Before implementing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) designing the sales process is the important key for success. A well designed or poorly designed Sales process can make or break the effectiveness of your Sales initiatives. Deep thought should be given when designing and mapping the sales process to the CRM.
Many companies do not have clear understanding of the existing process and they try to may the existing but ineffective process to CRM resulting in poor CRM results. It is always recommended to relook and reengineer your Sales process before it is mapped to CRM systems during the CRM implementation.
Sales Process / Methodology
Having a focused sales process of methodology to manage your prospects is essential for success in the selling. A sales methodology is too important to be left to the individual salesperson to define for themselves and organizations must take charge to define the sales process. There are primarily two types of Sales process:
B2B (Business to Business) Sales process
Business to business sales process is where the transactions happen between two businesses where both the buyer and seller are business owners. The product or service is not sold to end users and typically buyers purchase products in large quantities.
B2C (Business to Consumer) Sales process
Business to Consumer sales process is between a business and end-user. The product or service is directly sold to end users and typically buyers purchase products in small quantities.
The approach to Sales cycle or sales process varies depending on whether it is B2C or B2B and also various from company to company or market to market. What may be good for one organization may not be good for another organization. However there are always some best practices to carry through.
We recommend a multifunctional team to be involved in the Design of the Sales process. Ideally the team from the client must include representatives from:
- Sales team
- Marketing Specialists
- Product Specialists
- Sales Management
We recommend a methodical approach defining and designing your Sales Process for a CRM implementation. Our approach includes:
- Identify Objectives
- Document Current Sales Process
- Analyze
- Define Future Sales Process
- Map Sales process to CRM
The successful Business Sales Methodology will enable the organization to get the following benefits:
- Prospects get a step by step process buy from your company
- Easy monitoring of the selling progress
- Get the sales cycle or pipeline visibility at the Account or Organization’s level
- Better analytics to identify the future focus areas of improvement.
- Speed the closing of new business.
The sales methodologies are to be designed for success. We must take due care in designing the sales methodology and mapping them to CRM. After all success comes not by chance – it comes by design.
