Unlocking the Power of Sales Processes: Navigating Jargon, Instincts, and Implementation
A sales process isn't just about structure; it's a strategic advantage. Think about how sports teams nowadays lean heavily on analytics versus gut feelings. Without a sales process, regardless of what you are selling, you will often lose to someone using one. Yet, there are many reasons sales process implementations fail; it's almost a miracle when companies succeed. Why?
For starters, there needs to be more clarity on terminology. Next, there is inherent resistance for salespeople to fit into a perceived rigid structure. Lastly, there are usually multiple significant missteps in implementation. Let's break all this down and uncover how to implement a sales process successfully.
Here is a baseline of standard definitions that need to be understood -
Sales Methodology - Consider this your philosophy in executing a sales process, like the "Challenger Sale." It's how you go about it, not what you are doing.
Sales Process - The repeatable stages you undergo to close a deal. From prospecting to closure, the sales process is the reverse engineering of customer actions that lead to winning. Think of it like a roadmap for salespeople.
Sales Qualification- Tools to evaluate in-progress opportunities for potential pitfalls. For instance, the popular B2B MEDDIC isn't a process but a qualification tool.
There is inherent resistance to following what seems like a stringent sales process because it feels counterintuitive to our spirit. Documenting every move on platforms like sfdc.com raises even more questions about creativity, freedom, and the validity of the imposed process.
To go even deeper, many top-performing salespeople operate on instinct, often described as "unconscious competence" (akin to riding a bike without thinking about it). They usually excel in a specific aspect of sales without fully understanding why. When you ask these sellers to embrace a repeatable sales process, you ask them to go backward. You are unwinding them from knowing what to do to realize there are areas they don't know what they don't know. The challenge is magnified when those unconscious competent sellers get promoted to leaders. Pairing an instinctively capable leader with a newcomer lacking foundational skills leads to super-repping (the pervasive problem of having a leader doing the work for the salesperson because they think it's faster and easier to do it themselves).
Lastly, introducing a new sales process often needs more proper rollout or explanation. Too frequently, it is designed by individuals distant from ground-level sales and loses all credibility. Over time, a mismatch between strategy and practice and infrequent updates leads many to ignore the whole effort.
Now you see why there is so much cynicism about a sales process and why the effort more often fails than succeeds. Even if you get the terminology clarified, with a rollout done correctly, with stages that align with actions - you will still have to convince sellers to follow it! And here is the unfortunate reality: with any change, there will be 33% of people who are eager to try, 33% who will wait and see, and 33% who will never do anything different.
Your plan should build belief by showing quick wins with the 33% eager to try, convince the 33% waiting that there are benefits to testing, and, sadly, for the 33% that won't budge, help move them along to do something else. You can start the sales process training with your front-line leaders first and specifically teach them how to win the battle of intentions. The struggle of intentions is the constant fight for the hearts and minds of the 66% that can change. (You might be surprised when rolling out a sales process to your front line that you'll need to address super-repping simultaneously).
It's not easy, but a company that is operating universally on a repeatable sales process will, over time, dominate its competitors that are not. You'll need to make sure everyone has a common language to start. Address the deep-rooted reasons sellers are reluctant to use something that seems to slow them down. Understand that you will only be able to get some on board. And lastly, win the battle of intentions at the front-line leaders and celebrate those quick wins to build momentum.
