The Sales Process – Backbone of the Business
Nesh Thompson | May 29th, 2009 - 12:01 amWe are surrounded by processes everyday. When you get up out of bed you are going through the process of waking up, the everyday process of breathing is a set of organic processes, when you turn the ignition key of a car you are starting a very complicated process of mechanics a by-product of which is energy and motion. Whether a mechanical or organic process the same things are present, the process is reliant on a series of events and actions to happen each of which is reliant upon the previous event successfully completing.
In the business sense, the sales process is a series of events that a company has to go through in order to successfully sell that product. The sales process isn’t, or shouldn’t, be the sole concern of the sales department, nor should it be up to individual sales people to fathom or discover. In essence, the sales process should be the focus of every department in any company where sales drives the business (and let us face it, which business isn’t?). The overall sales process as an entity separate to other functions within the business is like trying to understand how the lungs work without knowing how blood circulation works. An understanding of any part of a process on it’s own is of limited benefit. The same can be said for sales, how can you know the process of selling a product without understanding the market audience or how the product is made or serviced.
But hang on a minute, I’m a salesman, it isn’t my job to do the marketing or to implement the product I’m selling or to profile the ideal client. That is someone else’s job. Well, as a process statement this is entirely the wrong attitude. When you drive your car, you expect every mechanical part to work in harmony with its corresponding parts; if one part doesn’t work it usually affects the effectiveness of the overall machine. The sales process is similar, to gauge effectiveness one needs to see the overall picture from concept to finish, which means mapping out from the very initial product design process, manufacturing process, marketing process, selling process, delivery and implementation process and service process. Depending on the complexities of the company, product offerings, customers etc. there can be a myriad of different processes within processes. This is where the importance of mapping comes into its own. Many companies, I’m constantly surprised to find out, don’t or haven’t mapped their process, rather leaving the company to sell through an evolutionary process of learning.
Diagnostically mapping out a sales process is the same as learning how an engine works. Unless you know what part of your process isn’t working how do you know what to fix? I for one don’t know how my car works, so I don’t have the power to fix it if goes wrong. The same is true for sales.
If a salesman can’t sell a product, then they may be blamed for not having the right skills. If the sales process is mapped and historical information is gathered monitoring sales process effectiveness, then you can find out a lot more…perhaps that it isn’t the salesman’s fault for not selling the product but that the wrong product is being sold to the wrong audience.
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