B2B Tech Sales Meetup

Your Sales Process Matters

Here is what I hope you get out of

tonight:Something you can try tomorrow

-or-The beginning of a path towards improved sales

-or-Ideas about how to get your sales process going

-or-A little push to get started

-or-free food and drink

Process is boring, what it delivers is

not.

proc·ess1

ˈpräˌses,ˈpräsəs,ˈprō-/

noun

1. a series of actions or steps taken in order

to achieve a particular end.

“actions to achieve”

Inverted SaaSService as a Software

2-27-2013

Trust WOMTake care of those that take care of you.

Our Third Best Process

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt

Something is better than nothing

What do customers want?

People don’t care what you do.

People do care about what you can do for them.

Sell ideas, not stuff

Feature --> Benefit --> Idea

Feature

Benefit

“Track and save email communications in PipelineDeals immediately with no IT

hassles.”

Idea

What can we do for our customers?

What are the ideas they are looking to purchase?

Two key questions for designing our sales process:

Lead/Prospect/Opportunity

Deal

action: Qualify

action: Close

Customeraction: Retain

Our sales process

And this little button...

action: Qualify

Qualify the person

We collect a bunch of custom stuff like:1. Email address

2. Size (#fish)

Whale (> 150)

Tuna (50 - 149)

Salmon (15 - 49)

Trout (5 - 14)

Minnow (1 - 4)

3. Verify phone number (off Caller ID)

4. Time Zone (Custom Field - Drop Down)

5. First and Last Name

6. Company Name

7. Decision Maker - (Custom Field - Drop

Down)

8. Buying Decision Criteria (Activity)

9. Decision Time Frame (Custom Field - Drop Down)

10. How did you hear about us? (Source)

11. Medium (Custom Field - Drop Down)

12. Origin (Custom Field - Drop Down)

Synthetic

Organic

13. Contact Type = Lead

14. Jumpstart Interest? Yes or No

15. Set Follow for John up accordingly - do your best to establish a

next step.

16. Assign New Person to John.

Fish Size

Distance to shore: Decision

Time Frame

When to make a lead a deal?

When you have engagement

action: Close

Knowing vs. guessing

Things to knowProblems that customers say you solve*Messages that resonateRoles that respondTimes to callCompetitors that winPrices that closePresentation(s) that workYour sales cycleReasons deals stallNumber of contacts to conversionEmails that get a response

( Thanks to @douglandis for some examples))

Analyze both wins and losses

Track over time

Other nuggets of gold from Aaron Ross

Sales people should not prospect

Most are not good at it

Most don’t like to do it

It is not repeatable

Recommended Alternative:“Divide & Conquer”

Inbound Lead Qualification

Outbound Prospecting

Account Executives

Account Management/Customer Success

Source: Predictable Revenue, Aaron Ross

First then

Key Takeaways from Mr. Ross:

You MUST specialize your sales people

Use referral/researching approach as opposed to cold calling directly

Train outbound people to be “business people who can sell” as opposed to solely sales people

SIMPLIFY what you track in your CRM/SFA

Article: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/predictable-revenue/

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt

“Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too

late, the best never comes.”

- Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt

My challenge to you:

Start tomorrow and build the third best sales

process you can imagine.

B2B Tech Sales Meetup

Your Sales Process Matters