You have an excited and motivated sales team. They are passionate about the product and are dedicated to working hard. But there still seems to be some inconsistency with sales numbers, and you’ve also noticed that the individual salesmen and women use different methods to make sales.
Sometimes, the salespeople have varying methods for different clients. While to some companies it may seem that each salesperson has their own style and they are all still exploring how to improve on that style, organizations need to realize that this indicates a lack of a sales process. This is where a prescriptive sales process comes in.
We evaluated the impact of dozens of selling tactics on the purchase process and saw a clear pattern: a proactive, prescriptive approach increased purchase ease by 86%… Not surprisingly, customers perceive prescriptive salespeople as being one step ahead, anticipating and eliminating obstacles. That translates directly into business results: Suppliers that make buying easy are 62% likelier than other suppliers to win a high-quality sale.Nicholas Toman, Brent Adamson, Cristina Gomez
A prescriptive sales process is a predesigned, step-by-step guide for the sales team. Every aspect of bringing a prospect through the sales funnel is laid out. The goal behind this is to improve the odds of making a sale. If every step, and the order of those steps, is taught to a sales team, they have the training and the checklist to ensure that they execute their sales pitch effectively and avoid missing any aspect of the sales process that might create a lost sales opportunity.
This type of checklist is also useful to individuals who are new to sales. Rather than allowing them to waste their time and lose prospects through trial and error, you can quickly hone their skills through a surefire sales method.
Some businesses may feel that they already have a prescriptive sales process. However, if a closer look is taken, the ‘process’ is far too barren and minimal to be considered any help at all. It lacks any training for reinforcement, any documentation, and any tools. An effective prescriptive sales process not only increases sales numbers, it also has a myriad of other benefits:
Understanding Through Development
When management takes a deeper look at the sales process and puts it down on paper, they get a better view of it. They are able to think what should happen and what is most logical in the sales progression. They can think about what is important in the process and, more crucially, why those steps are important.
Each task is thoughtfully placed in the prescriptive process for specific reasons. Prospects opinions and feelings are taken into consideration. Through design and development, leadership has a better understanding of their product, why prospects need their product, and how they can best illustrate this.
Useful Modifications
For companies who have a basic process, creating a prescriptive sales process allows them to make beneficial changes. This might include anything from rearranging steps in the process and including other product or service options to adding a sales follow-up or a product or service demonstration.
In addition, through laying out specific steps, management is then able to track and audit the process to see how successful it is and make adjustments later that they feel might improve it even more.
Improved Coaching
When managers and head salespeople have a better understanding of the sales process, they are going to be better at coaching the rest of the sales team. They understand the steps and the reasoning behind their use and placement. Through this, they become better coaches and mentors.
No more suggesting that the team follow the path that they see as the best fit. No more confusion about why certain steps need to be executed, which invariably leads to the left out of those steps. With a prescriptive sales process, every single individual involved in sales will know exactly what they need to do and why that step is so essential to the process.
Better Forecasting
When stages are more specifically defined in the sales process, it allows for better forecasting. Management can identify where in the process prospects typically drop out or become disinterested. They are also able to find the stages that play the most significant roles in making the final sale.
In addition, if everyone on the sales team follows the exact same process, exact same steps, exact same script, the company is better able to predict how many sales will come in. They will understand that lost sales are not due to a forgotten step or task, they are due to accurate sales statistics—not every prospect will choose to go through with a purchase.
Differentiation From Competition
A prescriptive sales process isn’t used by many companies. They don’t understand the benefit of one. Because of this, most sales processes lack organization and flow. Through designing a well thought out sales process, your company can help illustrate to prospects that you know what you are doing and that the salespeople are extremely knowledgeable. Not only will this enable them to trust your product and your company, it will also allow you to stand out from the competition.
Increased Confidence
One of the biggest benefits of developing a prescriptive sales process is that your sales team will feel prepared when meeting prospects. They will have confidence knowing that they are doing the right thing and they are not missing any essential steps. This is especially important for individuals new to the company or new to sales in general.
Rather than being forced to play a guessing game for what sales techniques have the most efficacy, the team will know exactly what works and when it works best. Additionally, when the sales team feels more confident, this shines through. Prospects can see that the salesperson is not only assured of themselves but also in the product and the organization.
Get Started with the Prescriptive Sales Process
Before providing your sales team with a sales process, you first need to design it. It can be overwhelming to figure out where to start and which techniques should be included. The following is a list of a few of the first steps you can take to kick-off the design of your prescriptive sales process:
- Understand the sales process and the prospect: Every company and their set of customers are different and unique. This is why before you design the process, you need to speak with your customers to figure out how they want to buy. You need to make sure that your sales process takes the buying process into account. This means even taking into consideration the buying steps that prospects take on their own.
- Create the process: Now it’s time to sit down and write out the details. This process should really serve as a roadmap. It needs to cover the order of the sales steps, what each step entails, and what indicates that it is time to move on to the next step.
- Be tactical: You need to be as detailed as possible for every single step in the process. The sales team need to know what they should say, when they should say it, who they should be talking to and any tools they need. To do this, you should include your top sellers. Ask them what works for them and what doesn’t work.
Even when you know you have a good product that your prospects need, it can be difficult to sell. People are skeptical, budgets are tight, and there is competition. Standing out in the sales process and making the right decisions is essential. To ensure that your sales team is doing this, a prescriptive sales process is needed.
This process should serve as a checklist for them to work their way through as they move along the sales funnel with a prospect. A great tool for creating this checklist is Tallyfy’s SaaS app for workflow. This app is an interactive checklist that can be adjusted and tracked so that the salesperson knows exactly where they are and so does the management. No more guessing. What doesn’t work gets thrown out and what does work gets implemented every single time. Tallyfy for prescriptive sales could transform your sales team.
