Why Salespeople Skip the Sales Process (And How It’s Killing Your Revenue)

If you were going to plant a fruit tree, you would need to follow a five-step process which includes:

1. Dig a hole
2. Place the tree and fill the hole
3. Fertilize and Water
4. Maintain (Sun, water, pruning, fertilizer)
5. Harvest

It should be obvious that you can’t mess with the sequence because if you do anything in the wrong order, your fruit tree adventure will end before it begins.

This logic makes sense to nearly ever human being but when you apply a filter for only those in the sales profession, including salespeople, sales managers, sales leaders and senior executives who oversee the sales function, that logic goes right out the window.  When I wrote Baseline Selling in 2005, only 10% of all salespeople were following a sales process.  Today, the number has more than tripled, to 34%, but in my opinion, that is still very bad.  While 75% of the strongest salespeople are sales process compliant, the number drops to only 6% of the weakest salespeople.

The stats represent salespeople who follow a sales process.  Certainly, there are companies that have sales processes but a percentage of their salespeople do not follow it for one of the following reasons:

• It’s not really a process, it’s more of a methodology. There is a huge difference between the two.  A process is a framework for the sales cycle and has several stages, each with several milestones which should be followed in the proper sequence.  A methodology speaks to the approach or conversations that move the process from milestone to milestone and stage to stage.  Methodologies are inherently incomplete and good salespeople recognize this shortcoming.
• It is too difficult to execute.  Several sales methodologies, like SPIN Selling and The Challenger Sale are so difficult to execute because of their deep, probing questioning requirements that only salespeople with a Sales DNA of greater than 82 are capable of executing it.  That’s the top 7% of all salespeople.
• The results are inconsistent.  Some sales methodologies, like Solution Selling and BANT (I know BANT is not really a sales process but too many people still believe it is) are improperly sequenced, or incomplete, causing salespeople to prematurely disqualify an unrealistic percentage of opportunities.
• The sales process is homegrown. It may have way too many steps, too few steps, or steps that make little sense and the sales team knows it.
• The sales process is more of a business process. It may include a sales stage that does little to help, guide or direct a salesperson through the sales process.
• The sales process is not thoroughly integrated into CRM. There isn’t any continuity or reinforcement, milestones do not appear and cannot be completed, and playbook capable CRMs aren’t properly leveraged.
• Salespeople believe the sales process is too rigid. This prevents them from inserting their personality into the process, believing it makes them less effective.
• Salespeople think they are more effective if they simply wing it. They need to improvise as they go along and a structured sales process prevents them from winging it.

Several years ago, I created a ten-minute video (that some of you may have seen) that compares Baseline Selling, SPIN Selling, The Challenger Sale, Solution Selling and Strategic Selling.

More recently, I expanded the slide deck used in the Video and added NEAT, SNAP, Sandler, Conceptual Selling and MEDDIC.  You can download the slide deck here.

If you want a successful implementation of sales process, there are six steps you must follow:

1. A company with strong expertise in sales process customization (like Kurlan & Associates) reviews the current process or whatever their best salespeople are doing, and collaboratively creates a custom, formal, staged, milestone-centric, customer focused process using best practices.  The process is optimized by proper sequencing so that the sales process builds on itself.  A custom, predictive sales scorecard is collaboratively created and added as a milestone in the sales process.  Instructions are provided to integrate the process into CRM and the process is provided in several formats.
2. The new sales process is formally introduced to sales leadership and then the sales team as part of a sales kick-off to a sales training program.
3. Salespeople are trained in the sales process by learning the sales methodology to help them follow and execute the sales process to achieve consistent and effective results.
4. Sales Leadership holds salespeople accountable for adoption of the new sales process.
5. Sales Managers coach their salespeople in the context of the sales process.
6. Pipeline Reviews are held regularly and all questions, challenges and answers should occur in the context of the sales process.

Companies with an optimized and effective sales process that their salespeople follow and execute realize a 20% increase in revenue compared to before they had the sales process in place.

Why?

• Everyone speaks the same language. Check out the following dialog between sales manager and salesperson.Sales Manager: “Where are you with XYZ?”
  Salesperson: “I’m at 2nd Base.”
  Sales Manager: “Good.  What is their compelling reason to buy?”
  Salesperson: “They need to replace their software.”
  Sales Manager: “That’s what they need, but it’s not their compelling reason.”  Call them back and learn why they need to replace it, why it’s a problem, who cares about it, what the status quo is costing them, what will be gained,  how that will help, how the status quo and future state impact John (the contact) personally, and how John feels about that.”
  Salesperson: OK.
•  A great sales process is duplicable and repeatable with consistent, predictive results
• Sales Managers have something to manage
• Salespeople have an easy-to-follow road map that is reinforced in CRM
• Coaching and pipeline reviews have the proper context
• Salespeople improve with each repetition of the sales process on their way to sales process mastery
• Opportunities that aren’t winnable can be identified early so as to lose fast, eliminating wasted time
• Next steps are more apparent

A customized, structured and optimized sales process will bear fruit. If you (your sales team or yourself) need help perfecting your sales process, improving your consultative approach, increasing your win rate, creating value-based conversations to replace price-focused talking points, or filling your pipeline with quality opportunities, we can help.  Just click here and we’ll be happy to talk with you!