7 Steps to Building A Winning Sales Process

Your sales process is like a map. Without it, you get lost, fumble, or stall out. It shows you how to get from point A in the sale (finding your prospect) to point Z (closing the deal) — and every step in between. The best sales processes optimize sales conversations and deliver the right value at the right time. And as these conversations with prospects unfold, you learn more about how you can make their jobs — and lives — easier with your solutions.

• What is the sales process?
• Why is a sales process important?
• What are the seven steps of the sales process?
• What are common sales process mistakes — and how do you avoid them?
• How do you continually improve your sales process?
• Sales process features to look for in a CRM
• Set yourself up for sales process success

A sales process is a series of seven steps that move a sales rep from product and market research to a signed contract — and then nurture that relationship long after the deal has closed.

Sales process and sales methodology are frequently used interchangeably, but they are two distinct concepts. Think of the sales process as the "what" of the sales equation — the steps needed to close a deal. A sales methodology is the "how" — how a rep executes each step of the sales process. When you put the right "what" and "how" together, you increase your chances of successfully closing a sale.

Having a step-by-step sales process helps you know when and how to move a deal through the stages of a sales pipeline. With a clearly defined sales process, you increase the chances of closing. Additionally a sales process allows for a better understanding of your sales cycle. A sales cycle is the time it takes for a deal to go from first meaningful touch to closed won. The better your sales process the better you can identify the gaps and challenges that are slowing or increasing the deals through your sales funnel and why you ended up losing the sale which is often more important than knowing why you won the sale.Without a strong sales process the buyer’s experience is at risk. If you push your product before the prospect is ready for a solution, or wait too long out of fear of being too aggressive. Understanding the buyer’s experience through the seller’s journey is critical to creating and fine-tuning your sales process.

Before we can actually build out the stages and exit criteria of a sales process we must first do a little research. The most successful sales processes come via thoughtful planning and careful execution. Hit your goals with this seven-step process.

Clients expect sales reps to know every detail about the product or services they're selling. The best way to learn about your products is by reviewing product demos, press releases, and documentation. Ask developers and product managers questions about functionality, use cases, and potential pitfalls. Take notes highlighting the standout features and the problems they solve for customers.

Example: Construction company HomesRUs launched in 2020, with a simple goal: to sell affordable homes to young families in suburban Chicago. Their homes typically take three months to build, and early estimates show they will cost between $200,000 and $500,000.

HomesRUs onboards an eager young rep, Emily, to start selling. Unfortunately, there's no sales process in place and she doesn't know much about the company. Emily starts building out a seven-step sales process to land her first sales. Emily meets with the construction lead and the CFO.

She asks specific questions about how the homes are designed, what materials are used in the building process, where the homes will be built, and how the company determines initial pricing. She learns that one of the company's key differentiators is its American-made materials.

Many companies create a buyer persona that outlines the demographics, psychographics, and communication preferences of their ideal prospect. It's important to review this carefully and think about how the product you're selling addresses prospects' pain points.

If you don't have access to a buyer persona, spend time researching your target market. Here are key questions to guide your research:

• What buyer data do I already have that can help me outline the ideal prospect?
• What unique needs does my product or service address, and who has these needs?
• What are the characteristics of prospects targeted by my competitors?
• Where do my ideal prospects live, and how do they engage with businesses like mine?

There are many tools you can use to gather this information, but it's best to start by collecting insights from your company's CRM. If it has built-in analytics, you can see where past sales came from and the basic demographic information of buyers. You can also collect information on buying habits, average purchase frequency of buyers, which products are most popular, and average revenue per sale.

To round out your research, use a generative AI tool to learn about your competition's marketing, pricing, service, and sales tactics.

Example: With a better understanding of HomesRUs and its product, Emily maps out what she knows about her ideal prospect, such as demographics and income. She also reaches out to a couple of local real estate agents to ask what their clients look for in a new home, what their challenges are, and what neighborhoods are trending.

Prospecting is the process of finding individuals or businesses that are good candidates for a sale.

Start by asking fellow reps or industry connections for referrals. Look at online portals and communities for viable prospects. Search for product or industry keywords on broad-scope engagement platforms such as LinkedIn, then move to trusted niche sites that prospects commonly use for product research.

Search Google using keywords related to your business and look for sites where prospects are commenting on forums. Use CRM and AI tools to streamline the prospecting process. When you identify a prospect you'd like to pursue, find them on LinkedIn or ZoomInfo, and collect any available contact details.

