Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 39. Developing and Implementing a Structured Sales Process

Justin Zappulla

Janek Performance Group

WHY HAVE A STRUCTURED SALES PROCESS?

Structuring a proven process for conducting the sale puts your company in a position to define, prepare for, quantify, track, and increase sales success.

Allowing salespeople to "wing-it," be mavericks, or sell in their own "unique" ways is unreliable. You need real data to predict sales with more accuracy, to prepare for a variety of scenarios, to identify areas for improvement, and to make your sales behaviors fit better with your customer's buying behaviors.

Relying on the opinions of salespeople as a source of information is inaccurate and flawed. Consider prospecting—without clear guidelines as to what qualifies as a good prospect, salespeople tend to hold on to the "junk"—they favor the ones that talked to them the most, or maybe they liked the sound of the customer's voice, or they made some personal connection with the customer—they need logical criteria, not their emotions, to guide their actions. We're human—that's why we have structure—it makes us more accurate.

Salespeople, regardless of their years of experience, need a proven process to follow. Even the best, championship-level athletes structure their training to ensure continued levels of performance and success.

Additionally, new resources, new products, and new techniques can be more easily worked in, tracked, and evaluated when you have a solid grasp on how your current sales ...