As a sales professional with nearly 60,000 hours of experience I’ve come to the conclusion that the single most overlooked discipline for small businesses is the sales process.  Small businesses stay small until they develop an effective process for managing “macro” and “micro” selling disciplines.

Every business has a sales process.  Or at least it should.  And the more you clearly define this process and implement consistent communications and accountabilities for your team, the faster you can impact the growth of your business.  (Yes.  It’s about discipline.)

We are very fortunate to have the privilege of working with a wide variety of clients.  Some of our clients are very small businesses with one professional or business owner focused on selling and growing their business. Some of our clients are far more evolved in terms of their sales organization having a team of people working each day to sell and manage relationships.  And some of our clients are 100% e-commerce focused.  They sell their products online.  (Think 4-hour work week types of people.)

The common denominator is that all businesses must sell.  (Such a dirty word to some people!)

You as the owner and everyone in your organization who deals with people is in the business of selling whether you and they realize this or not.  In order to consistently grow your business and sell more it’s essential to develop a plan that will help you and your entire organization be really clear on the following key issues that impact sales for your business.  These are “macro” selling issues related to your sales process.

1. What do you sell?
2. What problem do you solve for your customers?
3. Who is your ideal customer?
4. How do you generate leads and ensure prompt follow up?
5. What actions must you take to get customers to do business with you? (And stay with you.)
6. What software system do you use to manage knowledge, relationships and track selling activities?
7. How are you and your team held accountable for daily selling activities?
8. How should you best communicate with your team about sales activities and results?
9. How should you compensate and recognize your team to keep them performing in line with your business goals?

In a more traditional sense, here are six steps you need to think about perfecting if you want to be more effective when it comes to selling.  These are “micro” selling issues related to your sales process.

1. Prospecting for new business.
2. Qualifying prospective customers.
3. Generating proposals or presenting your solution.
4. Handling and overcoming objections.
5. Closing and reaching agreement.
6. Following up for referrals and repeat business.

We are in the business of helping you sell more and work less.  Over the weeks ahead I will address each of these points in more detail to help you develop a clear and effective sales plan and process.

For now, whether we are already working with us you or not, let me know if you would like to discuss how our growing team of talented people and our unique suite of services can help you sell more, work less and be happy.

As always, we appreciate your thoughts, comments and suggestions.