Sales Research Publications

Sales Process Insights Series

• Sales Process Primer
  

  This primer provides an overview of what sales process is, how firms are using it to good effect, and examples of when it does and does not work. More than anything, however, it is our intent to answer the single most important question you as a small to medium size business owner needs answered: Does having a sales process really make any difference?
  
  The answer is strictly up to you and your sales management team. Having a process defined makes no difference. Having a process defined, integrating it into your day-to-day selling activities, supporting it with appropriate technology and evolving it through lessons learned makes a big difference. How big? There are several ways to judge this but quota attainment across the sales force is the simplest. Firms with no sales process and no supporting technology averaged 55% quota attainment. Firms with both sales process and supporting technology in place - like Contact Management or CRM - more than six months averaged 65% quota attainment, nearly twenty percent better performance. In this paper we discuss both ends of the spectrum as well as variations between these two.

• The Impact of CRM and Sales Process
  

  One issue we analyze in our annual surveys is the integration of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology and a formal sales process. We pay particular attention to its impact on sales performance.
  
  This white paper explores the topic in greater detail. In this analysis, we compare the effectiveness of sales organizations that have implemented a formalized sales process that can be actively tracked and analyzed using CRM applications against companies that have not. Compared to their peers, those firms that successfully implemented process and technology to focus and support their sales forces. efforts are monetizing their investments by achieving:

  • 11.3% improvement in the number of sales reps achieving quota;
  • Significant increases in success rates at major stages of the sell cycle;
  • 11.4% improvement in win rates of forecast deals; and
  • twofold improvement in the number of firms generating significant ROIs from their CRM investments.

  
  This white paper discusses the reasons behind these performance improvements and highlights the hard dollar impact they can have on sales performance.

• Sample Sales Process Template
  

  This is a Word document that was developed over the course of several process mapping sessions with clients. It is available to you in this format (as opposed to PDF) so that you can take advantage of the formatting and modify it to suit your particular situation.
  
  Many companies have found the process steps, objectives, buyer and seller actions to be useful as a starting point rather than creating this from a blank sheet; but you should take the time to consider which steps are appropriate in your selling environment and which actions make sense.
  
  Between the step's objective and desired outcome are two columns:

  1. seller's actions
  2. buyer's actions

  
  This latter is extremely important and is the item most often absent in companies' selling processes. But the true indicator of the progress being made toward closing a sale is not so much what you as a seller are doing, but what the buyer is doing to advance the sale!
  
  Good luck!

$295.00