You can supplement these efforts with inbound lead-generation campaigns. While traditional prospecting is outbound, lead generation campaigns pull interested contacts into your pipeline via display ads, paid search ads, and social media ads. Work with your marketing teams to create these campaigns — and then target audiences that match your buyer persona.

Example: Noting the forums used by her target buyer, Emily joins some local real estate community groups, real estate-related Reddit threads, and LinkedIn groups. She also plans a few real estate "get to know you" events where she knows her ideal buyer likes to shop.

Not all prospects are created equal. Before you can make a pitch, you need to verify that your product is a good match for the prospects you've identified. This requires a qualification call.

The qualification call collects basic information about need, budget, timeline, and authority that allows you to identify prospects most likely to buy. During the call, you should focus on the following key questions:

• What does the prospect need and does your product provide the right solution?
• Do they plan to make a product purchase soon? If so, when?
• How much do they have to spend on your product?
• Who has the authority to make the purchase, and do you have their contact information?

Once you've qualified a prospect in an initial call, make a discovery call. To do this, set up another meeting to better understand what your buyer needs — and how you can meet that need. A Gallup poll found that 70% of purchase decisions are based on emotion, so connecting with a prospect's passion can help close the deal.

Questions to connect include:

• What pain points or problems do you have right now?
• How have these problems affected your day-to-day work or life?
• What's preventing you from finding lasting solutions?
• If you implemented solutions that didn't work, why didn't they work?
• What would an ideal solution look like?

Keep the conversation free-flowing and natural. Once you have answers to those questions, you can move forward with identifying products or services that will solve their problems. And if a prospect doesn't identify a problem that can be solved with your product — remove them from your list.

Example: Emily now has a few prospects, so she makes calls to learn what they are looking for — and how she can help. Emily discovers that some buyers are targeting homes at a much lower price point than what the typical HomesRUs model sells for, so she removes them from her prospecting list.

It's finally time to schedule a sales call and present your pitch. This is an opportunity to present your product as a solution to your prospect's problems. Tailor your pitch to your prospect and discuss solutions — not product features. This customized approach makes the prospect feel they're valued and aren't just getting the hard sell.

Write out potential objections and draft responses to them ahead of your presentation. Be careful not to go into full defense mode when you hear objections. Ask for additional details and context to ensure you understand the root of the problem. If you need some coaching guidance, AI-powered coaching tools can analyze your conversations and provide feedback or guidance in real time.

Once you've finished your presentation, suggest a timeline for the next steps. This should include any follow-up calls and a proposed deadline for the sale to close.

Example: For her best-fit prospects, Emily suggests meeting in person to tour one of the model homes and talk through features, price, availability, and timing. To make the home more alluring, she makes sure it's staged with freshly baked cookies in the kitchen (chocolate chip, of course). After several successful walk-throughs, only one of her prospects is keen to move ahead right away. The others have some concerns about price and ask for more time to think about the opportunity.

Immediately after the sales call, follow up with the prospect, summarizing your conversation and reiterating next steps. If additional information was requested, send it along with your follow-up message.

As you continue the sales conversation, the prospect may raise an objection. Listen to the buyer's objections, and redirect the conversation away from the problem and toward a solution. If you need some examples, check out our objection-handling template.

Now that you've built the relationship, made your pitch, and addressed concerns, it's time to close. AI tools for guided selling can provide close plans that give sellers step-by-step instructions on how to close deals. For example, if a sales rep is stuck on a deal, AI might isolate the problem to be about pricing and recommend a close plan to send a discounted offer that can beat a competitor.

As you advance your prospect to close, encourage them to make a purchase decision by the date specified during the sales call. You can make this easy by sending a PDF contract with an electronic signature (e-sign) field.

Example: A day after her home tours, Emily follows up with each one of her best-fit prospects to let them know what the next steps are, including home inspection and the loan application. For those who were on the fence about a purchase, she lets them know she'll follow up in a few months to see how they feel about moving ahead.

Luckily for Emily, her most engaged prospect agrees to buy. She sets up a home inspection and helps the customer file all the paperwork. And as a thank you, Emily sends the buyer a gift basket filled with goodies for their new home.

If all goes well, your prospect is now a customer. Congratulations! But the sales process isn't over yet. Satisfied customers provide a huge opportunity for cross-selling and upselling.

