Quiz: Is This Sales Process Effective?

SCENARIO: You've just accepted a sales job at a new firm. On your first day, the sales manager hands you a sheet of paper that reads as follows:

• Step #1. Engage customer.
• Step #2. Investigate needs.
• Step #3. Propose a solution.
• Step #4. Demonstrate the product.
• Step #5. Propose a purchase.
• Step #6. Negotiate terms.
• Step #7. Answer objections.
• Step #8. Close the deal.

Here's my question for you:

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The correct answer is: Reinterpret it. Here's why.

That's not a useful sales process. It's a list of skills that you'll need to sell, but the process that you'll ACTUALLY be following will be the customer's buying process, which is another thing altogether.

While you (and your skills) can play a defining, key role in that buying process and help it along, trying to force-fit the customers buying process into that kind of "vendor-focused" sales process is likely to make it even more difficult for you to sell and close business.

Take, for example, the "initial engagement." Now, I believe that cold calling is an important skill, but in most cases, you'll be focusing on prospects who have already shown an interest in your offering (by accessing your website, for instance). You may end up cold calling them, but the activity is more likely that result in a qualified lead because your selling activity is dovetailing with the prospect's buying activity.

The same thing is true of "investigate needs/propose a solution." In many cases, the prospect is MORE than well aware of theproducts and services that you offer, and can probably find a detailed price comparison with your competitors somewhere on the web. Indeed, if the need for your type of offering is great enough, they're probably already in the process of defining how and when it will be purchased.

The prospect's needs -- and ability to react to those needs -- will vary according to what's going on in the customer's business. It's those needs -- and the budget -- that are driving the pace and timing of the purchase, not any actions that you're taking in order to make the sale happen. So if you go into a sales opportunity with the fantasy that you're going to be driving it through those steps, you're could easily miss what's really going on.

Worst case, focusing on a "vendor-centric" sales process could leave you with the mistaken belief that your to "sell to" the customer. Customers may buy something to achieve a result, but they HATE being "sold to." Remember: selling means helping the customer figure out what to buy, not something that you "do to" a customer.

Does this mean that you shouldn't be prepared to do all those things during a sales opportunity. Of course not. However, don't pretend that the list of things that you can do, and may end up doing, constitutes a sales process. It's an activity list, nothing more.

The real process is the customer's buying process. Never forget it.