Best Practices Q & A - Part 12

Question: “Your recent article on marketing and sales management best practices could have been written specifically about our company. We don’t really have a true sales process, as you wrote, so there are good months and bad ones. What can we do to improve this?”

Answer: “First, start openly discussing the fact that there is NO actual, defined process. Make sure you are clear that this is not a reflection on any manager or sales person’s capabilities per se. The person leading the sales team may in deed believe that there IS a process, thinking of the steps, scripts, etc. that may be in use. So, a head-on confrontation will not work. Instead, we suggest starting with a collaborative effort to document the process, as it is now, in whatever form. With this result in hand, the next step is to collaborate to define measurements for these steps, NOT the overall process only (“win / lose” the sale only).

The point is to measure the effectiveness of each step in the process, so that new ways can be devised to improve the process. If the process really isn’t followed, or can’t be defined well, this will become clear through these steps. If it is, great! The main feature of a defined, measured process we are most interested in is that it can be improved upon in significant ways over time. With continuous, consistent improvements in your sales process, sustained success is just a matter of time.”
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