A Sales Process Must be Certified to be Successful

If you were required to certify your sales process to be listed as a sales manager, could you? If you are like me, you have followed or taught so called proven sales processes. Each of them can be proven to work or proven to fail. The failure point usually arrives when the steps of the process are not followed. Although, Im not sure who would be the certification agency for a certified sales process or what the agency would be looking for, Im sure the criteria would be something like the next statement.

A Certified Sales Process is a sequence of linked measurable sales activities that when followed results in an 80% success ratio of a sale.

So, here is the question, could your current sales process be confirmed as a Certified Sales Process because it meets the criteria listed above? If so, how do you measure the metrics for your success ratio?

When you ask salespeople what their sales process is, do you get a wide range of answers. Most salespeople do not have one they can recite or tell us how many sales steps there are in their sales process. Instead, we are usually met with a recital of activities but not a specific plan or sequence of these sales activities toward an objective. This is a problem because every salesperson should identify with a concrete sales process, one that can be repeated over and over again with similar successful results.

Salespeople need a concrete sales process they can measure follow and stick to. If they dont have one, and management doesnt have one, how can anyone measure or manage for results? The answer is - nobody can.

The solution to this dilemma is to put the sales process on paper and map out the sequence of sales activities and create a systematic sales process that successful sales follow. It is best to use flow chart symbols to identify where sales actions must be taken and when activities can be automated. The timing of these activities is also important. Once this is on paper, a visual imprint of the process can be created and distributed for a sales team to follow. If your sales plan has a lot of steps, it is recommended to break down the event sequences into modules and create the actions or activities for each module. The results of this exercise will be a sales process YOU can certify for your organization.

Steve Martinez is the leading authority on automating and systematizing the selling process for the Printing Industry. His company, Selling Magic, LLC teaches business how to simplify, balance and automate the complex selling process. http://www.sellingmagic.com

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