SALES GROWTH SERVICE:
BUILD A REPEATABLE SALES PROCESS

Remove uncertainty and inconsistencies and gain support and guidance with a repeatable sales process.

After all the previous articles’ emphasis on treating each client as an individual, why would you need a sales process? The fact is that every lead follows the same general path; they just move at different speeds. Knowing how to build a sales process simply means analyzing what works for your customers (and sales reps) and using that to create a template for future success.

In this article, we’ll examine what a repeatable process includes and how you can build a sales process for your manufacturing company.

Table of Contents:

• Why Do You Need a Repeatable Sales Process
• Challenges Solved by a Repeatable Sales Process
• What Does a Repeatable Sales Process Look Like?
• How to Build a Repeatable Sales Process

Key Takeaways:

• A repeatable sales process helps your sales teams function effectively and efficiently. 
• Repeatable processes give reps the tools and support they need and gives customers a unified experience with your company.
• The first step to building a repeatable sales process is to analyze what’s been successful for your company. Then you should create a standardized process to help reps convert leads and satisfy customers.

Why Do You Need a Repeatable Sales Process?

Without a sales process, each contact a lead or customer has with your business can be influenced by chance; each rep has different strengths and may have their own ways of dealing with customers. When you have a sales process, that uncertainty is removed; reps are given the same playbooks, tools, and general guidelines. This means that contacts get the same experience no matter who they deal with. 

Within the company, a repeatable sales process gives reps support and guidance. It can help the entire team enhance their conversions, reduce inconsistencies, close more deals, and bring in more repeat customers. It eliminates the frustration that happens when there’s no clear strategy or pathway to a goal.

What Does a Repeatable Sales Process Look Like?

Much like any other standardized process, a repeatable sales process has standard components and a defined path to success. Most sales processes will give each sales rep the same tools, including:

• Software (such as a CRM, or customer relationship management tool).
• Onboarding or training.
• Support (e.g. from a sales admin, coordinator, or assistant) and mentorship (from a manager or senior salesperson)
• Sales methodology, playbooks, or scripts.

The goal here is not to turn all reps into carbon copies of the most successful salesperson. The goal of a sales process is to find what works and give all the reps the tools and training they need to consistently achieve similar results. The playbook is especially important, as it ensures that all reps follow the same plan. This way, if a contact transfers from one rep to another, their buying journey will still feel seamless.

How to Build a Repeatable Sales Process

As you know from the article on the buyer journey, all individual clients go through the same steps. Thus, to build a repeatable sales process, you must first be familiar with your customers’ buying journey. Even though the sales process is for your sales team, the end focus is still your clients. Here’s what you can do to craft your own effective process: 

1. Analyze your current process. What’s working well for your reps – and your customers/leads? What isn’t working? Examine your current process and find the most effective parts. One way to do this is to observe salespeople in action. As they move through the sales process, are there sticking points? Or are there areas where clients tend to drop off? Consider the data.
2. Define what moves prospects to the next stage in your sales pipeline. What are the stages a prospect needs to go through to educate themselves and identify their key pain points and any implications? A common pipeline scenario might go as follows: 
1. Connect call – Determine if the customer is a good fit for your product or service.  If yes, offer to schedule an assessment call.
2. Assessment call – Gather information about that company’s current process and assess the value your product or service may provide.
3. Goal planning – Offer total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) models, solutions, and budgets.

Each step is designed to help reps learn more about the prospect's needs and determine whether your company can help them. If it can, the rep offers the next step. 

1. Use playbooks and scripts to ensure repeatability. Sales playbooks outline what a rep should do and capture in each stage when prospecting or selling a particular product or service. They include informational and strategic resources, questions, performance indicators, buyer personas, sales process details, and more. Sales scripts act as guidelines for specific conversations. They can be outlines or lists of questions; their goal is to provide a repeatable backbone for that phase of the sales process.

Up Next: Manage Your Contacts with a CRM

Building a repeatable sales process is a great starting point. But how can you keep in contact with all your customers -- without spending a lot of time on admin or dropping the ball and missing opportunities? We’ll cover that in our next article. See you then!