Streamline Your Sales Process With 8 Steps

“Slow is smooth, Smooth is fast.” -Clay Posey.

So says the saying widely attributed to the Navy SEALS Teams. There is plenty of wisdom in those six words for SALES Teams as well. 

What are the implications for sales?

How many times has your manager, or you as a manager told your team, “HURRY UP?”  I can tell you that most of my mistakes, skips, and failures happen when I am in a hurry. 

Forget a critical item? In a hurry. 

Fail to stop at a stop sign? In a hurry. 

Make typos or math errors? In a hurry.

So the advice to streamline your sales process? S L O W   D O W N

Any skill takes practice to master. You start slow and build. You create muscle memory and connect pathways in your brain. You move from “Unconscious Incompetence” >>>>>>> “Unconscious Competence.” There are four steps here and they will be the subject of another sales blog down the road. 

But starting slow for practice isn’t the end game. Once you have the synapse connections and muscle memory, Everything is fluid. You are doing this without having to think through every step. You make closing sales look easy and find yourself with a more robust pipeline, shorter deal cycles, a fatter paycheck, and lower stressful lifestyle. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. 

So how do you get there? 

1. Map your sales process.  Take a deeper look at your process. Examine every step you can in minute detail. Make a list, or a chart; whatever is best for you.
2. Trim out everything that isn’t necessary. No fats here. If a step or item does not move the process forward, it needs to go.
3. Score your leads. If you don’t have a way to prioritize your leads, you are really hurting yourself. Keller Williams Realty has a great, simple way to score - blindingly obvious: Ready, Willing, and Able. Without those, you don’t have a deal.
4. Determine what can be automated. Cold Reach? Follow up? Self-service information on your website? Automate Everything that makes sense. Use your brain and time for things that only you can do.
5. Make a list of all the reasons that there is urgency in this transaction. The answer is, “Why you, why this solution, why TODAY?”
6. Build Authentic Relationships. Guess what, this is slow. If you love your customers, If you really, genuinely care about them and their goals, you’ll sell them exactly what they need and it will be effortless.
7. Get feedback. More importantly, act on it. If you really want to be great, ask for negative feedback. If you ask a customer how they like your product or service and they say, “great!” Tell them how happy that makes you, and then ask, “What would make it greater?”
8. Use your in-house data as well as benchmark data to establish your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and optimal deal size. This will help optimize your funnel and your margins. You’ll be speaking with people who need what you do and for whom you can do your best work. 

We’ll be breaking these steps down over the next few weeks in this blog. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything. If you want specific help, drop us a line or book a quick meeting on the calendar.

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