The Outline for Your New Sales Process

A sales process isn’t necessarily a script, or a folder full of email templates. It is basically the stages of the process through which you guide the customer. 

Your primary role as a B2B salesperson is to guide the customer through the buying process, and make sure everything runs smoothly with the deal. 

There are five basic stages to any type of sales process, and they are left vague on purpose. You are meant to “fill in the blanks” with your own ideas and techniques which are unique to your product or industry. 

Or, we could always talk it over during a video call! 

Anyway, the five stages to a B2B sales process are as follows: 

• Prospect

• Approach 

• Presentation 

• Referral

• Maintenance 

Let’s have a closer look at what each of these stages really mean in regard to how you are supposed to navigate the process. 

Prospect

This one should be fairly obvious, especially if you’ve been in sales for any amount of time. However, we need to get clear on what I mean when I use the word, “prospect” in this article. 

For this article, “prospect” means to research and seek out accounts or people with whom you want to do business. This could be hearing about a potential company that seems like a good fit, and so you go online and do a bit of research on them. 

Or, let’s say you want to find some new restaurants in a certain area. Getting their name, gathering the contact information, and studying their website is what I mean by, “prospecting” in regard to a sales process. 

Another example of prospecting could be running reports in your CRM and looking for a good list of folks to call for the day/week/month. Generally speaking, I suggest researching a company before you decide to even call them, and that will require a bit of time and work. That, in my opinion, is prospecting. 

If you think of the meaning of the word itself in regard to gold prospecting, it makes more sense to consider the research aspect “prospecting” than it is to consider the phone work prospecting. In fact, the phone call work is what brings us to the next stage of the sales process. 

Approach 

This is the stage that is often referred to as “prospecting”, but I disagree. Sales Therapy says that this is the Approach Stage! 

By this stage, we have already done the research on the company, and we understand what and how we want to pitch the product or service. 

So, let’s write out a rough script for how you want to deliver your message. 

I say a “rough” script simply because I don’t believe in writing out a perfectly worded script and then reading it to the customer. You must be yourself when you’re on the phone, and be as natural as possible. People misspeak, it happens, so it’s okay when it happens to you even if you’re a salesperson!

Regardless, you still need to write down a rough script. And when I say write, I mean to physically write the script - with a pen and paper. 

This works for a lot of folks simply because the act of writing the script will help them remember what to say when on the call, and it comes out more naturally. However, some folks may remember things differently, and I’ve heard that some salespeople actually record themselves speaking to practice for a call instead of writing a script! 

Either way, you need to approach the customer as empathetically and authentically as possible. You also want to be as prepared as possible to make sure you’re on the ball when they start asking questions about the product you’re pitching them. 

For the most part, this is your very first interaction with the prospect, and therefore it is your first impression. You have to make it count! 

For some tips, and a better explanation in general, on how to “prospect”, or cold call, you should read some of the other articles published on the website. 

Presentation 

This is probably the easiest part of the sales process. This is the part where you pitch or present your product to the customer and possibly their team. 

Presentation is the part where most salespeople excel the most, but in my opinion they rely too heavily on this particular stage, and don’t put much thought into the next two stages of the sales process that are actually quite important. 

They may even be more important than the first few stages we looked at, if I may be so bold. 

Referrals 

This is where a lot of your empathy will come into play, because this stage is going to be a two-way street. 

This stage comes after the initial sale or deal has been closed. This stage is for after a relationship has been successfully developed, or is at least a functioning business relationship. 

Especially after you go above and beyond to make your customer feel taken care of during the buying process, it is a great idea to ask them for recommendations. Or, with a different word, a referral! 

Just ask them if there is anyone they know who could benefit from your services! The worst they can say is, “no” but they most likely will not do that. 

However, this stage is a two-way street, remember? 

If they provide you with a few referrals, then you need to reciprocate. No, it does not have to be immediately, and it doesn’t have to feel transactional at all. 

You just simply try to keep an ear out for anyone you speak with who could use that person’s product or service, and refer them! Or, you could give them some attention on your social media accounts, and give them a shoutout and tag a few people you know. 

Either way, having that type of relationship with a paying customer is the best kind of relationship because you always have someone watching your back, as long as you watch theirs. 

I have this level of relationship with quite a few customers in my professional job, and it is a very great feeling for both involved! 

Maintenance 

This is the most critical stage of the sales process, and it can also be the most devastating if it remains largely ignored. Generally speaking, losing a good customer for any reason is much more costly for a business than it is to find a new good customer from scratch. 

Half the battle in B2B sales is gaining momentum in the deal. The larger the corporation, the harder the momentum is to get. 

When you have a good customer with whom you have a solid relationship, getting them to do more business or take on another product line is going to be much easier and more successful than having to find a brand new company to buy the same amount of product. 

Ironically, this is the stage that often gets neglected the most. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that companies and people don’t care about their good customers. Quite the opposite, actually. 

What I am saying is that we get complacent. 

We get into the mindset that they have a solid relationship with you, they are understanding of your company’s faults or quirks, and they won’t just leave you one day. 

So, most of the focus goes toward getting new business and signing on more customers. I am NOT saying that isn’t important. In fact, it is extremely important, and deserves to have a lot of resources allocated to it. 

What I am saying is that we tend to not give our good customers the same amount of care and attention as new customers. 

You even see this with cable and cell phone companies! They give all the good deals and cheap plans to their new customers, and charge their long-time loyal customers way more than is necessary. 

That said, come up with a few proactive things you could do that are simply just for maintaining the relationship. 

Personally, I try calling at LEAST once per quarter, if for nothing else, just to say hello and see how they are doing. Ask how their business is going. Just to stay in touch, say hello, and give them a chance to tell me anything that’s on their mind if they want. 

I tend to not try pitching any type of new product, or push them for an increase in orders. If they bring up products, then absolutely I’ll talk about products. But the main focus of that particular call is to just stay in touch and maintain the relationship! 

The best thing you could do, if you choose to do what I do, is to call the customer with absolutely not agenda other than to say hello, and see how they’re doing. It makes the conversation much more organic, and it really helps you out in the long run!

CONCLUSION 

Even after you have a customer with a solid relationship who is buying a lot of products, they could still take another trip, or two, around the sales process cycle. If they wanted to bring on new products, or if you want them to buy a new product, you can quite literally start the cycle all over again. 

The same stages apply, and so do the same “rules”. You want to write a script, give a great presentation, ask for referrals, and continue to maintain the relationship long after the initial sale!

Maintaining the relationship is a never-ending stage of the sales process once a customer becomes and remains a customer. 

For the record, I do believe that prospecting is hugely important for growing your business and seeking new opportunities that wouldn’t have otherwise happened. However, I do not think salespeople should spend more time prospecting than they do maintaining the relationship of current customers. 

As I’ve said before, the cost of losing a good customer is much more than any opportunity cost lost by not prospecting. 

If you want to work together to come up with a specific plan for you, then just send me a message on LinkedIn, and we can schedule you a FREE hour of Sales Therapy right away!