Knowing, or wondering, that if you had just done .. this … or a little bit more … you might have won that sale. That’s the worse feeling EVER! You just wasted your and your client’s valuable time. Likely you did not fully follow your proven process (if you even have one). Were you complacent or just plain lazy?
Small sale, large sale … It makes no difference. The steps are the same and they generally will take the same amount of time regardless of the size of the sale, but what steps? To begin with, I am a huge believer in …
- Process – If you have a proven lead qualification process, and a proven sales process, they will deliver pretty damn consistent results.
- The close is the natural result of a process done correctly.
- If you lose the sale, it is likely the result of not following your process and/or screwing up in one or more stages of the same.
Process Example
Here is a sample lead qualification/sales process. Feel free to edit it as needed and make it your own!
Pre-Meeting
- Identify decision makers.
- Research company and decision makers via Google and LinkedIn including profiles and websites.
- Look for commonalities and common connections.
Initial Meeting
- Share your research. Let them know that you have done your due diligence!
- Confirm decision makers.
- Qualify for budget.
- Determine needs including time frames for decision and completion.
- Uncover hot buttons.
- Explain the process of investing in your product or service.
- Educate!
- Remove the risk! Sell yourself and the company!
- Set expectations. Let them know what is next and when it will happen.
- Recap their needs and confirm (this may be done in a document format following the meeting).
Presentation
- Prior to the meeting, do you have everything you need?
- Put together a professional proposal including company story, cover letter, and cut sheets. This package must do your selling when you are not there.
- Recap your previous meeting(s) and ask if anything has changed.
- Review your solution in detail. Focus on education vs. selling.
- Answer any questions.
- Ask for the order!
Post-Sale
- Send a personalized thank you!
- Make them comfortable with their decision.
- Keep your client in the loop at all stages.
- Continuously monitor and inform all parties regarding planned delivery dates.
Deploy your CRM
I represent Nimble CRM but your existing CRM may also be up to the task. Nimble offers workflows and pipelines that can be customized for your specific needs.
For example, I might have a lead qualification workflow that specifically represents that process. Contacts are placed in the workflow and they move through the process stages. Once qualified, I would convert that “lead” to a “deal” and place that in my pipeline. As with workflows, a deal moves the stages of, now, my sales process.
The beauty of having these processes comes in many forms …
- We don’t lose track of opportunities
- We follow a consistent proven process
- We can now provide new hires with proven roadmaps
- We can expect much more consistent results
How about you? Do you have a process and, if yes … do you follow it consistently?
Are you thinking about a CRM? If you would like to explore whether or not Nimble CRM might be right for you, please book a free 30-minute Zoom consultation with me by going to my calendar.
To learn more about our Nimble training and implementation services, please visit our Nimble CRM training services page. Thank you!
Craig M. Jamieson
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