Sales can sometimes feel like paddling against the rapids.
You can put in long hours, perfect your pitch, and still see little more than some polite rejections for all your efforts.
This can be discouraging. But before you throw in the towel, let’s take a step back and think about your overall sales process.
Much of the frustration salespeople experience in their day-to-day work can be caused by issues with their sales process.
Rejections are a part of the job, but process issues don’t have to be.
To alleviate these issues, consider these three ways to make your sales process smoother.
1. Invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Program.
CRM programs are a game-changer for the sales process, yet research shows more than 22% of salespeople are unfamiliar with CRMs. (https://www.nutshell.com/blog/crm-stats/)
At its most basic level, customer relationship management uses data and analysis to track the current and potential customers of an organization.
How you track your customers depends on your needs and budget. At Sales Arbiter, we recommend you invest sufficient resources to this task.
Think of your CRM as a collection of what you “need to know” and “would like to know” about your customers.
Keep track of the progress of deals, the frequency with which you are reaching out to prospects, and the preferences of individual prospects.
A solid CRM program enables you to stay up-to-date on your current customers and future opportunities.
2. Create an organized sales plan… and stick to it!
Don’t reinvent the wheel. The more standardization you add to your sales process, the better.
Every sale and customer are unique, but the bulk of the process should be the same. Standardizing processes and creating documents covering offer features, cold-calling scripts, etc., saves you a lot of time.
This is particularly important if you have a sales team. This standardization process serves as both a time saver and a quality control mechanism.
The more you standardize your sales process, the better you are able to invest your time and energy into the unique aspects of each deal.
3. Keep your selling process consistent.
Sporadic selling causes burnout and encourages mistakes.
A consistent plan for prospecting and cold-calling improves your results and keeps sales from dominating your work life.
If you are a business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in other functions of the organization and neglect your sales process.
Neglect makes deals to go cold and opportunities slip away.
Sales follows the same principle as exercise. You can’t get fit by doing 10,000 pushups in one day. It’s a slow and steady process.
Focus on form, consistent practice, and overcoming objections. Over time, you and your team become stronger and more effective salespeople.
Remember to keep pushing and keep fighting the good fight. Sales is a marathon, not a sprint.
