How to Design a Sales Process in B2B Sales

Take a look at all the companies and businesses running near you. You can visibly notice that not all have outshone the others. Some companies are the top players who are overtaking the others, in the business races. What are they doing that is making them the top players? They are handling their businesses by executing a well-defined process. They plan on implementing an impenetrable sales process.

A sales plan is more than just assembling a team and asking them to apply techniques to add more customers and increase the sales. When the sale is between two businesses i.e., B2B, the sales plan is more detailed and complex. Some valuable steps are needed to be followed before designing such a sales process. Before that let us learn about B2B sales.

WHAT IS B2B SALES?

B2B companies, or business-to-business companies, predominantly sell their products and services to other businesses, rather than directly to customers. B2B businesses primarily focus on lead generation with the decision-makers of other companies. The sale cycle of B2b business is quite long and complex. They plan to strategize properly for the smooth running of the cycle.

Since the B2B sales model involves many complex processes and several touch points over multiple channels, a group of highly trained professionals paired with a well-detailed sales plan, is what makes it successful. Now, let us know about the sales process.

WHAT IS A SALES PROCESS?

A sales process is nothing but a meticulously prepared procedure followed by the group of ‘sales representatives’ to convert a potential client to a customer. The predictable stages and phases involved in a sales process are specifically handled by experts and professionals, not only to lure the possible customers but also the intransigent ones.

The companies execute plenty of techniques that are all involved in the sales plan. But not all of them prove to be effective. So, they have to narrow down the effective strategies or steps, so that they can form the best sales plan for their companies. But why is a precise sales process/plan is required?

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

We all know that effective B2B sales strategies can generate more leads as well as higher gains. But we need to know that without a proper sales plan all these strategies are worthless. A well-defined sales process gives direction to implementation of strategies. This gives us the proper information about how and in which direction the sale is growing. A well-trained sales rep following then sales plan is just another ‘cherry on top of the cake’ situation for the company.

An HBR study reports that companies with a well-managed and a top-level sales process have seen an increase of 15% in their growth rate. Therefore, the companies are training their sales reps to understand the sales pipeline and follow it. Now, let us take at the basic steps to be followed while designing a sales process.

DESIGNING A SALES PROCESS

Research

Before connecting with the prospects, the sales reps try to soak in maximum amount of information about them. They research about the industries and businesses of their potential customers and lay out precise methods to connect with them. It is an easy job to gather information about other businesses from the internet. After a proper research on them, the sales reps attempt contacting the listed companies, try their best to move the deal further and set up a meeting.

Qualifying

The sales reps have made a list of the leads and thoroughly researched about them. Then, they have to qualify their leads to avoid facing dead ends. Qualifying leads means understanding them by their goals, plans, timelines, challenges, budgets and authorities. They obtain a clear idea about their prospects and then accordingly take the immediate steps towards them. The order of contacting the prospects depends on how much more their goals match with the company’s.  

Informing

The leads, with which the company decides to connect, would have already performed a thorough market research and have detailed information about the company as well. Therefore, the sales reps try not to bore them out with the details they already know. Rather they focus on educating them with the unique and distinguishable services that their company has to offer. In this way, the sales reps try to impress their prospects and certainly hope that they close the deals successfully.

Closing

This is a crucial and the most glorified stage that can determine the closing of a deal or not. The sales reps have presented the best of their company’s services in front of the prospects and now, they have to prove their claims and promises by showing them the actual business results and outcomes. This is the final step where the company can fruitfully covert a prospect into a customer.

CONCLUSION

Companies are trying their best to increase their sales growth rate by applying many effective strategies. While doing so, they must also remember to build a detailed procedure, to be precisely followed. This well-organized method can take their businesses to new heights.