Whether or not the sales team follows the rules of the sales process, every company has a sales process in place as this is a prerequisite for a sales department. Even when youre not sticking to the companys sales process, sales executives follow some of sales process. In every sales process there are a few well coordinated steps:1. Generating leads2. Qualifying prospects3. Sales presentations4. Handling objections5. Closing deals6.
Referral salesThere are potential/confirmed customers at various levels of the sales process. Usually their number tapers off from lead generation to the final step of referral sales. If a hundred leads are generated it may lead to 20 qualified prospects and three or four deals. If the sales person is talented enough or lucky, the number of qualified prospects and ultimately the deals may increase. Though there is no fixed method to predict the number of deals, this is a rough measure of leads to deals predictions. The Pareto principle of 80:20 works well here. Eighty percent of the leads qualify as prospects and eighty percent of the sales deals are generated by twenty percent of the qualified prospects. There may be a small percentage of difference here and there, but generally this is the rule. The generation of leads, qualified prospects, deals, and referral sales is known as the sales pipeline. It is in the best interest of a sales person to have a robust sales funnel at every stage of the sales pipeline. This is the best way to maximize sales.
The healthier the sales pipeline, the better the chance of achieving sales. It is the responsibility of the sales executive to maintain a robust sales pipeline. Here are the five steps how it can be done.A strong Foundation through Good Lead Generation and Qualification Explore all the expected sources for leads. Your company definitely creates leads by way of advertisements and publicity. Check if the lead data bank your office uses is up-to-date. You should have your own methods of lead generation too. Fresh leads can be obtained from the latest yellow pages, the Internet, networking, and faucet filter replacement referrals.