6 Ways to Leverage the Power of Process and Workflows in Sales

On Monday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., I hopped on my red, Honda PCX 150 and scootered down to Singer Island. Twenty dollars and thirty minutes later, I was on a paddleboard enjoying the calm, shallow waters of John McArthur State Park with flying mullets, an adolescent stingray and a head-bobbing sea turtle.

Despite knowing it was a justified mental health break, I felt guilty for taking two hours off in the middle of a Monday to go paddleboarding.

Then I realized why I was able to take this much-needed break. This wasn’t just a post-pandemic exercise in work-life balance. My team and I have worked hard to define and set up process and workflows for operations and sales so that we can run more efficiently and grow effectively. We have intentionally set ourselves up to get our jobs done well, in less time, thereby creating flexibility for other endeavors.

But not everyone has figured out this formula for success in under 40 hours. Conversations with industry sales executives and colleagues have revealed several gaps in sales process and workflow that need to be corrected:

• CRM assistance, management, training and usage;
• Business development with current clients;
• Resurrecting cold prospecting efforts;
• Outreach and follow-up tasks;
• Recalibrating deal process, cycle and workflow expectations;
• Development of an SAP template for every qualified prospect;
• Cross-training and collaboration between departments; and
• Creation and execution of a client success action plan.

Below is a detailed list of best practices to help your team leverage the power of process and workflow in sales.

A CRM is a software that acts as a single repository to bring sales, marketing and customer support activities together and streamlines business process, policy and people in one platform.

• Modules: Provide clear direction and training on the criteria for who qualifies as a Lead or Contact and at what point a Deal can be created and assigned.
• Fields: Map fields in each module for easy importing of external information as well as conversion within the existing application.
  • Leads and Contacts fields should be required and mirrored in both modules: Company Name, First Name, Last Name, Title, Email, Phone (Mobile), City, State, Country, Company Type, Account Type, Lead Source, Tags.
  • Deals module fields include Name of Deal, Account Name, Deal Owner, Product or Service, Expected Revenue, Stage, Probability and Closing Date.
• Reporting: Setting up fields with consistent naming conventions throughout modules allows marketing and sales leaders to easily generate reports that provide insights to help improve strategy and growth.

Existing customers are critical to the stability of your business and retention rate, provide lifetime value and are likely to refer others to your brand. Stay on their radar by letting them know how much you appreciate them. You can do that with handwritten “thank you” and “birthday” cards, asking them if there are other ways you can help them, requesting referrals, and occasionally issuing a satisfaction survey. Of course, make notes about these efforts in your CRM.

Resurrecting Cold Prospecting Efforts 

The pandemic and technology has revolutionized the way professionals buy, sell and generally want to conduct business. Being able to get the attention of your prospect without drowning in a sea of digital communication requires a very targeted approach. Document this follow-up task cadence with each prospect in your CRM until you secure a first discovery meeting. (Also, consider the time of day or evening for digital outreach—we’re not as 8:00 am to 5:00 pm as we used to be. Adapt as needed.)

• Day 1: Online outreach and handwritten note via snail mail.
• Day 3: LinkedIn connection request with inbox note.
• Day 7: Email with embedded Loom video.
• Day 10: First phone call to prospect.
• Day 14: LinkedIn feed review and post engagement.
• Day 21: Second phone call to prospect.
• Day 28: Nurturing, monthly e-newsletter campaign.

We all know closing a deal is no easy task. It takes thorough preparation, a well-documented follow-up process and patience.

Take the lead on scheduling pitch presentations, next steps meetings, proposal reviews and negotiation discussions. Make sure that you’ve kept notes and recordings from all the previous meetings and communications so you can accurately reference and apply them to deal-closing conversations. Document the results of each touch in the Deals module of your CRM.

Sales efforts should not be limited to the sales team. Cross-training marketing and client success professionals will deliver an exponential increase in lead generation.

As Drew Goletz, national sales director at Avalon, observes, “Following a proven, repeatable sales process will always yield the desired result, and ultimately, drive revenue across your organization. While a good sales process should be simple, so many salespeople get caught up in non-sales-related activities that they forget to follow through with the KPIs—phone calls, emails, etc.—that will lead them to success. Stick to what you know works, and the results will follow.”