A few days after the sale, follow up to make sure the customer is pleased with their purchase. A few weeks after the sale, check in to see if the customer has any questions. And a few months after the sale, confirm the customer's satisfaction — and then ask for a referral.

The upsell can be woven into each one of these messages. Because if your customers are happy with their initial sales experience with you, you're the first person they're going to call for a repeat purchase.

Example: Emily checks in with the new homeowners a few weeks after the sale by email. She makes sure that the home meets their expectations and they haven't seen any design or structural issues. Emily also confirms that all the final steps of the sale — loan paperwork, and so on — concluded without issue. And when she hears how happy her customer is, she asks for a referral — and offers a $1,000 incentive for every new buyer the customer brings to HomesRUs.

Mistakes can derail the sales process. Here are common errors — and tips on how to avoid them:

Research is key to successful sales. When you know your product or service, it allows you to speak confidently about what you're selling — and what problems it solves. When it's done poorly — or not at all — prospects lose confidence in you, your product, and your business.

Take the time to understand what you sell and your target audience before making your first sales call. Not only will you avoid embarrassing fumbles, but you'll be able to address unique problems and value propositions when you talk with prospects.

Many reps think a qualifying call is enough to pick out the best prospects on their list. But in most cases, this call doesn't adequately paint the picture of a prospect's needs. Take a separate call for discovery and actively listen to your prospect's pain points — and then offer a solution.

Take the time to learn about your prospect's alignment with your products before a sales call and you'll dramatically increase your chances of closing a deal. Many eager salespeople are so focused on quotas and commissions they forget the qualifying and discovery calls — and launch straight into the sales pitch. The result is often a dead end, as the unvetted prospect has little interest, insufficient budget, or is not empowered to make buying decisions.

It's common for reps to lead a call selling the features of their products or services. The problem is that prospects aren't looking for features — they're looking for solutions. Focus on how your product or service can benefit your customers, and don't worry about the bells and whistles.

When reps are laser-focused on closing deals, they can come across as pushy. Nobody wants to make a buying decision under pressure. Don't think of your prospect as a potential client. Think of them as a friend. Listen to their problems with empathy. It builds trust and loyalty, which makes a purchase decision easier.

Constant talking is often cited as the No. 1 mistake salespeople make. It alienates prospects and scuttles once-promising deals. In fact, studies have demonstrated the negative impact of talking more than listening during sales calls. The golden ratio is hard to pin down, but many experts recommend a 60/40 split in favor of listening. This gives reps enough time to share value-based insights while making sure the prospect is heard.

There are countless potential objections to a sale: cost, bad timing, insufficient need, and lack of product functionality. While these protests will vary, they're often easy to anticipate. The best solution is to map out all likely prospect objections before you make your pitch.

In the era of virtual selling and instant everything, many reps struggle to keep calls short enough to retain a prospect's attention. The result is poor engagement. To keep your clients interested, put a time limit of 30 minutes on your calls. This forces you to avoid tangents and focus on sales-critical information.

Lazy or distracted reps sometimes leave days between the sales call and their follow-up email. By that point, the interest generated in the product has faded, making the close far more difficult. Avoid this pitfall by sending follow-up messages immediately after your sales call.

Building a sales process isn't a "one and done" effort. Revisit your sales process every six months to ensure there are no bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or dated guidance. A lot of this work is the responsibility of sales managers or sales operations leads, but reps should feel empowered to provide feedback on goal metrics, target buyer personas, their tech stack, and possible process bottlenecks.

Here's how to get started:

Several steps in the sales process have performance metrics associated with them to ensure you keep deals flowing and hit sales goals. The most commonly tracked ones are the number of prospects added to each rep's pipeline in a given period, the number of sales calls made, the number of deals won, and, to a lesser extent, the number of upsells and cross-sells.

During your biannual review, identify how your performance compares to goal metrics. If there are certain areas where you're falling behind, take a close look at the messaging and process in that area. Determine potential areas for improvement by asking:

• Is the product messaging I'm using dated or inaccurate?
• Does my outreach seem out of touch?
• Am I taking too long to complete tasks?
• Are there obstacles to completing tasks in this step?

When you have identified possible areas for improvement, flag them with your manager or sales ops lead for review. Make sure you map out a plan for updating your sales process to address problem areas, with next steps and action items clearly outlined. Work to complete these action items one to two weeks after your review.

