How To Know if Your Sales Process is Effective
Sales processes are unique to each professional services firm. No two sales processes will look exactly the same. It can be difficult to know whether your sales process is truly effective because every sales process is so different.
However, if you do not know whether your sales process is effective, you will have no way to improve it. Evaluating the effectiveness of your sales process and its performance can help you learn what your service professionals are doing well and what is resonating with clients. These insights will help you better serve clients and attract quality prospects.
At Sebastian Lane Consulting, we recommend evaluating the effectiveness of your sales process through feedback and assessments.
Feedback From Clients
One of the most valuable ways to determine if your sales process is effective is through feedback. Feedback should be incorporated throughout your sales process at specific steps.
For example, you should ask for feedback throughout the initial steps of your sales process, to ensure that your leads are being taken care of and their needs are met. If you get in the habit of asking for feedback, you will quickly discover what steps of your sales process are working well and where your sales process needs improvement.
Once you have converted a lead into a client, send a survey and ask them questions about their experience. Were they satisfied with your process? Did they view you as responsive to their needs? Did the timeline meet their expectations? A survey allows for more formal, comprehensive feedback from a client after they have experienced your complete start-to-finish sales process.
Feedback is also helpful throughout client engagements. We recommend scheduling regular check-ins with your client. During these check-ins, you can use the time not just to update your client on your services, but also to ask them for critiques. In this case, the evaluation is a bit more informal and will be received in real-time during your conversation. Just remember to take notes after each conversation to refer back to and use while refining your sales process.
Third-Party Assessments
At Sebastian Lane Consulting, we offer our Sales Best Practices Assessment to benchmark your sales process, people, and practices against top-performing competitors. An objective third-party assessment like this allows you to poke holes in your sales process to see where there are opportunities for improvement. Once these weak points are identified, you can refine your sales process to make it as effective as possible.
The Benefits
Aside from improving your sales process and its effectiveness, feedback and assessments provide several benefits. First and foremost, you will have a more refined sales process. Secondly, you will gain clarity for both your service professionals and your clients. Eventually, neither your service professionals nor your clients will question where they are in the sales process and how to proceed with the next step. You will also hone superior messaging that is most effective at converting a lead into a client. Your clients will tell you what messaging resonated with them and hit their pain points. Last, but not least, the added confidence and clarity will improve both your employee engagement and client experience.
If you incorporate feedback into your sales process and schedule regular assessments, you can ensure that your messaging is clear and consistent. In the end, you will have a proven & repeatable process that helps your business grow.
If you have questions about Outsourced Sales Management, call Sebastian Lane Consulting at 443-534-6783 or email us at jesse@sebastianlaneconsulting.com. Our top priority is to provide value for your business, which is why we provide 30-day partnerships instead of binding contracts.