How to Improve Your Sales Process

Sales is such a dynamic field that often, sales managers lose track of strategy and focus on simply getting their reps to sell as much as possible.

Unfortunately, this approach can lead to diminishing returns in the long term. If you want to sell sustainably, you’ll need a structured sales process.

In this article, we’re going to show you a few great ways to improve your sales process.

Let’s take a look!

Step 1. Review Your Existing Sales Processes

Let’s start from the beginning.

Your first step should be reviewing your current sales processes:

⦁ How do you generate leads?
⦁ How do you engage leads?
⦁ How do you convert leads into customers?
⦁ How do you onboard new customers?
⦁ How do your customers behave?
⦁ How do you retain customers, generate referrals, and maximize their LTVs?

Your reviewing process then branches out into two possibilities:

A. You Have Structured Processes with KPIs

This is ideal. You have strategic processes, and you consistently monitor them with KPIs.

If that’s the case, pay attention to what works, and what doesn’t work.

For example, you may be attracting leads through inbound (e.g. SEO) and outbound (PPC advertising) methods. Jot down your numbers and identify which method is more successful.

B. You Don’t Have Structured Processes and/or Don’t Use KPIs

If this is the case – don’t panic!

Your goal at this stage should be to just identify the things you’re doing, and how successful they are.

Again, you may not have a sales process written down on paper.

But if you want to improve your sales process and be able to generate leads and customers steadily, you should use Spinify, a sales dashboard.

It’ll help you motivate your reps while monitoring your performance.

Step 2. Create a Sales Process Improvement Strategy

Identify Problematic Areas

For example, your lead pipeline may not be attracting enough leads. You may be facing problems generating referrals from existing customers.

Leverage what your sales process is already doing well, and then double-down on it.

If it’s looking like you need help across the board, it’s time to…

Get the Data

Before you get strategic, it’s important to aggregate all the data:

⦁ Processes and KPIs from Step 1
⦁ Customer behavior data
⦁ Target audience research

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably know a few things about your customers:

⦁ How do they find you?
⦁ What makes them convert? How long does it take for them to convert?
⦁ Which offers do they respond best to?
⦁ Which channels do they use to find information?
⦁ Which sources do they trust for making decisions?

In short, you should have both demographic and psychographic data about your customers. If you’re in the B2B space, you should understand who the decision-makers are, and what influences their decisions.

For example, 84% of C-level executives use LinkedIn and other social networks to help them make purchasing decisions.

Establish the Foundations for Sales Process Improvement

Now, you need to establish KPIs to help you monitor your sales process in the future.

Normally, sales managers use KPIs such as:

⦁ Conversion rate from funnel stage to funnel stage
⦁ Overall conversion rate
⦁ Number of leads, customers, and referrals
⦁ Customer acquisition cost
⦁ Lifetime customer value

Make sure you select tools that can help you monitor performance.

We recommend Spinify. It kills two birds with one stone: you’re motivating your reps while monitoring your sales process.

Step 3. Innovate Your Sales Process

Now we’re getting into the thick of it!

You have the baselines, you know what you want to improve, and now it’s time to talk ideas.

Some of the following practices have helped numerous sales managers improve their sales processes:

1. Use Social Selling for Lead Generation

Social selling is definitely all the rage, even in the B2B space.

Make sure you leverage LinkedIn’s (and other networks’) powerful capabilities to attract more qualified leads to your pipeline. You can use LinkedHelper which will allow you to automate processes such as sending invites and messages to your newly acquired connections.

2. Focus on the Needs and the Benefits

Put your customers at the forefront of your sales process. Often, sales reps are too eager to emphasize the features of their products, instead of focusing on the benefits.

Make sure you conduct enough research on customers before giving them an offer. Show them that you can meet their unique needs.

3. Turn Your Sales Process into a Game

Finally, motivate your reps to improve the sales process by turning it into a game.

Use Spinify, a gamified sales dashboard, to motivate your team and improve your sales process.

Everything is easier when you turn it into a game.

And with Spinify, you and your team can track KPIs while getting points and rewards for performance.

After all, who doesn’t love a good game?

Start your free trial