Why to Map Our Sales Process

 

What advantages does it  have on the macro and micro level?

Jack Welch, GE CEO [1981-2006], in his book “WINNING”, structured and assessed employees as, 20% are top performers, 70% are the middle, and 10% are the bottom ones. Then he insisted on the “act” part asking managers to act according to this categorization. Stars to be nurtured and given incentives to excel, the bottom 10% to be weeded out, and a smart act would be to focus on increasing the performance of the middle 70%, they make up the majority”

Research showed that improving one’s strengths is less straightforward than fixing one’s weaknesses. What I mean by this is that fixing only 30% of the middle performers’ weakness will yield to a 55% increase on their sales performance. This sums up for a 38.5% increase of your overall company’s sales performance.

Challenges

The middle performers face on daily basis thousands of stuff that limit their performance. Some are obvious like not showing up prepared to a meeting, not understanding the clients needs, not following up, not establishing trust, submitting a proposal too early, contacting non-decision makers, not understanding the client decision process… and the list goes on.

Other challenges are much deeper, and might be difficult to spot, such as assertiveness, the will to do, the self-motive capability, the discipline of execution, the ability to communicate… and the list goes on as well.

The question remains why middle performers face such barriers whereas top performers occasionally do?

Capabilities

Research showed that although top sales people finish their deals successfully with their innate talent and skills, but they unconsciously follow a specific own track for achievements without them knowing that they are actually behind successful virtual sales mapped process.

Doing more of what you already do well yields only to an incremental improvement. To get appreciably better at it, you have to work on your complementary skills. This is where sales mapping process comes in.

Definition:It is purely a way of planning out all steps, tasks, and actions as well as identifying abilities required to take a sale from beginning to close, and follow-up. Each step is client centric and consists of several key activities with a measurable result. This understanding has different success rate on both levels:

Following and applying the tailored specific mapping process might appear simple, however the magic lies in the understanding.

The difference is crucial.

Managerial and the Macro Level:

  • Develop Strategic Perspective: Understanding your sales cycle and sales model will keep you on the edge, focusing on your core strengths and easily identifying the weaknesses.
  • Increase visibility of the pipeline: if you don’t see it, you can’t understand it thus you cannot improve it.
  • Brace best practices and performances: “Leaders who build and invest in their infrastructure are the ones that put themselves ahead from competition” Howard Schultz.
  • Improve your forecasting precision and obviousness: Thus management will have solid foundation for planning ahead. Further a flexibility to change faster with the fast economic changes.

Sales Individual and the Micro Level:

  • Drive for results: this map will be the guideline for understanding the sales process, what are you doing well, and the things that need improvement. Focusing on the latter will drive better results and accomplishing the set outcomes faster.
  • Solve problems and analyze issues: It will aid in pulling sales people back on track when losing site, helps them to understand where they are positioned and when to come in or when to drop out of the deal.
  • Inspire and motivate for high performance: Every step, task or action, coupled with a measurable outcome will act as a small win that ignites their actions, fuels their motive, and triggers their perception. Thus it shorten the sales cycle.  This is not a strategy or a plan but an understanding.
  • Communicate powerfully: Support average with the needed tools that aid in whom to contact, how to qualify, what to ask, present, and when to follow up for bringing in sales regularly. Thus cloning more rainmakers.
 

Managing Partner
Founder of HEED, a sales management consulting firm focused on aiding companies to structure, transform or optimize their sales by integrating science into selling.

Latest Insights

How land and expand model can grow your business

Ensuring your business’ survival, let alone its development, has been no easy feat. It’s likely that many businesses like yours have had to make some tough decisions to stay afloat. As you look to the future, you’ll have many decisions to make regarding your business development. There’s no doubt that some of the major economic changes we’ve seen are here to stay. But there are changes that you can implement that will improve your bottom line and make the going more worthy.

One of the major strategies that have proven records of success in many industries is the land-and-expand sales model which aims to increase conversion rate and boost sales numbers. Keep reading as we dive into what land-and-expand can do for your business and how to adapt your processes to this model.

Integrating technology without killing the human element in B2B sales

Companies are being forced to adjust their business models and adapt to the new market reality as a result of digital transformation. What’s remarkable about this is that the transformation isn’t driven by businesses, but rather it’s directed by the customer.

The internet gave customers access to relevant information at any time, anywhere, and in the format and device of their preference. Thus, the customer journey dictates different strategies for businesses to keep up with this new kind of “always-connected” customer. Businesses must embrace technology in order to provide an exceptional customer experience, that’s one perspective of the story.

Eliminate the Barrier – Reach Your Consumer Directly

Over the past decade, the evolution of customer purchasing behavior has significantly led to a growing preference for online shopping. Yet, most organizations could not complement their offline sales channels with the digital ones up until the pandemic hit in 2020, and organizations were left with no choice.

How to optimally segment clients in B2B companies

Account management-based companies have always valued the importance of client categorization and evaluation; however, determining the optimal way to do that remains evasive. Technology is overtaking the account management sales world; thus, more companies are relying on automating business processes. While the use of technology is no longer viewed as an accelerator, rather as a core component of business, it should not outweigh client centricity. Particularly in companies that rely on post-sales account managers to manage and nurture relationships with accounts – to retain and increase revenue from them. The objective then is to place client centricity at the center and create digital initiatives that facilitate this centricity.