Many sellers are experiencing stalled sales cycles in which customer's are delaying decisions by days, weeks and in some cases even months. I'm talking about deals that are sitting on the goal line. Deals in which the customer has reviewed the proposal or completed the candidate interview process and has even given the "verbal yes" to move forward but for whatever reason, they just can't seem to sign the contract and consummate the deal. These are deals sellers were counting on closing. These are deals that were forecasted to close last month. But now they're stalled with no indication of what is going to happen next and no timeline for a final decision. What is one to do?
Sales forecasting can play a major role in the growth and development of your staffing organization. According to research from the Aberdeen Group, companies with accurate sales forecasts are 10% more likely to grow their revenue year-over-year and 7.3% more likely to hit quota than those with poor, inaccurate sales forecasts.
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By definition, a process is a systematic series of repeatable actions or steps intended to achieve a result. When followed, these steps lead to predictable and expected outcomes. A sales process allows salespeople and sales managers to identify, qualify, diagnose, and measure opportunities and then determine the next step in the sales process. It also enables sales managers to quickly and easily identify bottlenecks and produce an accurate sales revenue forecast.
Hiring "A" players is not a repeatable or scalable solution for growing your business because there simply isn't enough "A" players in the marketplace. Even if you could load up on talented "A" players, they still need a proven path to follow. What you need is a sales process. A sales process can scale as your organization grows and it will support all sellers, regardless of talent level to predictable success. In fact, a study conducted by Vantage Point Performance and the Sales Management Association found that B2B companies who had defined a formal sales process experienced 18% more revenue growth compared to companies that didn’t. But the benefits of a sales process go far beyond your bottom line, many of which I will touch in this post, your guide to understanding sales process.
“How’s your sales pipeline looking?” “Are you ready for the pipeline review meeting?” “What did you add to your sales pipeline this week?”
As a sales leader, missing your number sucks. Even worse is delivering the news to your CEO. Talk about a quick way to kill your credibility! Does this conversation sound familiar?
Operationalizing your sales team under a common sales process will help you win more deals. It will also help you win bigger deals faster and more frequently. Most staffing organizations make two fatal mistakes when it comes to creating a sales process.
Rolling out a new sales process is not easy. It takes a lot of planning, research, communication and flat out hard work. Despite all there is to understanding sales process, deploying a sales process is a very important task because the payoff, when done properly, is significant. A study conducted by CSO Insights showed that companies with a dynamic sales process won 53% of their forecasted deals compared to 43% of sales teams who do things “ad hoc.” All other things being equal, rigorous sales process management yields 10% more output from a sales force.
In this day and age it’s unfathomable to shop without using the internet. We research and buy products, pay our bills, book vacations, register for classes, file our taxes and download music all from the internet. Just the other night I was with two buddies after work for happy hour when one started sharing with us how he bought a new car.
Are your sales pipeline conversations driving results? For most staffing companies, the answer is no. The reason? Most staffing organizations and their sales managers mistake sales revenue forecasting with sales coaching, and coaching sales reps to their sales pipeline.