Is your sales process effective, efficient, and money-making? That is a question you need to be asking yourself every day. Whether you are building a brand new process or refining an old one, you need to find out what works and what doesn’t.

Success in this part of your business is one of the most critical business development strategies you have. Without a successful sales process, your business will not be successful.

How to build a better sales process

You can use these four principles to ensure that your sales process works:

1. Understand your sales style. Your sales process is going nowhere until you know how you interact with prospects. Some industries thrive on long-term ongoing relationships, while others demand a short buying cycle with lower repeat client counts. A face-to-face retail setting is very different from a B2B online company. Each sales situation requires its own sales style.

2. Ensure you are touching prospects at least 7 solid times in the sales process. Remember, people buy from people. You need to earn the trust of your prospects before they will consider making a purchase with your company. Each solid touch you make helps bring that prospect further down the sales funnel. Plus, it helps sort out qualified leads from casual prospects.

3. Use “de-selection” to focus your sales efforts. This can be as simple as an unsubscribe link in your email messages and as bold as making the prospect jump through a hoop, or two. Again, this depends on your sales style. Further down the sales funnel, your sales team should be open to hearing that a prospect is not interested in what your company offers. Trying to push a sale that cannot exist is a waste of time and effort. Plus it can give your company the reputation of having a pushy sales team.

4. Of course, you have to know your ideal client profile first. This should probably be first on the list. You cannot develop a sales style without understanding your ideal client. You cannot build solid touch points without that knowledge either. You cannot sort out your qualified leads from the crowd. Put this first on your list for building a successful sales model.

Take the time to implement each one of these principles to build a better sales process for your company. The time and effort you spend will be well worth it. Consider it an investment in one of your company’s most important business development strategies.

How are you going to invest in your business today? If you would like to learn more about how to keep your sales pipeline full join our next webinar.