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Mastering Your Sales Process
How to create the right sales process for you, your boss and your prospects
Table Of Contents
Forward
Preface
- The danger of too much account management and not enough new business development
- AKA: Don’t get “Bobbed”
Who should read this book
- Sales people looking to improve, and to do so in less time
- Sales managers who wish to apply improvement and efficiency across their entire organization
How to use this book
- An overview for using the book to develop a personal process based sales activity plan
Introduction
- How my first adventure on a snowboard is just like finding success in sales using a well defined and executed sales process
- Why fear will cause you to fail in either endeavor
- How following a well developed process, practicing it with discipline and getting help along the way will help you succeed, in anything
Chapter 1: Preliminary Considerations for Successful Process Selling
- Defining “sales” in a positive, productive and useful way
- The right mind set for sales success
- With respect to sales process, “what’s new” is not the right question
- The value of a process based orientation for sales
- Front loading
- What’s missing?
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 2: The Universal Sales Process and Why it Matters
- Defining the universal sales process
- How it applies to all sales efforts, and how to apply it to your sales efforts
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 3: Process Step #1: Leads
- What is a good lead?
- Why your lead sources should be more like a firs hose than a glass of water
- How and why to organize your leads for maximum prospecting efficiency
- The dangers of a false sense of urgency, and why it is false in the first place
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 4: Process Step #2: Prospecting
- What is prospecting, really (HINT: it is more just than making cold calls)
- 21 prospecting methods in three categories (proactive, message based and passive)
- Setting up your prospecting methods to achieve the singular goal of creating a chance to talk about selling something to your prospect
- How many prospecting efforts deviate from this singular goal, and how that can hurt your efforts
- Prospecting objections (and what to do about them)
- Prospecting is psychologically difficult (and how to get past that)
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 5: Process Step #3: Qualification
- What does it mean to be qualified?
- Working with decision makers
- Alleviating pain
- Can they afford it and can you afford not to know?
- Industry specific qualifications
- Mutual qualification - do’s and don’ts for helping your prospect think of you as qualified
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 6: Process Short Cut # 1: The Mini Contract Method
- What is the mini contract, and how can it help you close the sale right now!
- Different kinds of mini contracts: Diagnostics and Puppy Dogs
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 7: Process Step #4: Needs Analysis
- If your mother wanted you to be a doctor, now you can tell her that you are a diagnostician
- Help them see the pain so that you can help them solve it
- The questions are the answers (a case study)
- The power of reverse engineering
- Critical non-industry specific elements of needs analysis
- The importance of value and trial solutions
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 8: Process Short Cut # 2: The Professional Close
- The professional close - a very smooth and logical shortcut to closing early
- Setting up and executing the professional close
- The professional close and a 90% close rate
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 9: Process Step #5: Presenting the Solution
- What is a proposal - a solution and a price
- What a proposal should never be - a selling tool
- Using the professional close in the solution phase
- Learning to love no is about when in the process you get the client to say it to you
- RFP’s and tenders and the process approach to proposals
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 10: Process Step #6: Objections and Negotiations
- The most helpful way to define and think about objections and negotiations
- Objection handling strategy number one: Elimination of objections!
- Objection handling strategy number two: Jedi mind tricks
- Objection handling strategy number three: The quarantine
- How the sales process discussed so far has set you up to succeed here
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 11: Process Step #7: Closing the Deal
- Closing techniques don’t work, but you do have to do something
- The need to close, and how the sales process discussed so far has set you up to succeed here
- The little big close (AKA the big little close)
- How to know that you are ready to move on from this step
- Review of key points and exercises
Chapter 12: Developing a Process Based Sales Activity Plan
- How to develop your plan (HINT: If you did the exercises in each chapter, your most of the way there already!)
- Assigning metrics for accountability and consistency
- Tracking prospecting methods
- Tracking prospecting efforts
- Tracking opportunities
- Managing time and clients (putting the 80/20 rule to work)
- The three most powerful words in selling
- Managing your database
- Bringing it all together
- Review of key points and exercises
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: PROSPECTING METHODS IN DETAIL
APPENDIX B: DEVELOPING THE REQUEST FOR SALES COMMUNICATION CALL (RFSCC)
APPENDIX C: SUGGESTED RESPONSES TO COMMON PROSPECTING OBJECTIONS
APPENDIX D - SAMPLE PROCESS BASED SALES ACTIVITY PLAN
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Table of Contents