Analyze your current sales processes and their performance. The best sales process isn’t the one that is enforced but the one that comes naturally and is built around the way your business works. To start, try to understand what your sales team is already doing and how effective it is.
Map the buyer’s journey for every target persona
At the same time, take a closer look at the typical path your prospects follow to become your customers and match it to the existing sales process you’ve outlined earlier. Having the two aligned is vital for building an effective sales process.
Note: for every business, there are usually several customer personas that might have slightly different buyer journeys. This means you will need several sales processes to cover all the possible scenarios.
Plan the activities for each process stage
Once you’ve figured out your sales cycle, list all the activities that go along with each one of its stages. In addition to listing your current efforts, leave some room for experimentation, i.e. emerging sales methods or alternative engagement channels.
Set goals for each step of the sales process
To make your sales process predictable, establish consistent KPIs for each step, including the conditions for advancing the prospect to the next step. This will add clarity to your process and make sure all of your team members are working toward the same goal.
Just make sure your goals are measurable and the KPIs are realistic.
Allocate responsibilities within your team
Closing a sale isn’t solely the sales team’s responsibility. At different stages of the process, there might be other departments involved, from marketing and sales development to customer support/success and account management.
So make sure each involved party knows their role and works together with the others.
Lastly, you can also include the sales tools you’re using - anything that can be used to orchestrate the activities at every step of your sales process - in the document. This will help you make sure your team members (especially the new ones) are aware of the available resources and can make the best use of them.
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