Your ideal prospect will likely change as the market and your products change. Pull up the buyer persona that you created earlier and confirm that it makes sense for your current prospecting efforts. You can use the questions you asked when you created your buyer persona to see if it still fits:

• What unique needs does my product or service address, and who has these needs?
• What are the characteristics and challenges of prospects targeted by my competitors?
• Where do my ideal prospects live and how do they engage with businesses like mine?

If your answers don't align with the buyer persona as it stands, bring it to the attention of your sales ops team or sales leader and ask them to consider making updates.

Almost two-thirds of sales reps report being overwhelmed by too many tools, according to the State of Sales Report. This can lead to a lot of time wasted on redundant data entry and increases the chances for human error.

To avoid these pitfalls, audit your sales tools. Do they require a lot of data entry that takes you away from critical sales conversations? Are there some you would consider unnecessary or unhelpful? Here's a helpful guide for completing a comprehensive audit.

It's also important to examine naming conventions and language used in your technology. When systems are set up piecemeal or by different teams, there can be language differences that cause confusion. Is there a consistent taxonomy used across all reps and pipelines for stages and deal records in your CRM, or does naming vary by team member? Are you confused by labels, tags, or instructions?

If you're seeing productivity obstacles here, discuss them with your manager or sales ops team. Wherever possible, use concrete examples to show how these issues are negatively impacting your sales.

Part of the benefit of sales process reviews is identifying areas to improve overall efficiency. Don't be afraid to dig into the roots of your process to see what needs to be cut out. It's possible that long-standing steps are hurting performance.

Start by looking at the numbers. Pull up your CRM analytics tool to look at three key metrics, which gauge prospect engagement in each sales process step: average time in each step, average number of prospects in one step at the same time, and overall win rate.

First question to ask: How do these metrics compare to the previous six months? If performance is up, you're making strides toward greater efficiency. If performance is down, look for the root cause by asking:

• Do you have clear exit criteria in place for each step of the sales process?
• Where are prospects getting stuck?
• Based on where prospects stall in the sales process, are there unnecessary steps?
• Is your sales process missing a critical step, like discovery or qualification?
• Do you need additional or better resources to successfully complete each step?

When you have a better sense of problem areas in your sales process, you can bring them to the attention of your sales operations lead. As always, support your conclusion with evidence and recommend a potential change to address the problems you uncovered.

While enablement program maintenance is the purview of sales ops leaders, reps can ask their managers for additional or updated enablement at any time — especially after the biannual sales process review. Training materials should be updated, and these changes should be communicated to the entire team. The more current your enablement, the easier it will be for you to sell and hit those sales targets.

Anyone who doesn't use a CRM platform nowadays probably does not have a strong sales process.

Without an effective sales process, you'll never be able to truly understand your business opportunities at an individual deal level — or know how to prepare and plan for growth. A robust CRM platform can help you build a template for a sales process that will lead the way to more closed deals.

Ideally, the seven steps of the sales process can be easily built into cells — or stages — in the CRM. You can name each stage how you want, but it's important not to deviate from that once you get started. In the CRM platform, define the specific exit criteria to go from one stage to the next. It's never as linear as we might like. But the goal is to provide a paint-by-numbers approach to every sales conversation so you clearly understand that opportunity. And that's why it's important that your CRM can help track and automate every step of the process.

When looking for a CRM platform, make sure that it has artificial intelligence (AI) built in. AI can provide predictive analytics, personalized recommendations, and automated workflows. Machine learning can help identify sales opportunities, forecast sales, and optimize marketing strategies. And by automating routine tasks, AI frees up salespeople to focus on what they love — selling.

The beauty of a well-designed CRM is that it can give everyone greater insight into where the organization is, where it's going next — and where it's headed in the long term. It provides historical data and references so you can create a full picture of your organization. A good CRM can leverage and grow an organization's revenue capabilities. And with all the add-ons, upsells, and cross-sells available to input into your CRM, it's not just a sales process — it's a revenue machine.

While knowing the steps of a sales process is important to winning deals, so is practicing the techniques in each step. Work with other reps to nail down your sales conversations and follow-up to make sure you feel comfortable. Make note of the tactics that work — along with the ones that don't — as you work through each sale. With a seasoned, structured sales process, you'll enjoy a reliable path to closing future deals.