Consistent Results
Having a great sales process in place will mean you have
consistent results across the board not just coming from one person
Everyone winning
A great sales process allows all your sales people to get
consistent results which means that the whole sales team
and the business is winning.
It also ultimately allows you to grow and scale your
business systematically
The conversion ladder
There are 5 levels of the conversion ladder from businesses
that have no sales process to the businesses that have a
proven, tested and a refined sales process. Below are the
results you can typically expect at each level as you move up.
No sales process
Businesses that have no sales process typically convert at
round 5-10% of the enquiries they get. Interestingly some
businesses can actually make those numbers work, but as
you can imagine they are doing a stack of work for not
much return.
Ineffective
These business have the semblance of a sales process
but it’s either largely ineffective or hardly anyone
in the team is actually using it. These businesses can
typically expect around 10 – 15 % conversion
Generic
These businesses are using a typically using a sales
process but it’s usually one they have learned from
a book or a seminar that is normally not 100% suited
to their business. Having a generic process is
certainly better than not having one at all and
these typically convert at around 15- 30%.
As an average benchmark across the board, most
businesses have around a 20 – 25% conversion rate.
Structured
These businesses have a process that is structured
and has been put in that recognises their industry
their market and their product. Businesses that
have gone to the trouble if putting a process
like this in place can expect from 30 to sometimes
60% conversions from enquiry to paying client.
Proven Tested and Refined
Once you have a sales process in place and it’s
working, you can continue to improve it by
testing it and implementing ongoing coaching
with the team members you have who are using it.
If you continue to test and refine your process
you can, over time expect to grow it from 60 % to
80 – 90 %.
Think about that for a minute….
The same investment in advertising the same product
delivery cost now gives you double sometimes triple
your profit.
CASE STUDY From 40% – 90% Sales Conversions
As an example, I have a client in the health and
wellness industry who I worked with in her sales
process.
She went from converting 4 out of every enquiries to
after we worked on her sales process, she now
converts 8-9 enquiries into paying clients.
This has totally transformed her business. Her
profit has gone through the roof and she is now
not only paying massive chunks off her business
loan, she is making a stack of profit as well.
And what’s even better is she has now trained
another team member who works for her to use
the same process and she is getting the exact
same results.
If you’d like to learn more about how to apply a
winning sales framework to your business,
come along to the next 1 Day Professional Sales
Master Class on Dec 8th in Perth
You can check it all out here.