Monday, March 7, 2011

Sales Process

A sales process is simply a series of steps that enable you to close more sales and generate more repeat business. The sales process steps can be summarized as below:
Product Knowledge - Good knowledge about your products or services is very essential. You should have knowledge about your competitors and customers as well.
Market Research - Market research and clear understanding on which industries are growing is very important in sales process. Identifying which geographical regions you want to target for lead generation.
Lead Generation and Prospecting - Collect the leads through different sources by cold calling, exhibitions, seminars, networking, marketing etc. You can set qualifying criteria for leads as I have discussed in my previous post on Sales Reports. Make a database and get all the information related to leads.
Try to find out the key decision makers in functions such as product design, engineering, sales and marketing, and manufacturing. Find out their email addresses along with their contact numbers.
The important point here is that if you have got five email addresses in a day then you should send these mails the very same day. Send emails immediately because getting the response from the prospects takes time.
Give 1-2 days time after sending the emails and then you can start calling the prospects. Keep updating the database from time to time.
Fixing Appointment - Try to fix an appointment for face to face meeting or online demonstration. Confirm the appointment by email.
Presentation - Understand the needs and objectives of your prospect. Talk about the benefits and value you can bring to the prospect.  If you think that the prospect is interested in your product or service then you can send the proposal to take this ahead.
Overcome Objections - The objections from the prospect can come from price, benefits, technology etc. Therefore overcoming objections is very crucial in the sales process.
Closing a Deal - Continuous follow up, building relationship with the prospect and maintaining relationship with the existing customers will help in finally closing the deal.



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