They say that experience is the best teacher, but in business, sales teams can only retain that experience if it is documented. Sales professionals must identify strategies that create best practices and generate repeatable sales. Properly documented best practices can help other team members – such as less experienced reps – benefit from the seasoned reps’ knowledge and experience.
Sales executives who document their best practices can optimize their team’s time, reduce sell cycles, close more deals, and make more money.
Here are five sales best practices to get your team started:
1. Develop Compelling Messaging: One of the most time-tested and powerful ways to support a strong sales effort is the creation of strong sales messaging. Whether responding to an inquiry, facilitating an introductory conversation, presenting a solution, delivering an individual talk track, touching base after a sales pitch, or reaching out to a previous lead, it is vital to have a compelling message. Throughout their career, your sales team has likely crafted messages that generate the best response. Organizations are more successful when leadership develops go-to-market messaging and packages these into a sales-ready resource. By documenting these templates and educating the entire sales team, you can deploy proven tools that work from day one of a new rep’s career.
2. Utilize a Custom CRM: The most successful sales teams use a customer relationship management system that facilitates building strong customer rapport. A CRM goes much further than notating previous purchases or product notes – it allows your sales team to structure a personal relationship with each client, reaching out on important days and remembering their favorite restaurant for sales calls. An authentic bond goes a long way to obtaining and retaining a solid customer base and pipeline.
3. Become the Expert They Need: Clients will come with questions, and those sales reps with the answers are positioned for more success. While it is understandable that not every sales rep can have every answer, having documented best practices can make it appear that way. Imagine a searchable database with all the expert and tribal knowledge of the organization available with just a few keystrokes – then imagine how that information portal can deliver exceptional support to anyone on the team, regardless of experience.
4. Establish Value: Value is determined by the benefits of your solution measured against a customer’s use of the solution. Sales teams should be equipped to deliver the right messages to the right customer decision-makers who can buy the value you sell. The team’s selling process anchors when and where needs are discovered, solutions are identified, and value is delivered. Selling value requires alignment with marketing, product management, professional services, customer success, and alliances.
5. Build a Standard Procedure / Process: Sales leaders should set up a standardized procedure for each deal coming down the pipeline. Managers can quickly ascertain where each client is in the pipeline based on predetermined checkpoints, milestones, and approvals. By establishing a workflow that applies to each deal, sales reps make fewer mistakes, managers can better support their team, and executives can make more accurate revenue projections.
Documentation is the Basis of Sales Best Practices
Documentation is valuable in every part of your business but can be especially beneficial in a fast-paced and competitive sales environment. If sales reps don’t return calls promptly because they are tracking down needed information or approvals, they can risk their deal. If specifications or pricing needs to be corrected too far along the process, it can cause challenging roadblocks. And if a sales rep simply doesn’t understand the communication protocols that have been successful in the past, they may struggle unnecessarily.
Documenting sales best practices is the fastest and easiest way to train new hires, give them valuable resources, and empower them to grow and thrive – without having to provide constant managerial handholding and support.
If you are seeking a powerful and intuitive online tool to streamline your workflow and document your knowledge, call KLONE today to learn more about how we can help.