At MPI, we believe that nine key factors contribute to the success of any outbound calling program.
We’ve already covered list quality and quantity, message, and nurture, as the first three factors that contribute to a successful outbound calling program. The fourth factor is the company’s current sales process. This factor asks: What is your current sales process to generate new business? Are you executing on that process and including outbound sales?
Process is defined as a series of actions or steps taken to achieve a particular end result. When a process is applied to the sales cycle, it becomes extremely beneficial not only to the sales team, but the company as a whole in attaining goals and growth. You can look at it as the game plan to winning what your company desires: more sales and ongoing growth.
Businesses that we talk to fall into three categories when it comes to sales process: They don’t have a process and are not currently doing outbound sales, they have a defined process, but no outbound strategy or means to add this to the sales team’s workload, or they have a well-defined process and have the means to do outbound sales. Learn more about each below and see what category your company might fall into.
You do not have a defined sales process and are not doing outbound sales.
If you think about a sales process in terms of a game plan, you can liken it to what would happen to a football team if they didn’t have a game plan or plays to follow. They would be running all over the field, not knowing who should expect the ball or where they need to be to defend the ball and runner. It becomes chaos and sales can quickly steer in that direction without a set game plan.
No matter how experienced a salesperson may be, each particular company needs to have a process in place to give direction to how their salespeople are selling, who they are selling, goals to achieve, and how they will reach those goals. Trying to accomplish any of the steps in the sales cycle from top of the funnel prospecting to closing the sale can easily become a burden of spending too much time on unqualified buyers, misinformed buyers, jumping in to close too early in the sales cycle, or any number of reasons. Not only that, but a salesperson would not have expectations and goals set to motivate them.
Chances are if there is no sales process, the company also does not have a strategy or any consistent means to preform outbound sales. From generating new leads, to the best ways to reach customers, to messaging and nurturing, to closing a deal, sales reps need time and resources to properly usher people through the sales cycle. A well defined sales process takes in to account the importance of bringing in new business via an outbound sales strategy and the resources to accomplish it.
One in five sales reps believe they do not have the right resources
in place to keep their sales process on track.
You have a defined sales process in place, but do not have an outbound strategy and little time for new business.
Having a sales process is key to seeing success and growth for your company. It provides structure and direction to sales teams to help prospects turn into customers and ongoing brand ambassadors. However, a key element may be missing: outbound strategy.
Yes, businesses can sustain with returning customers, or a single large client, but that can easily turn south with the ever-expanding competition no matter what industry you’re in. Businesses that excel at growing are consistently reaching out to new potential customers. Perhaps businesses do not have the staff to accommodate many new leads, but it needs to be made a priority. With a solid strategy and process in place, sales teams will be able to save time and increase their efficiency in selling and closing outbound sales leads.
You have a defined sales process and outbound strategy in place, with ample time and means for nurturing new prospects.
This is the ideal situation for any business to be in. The sales team has a process in place so both salespeople and clients are consistently experiencing the same thing at each point in the sales cycle. The sales team has structure to what they are doing and are accountable for reaching their sales goals.
While this is great, one thing to be aware of is that the sales process may change depending on market conditions or the product/service they are selling. Regular evaluation of the process with the sales team is important to stay ahead of necessary changes to what they are doing in order to successfully reach and exceed sales goals.
A sales process is vital to selling anything. It provides a sales team with their goals and the instructions on how to reach them. With definition to how they are selling, salespeople have a streamlined sales cycle to convert leads into buyers. Just as important is having a sales process is having the means to execute on it properly, including getting new business leads in order to see continuous company growth.
Need help defining your sales process? Don’t have time to execute outbound sales? Don’t know where to get started on any of this? We can help. Let’s chat.