Not just quantity but also quality – about the importance of the sales process in the business
About the proper conduct of the sales department in organizations as a key to increasing profits and creating a pool of satisfied customers.
In any organization the sales are the heart of the business. Without a motivated sales department and with an endless hunger for increasing profits the organization cannot move forward and improve performance. The sales department produces the “fuel” of the business and delivers it the resources to grow, succeed and justify its existence. More about the principles of quality sales processes in the following article.
What is a quality sales process
A quality sales process is a planned and structured process which is based on a precise method and a system based on proven working methods as a growth engine. The purpose of the method is not only to produce uniformity in all sales activities but also to establish the organization’s sales strategy as a lever for successful performance. As a body that is at the heart of the organization and serves as a powerful locomotive that pulls all the company’s cars behind it, a quality sales method is designed to produce for sales people a way of how to carry out the process successfully while reducing situations of uncertainty due to a lack of knowledge.
The importance of the price issue in the sale process
One of the critical nodes in the sales process is the price issue. Most customers, small and large, are so-called “price sensitive”, and many times the decision making process is mostly based on price and hence it has much importance in such a competitive era. For this reason, providing a uniform price to all customers is at the core of a sales process as a matter of principle and through proper conduct. When the price is uniform, there is no discrimination between customers and situations of inconvenience are avoided and the integrity of the organization is maintained in the eyes of both the customers and its employees. There are cases where a differential pricing method can be maintained, however it must be a function of weighting of various factors and not just as a lever for getting the deal.
Sell without selling – establishing the customer experience as a leading sales technique
A well-known saying in the field of sales says that “everyone likes to buy but no one likes to be sold to”. This insight underlies the modern sales method which promotes a sales process which is not seen as such, but is based on different values and creating a relationship that leads in the end to a sale. Modern sales processes are increasingly based on what is called a “customer experience” in which the customer goes through a “journey” to the decision-making stage without feeling sold to, that they made the decision alone out of clean and matter-of-fact considerations and not as a result of persuasion and pressure from the salesperson. Bottom line, the customer has to buy without feeling sold to.
Creating trust as a primary basis for any sales process
At the core of any relationship is the issue of trust between the parties. A good relationship cannot be maintained if trust has not been established both in the introductory phase and in the subsequent stages. Sales are actually creating a relationship between the customer and the business. This relationship is based not only on the sales process but on the trust the consumer has in the brand. Brands take many expensive steps in order to establish consumer trust in them in order to facilitate and improve the sales process later with a simpler removal of barriers as a result of the trust created.
The goal is to give the customer a good feeling when they buy. If the customer feels good after the purchase they will tell others and become an ambassador of the brand and promote the business only out of their good will and a desire to share with everyone the good experience they went through. A customer who went through a sales process during and after which they felt that “they were screwed over” would bother and share their bad feeling and bad experience with many more people both with the intention of warning others and out of a sense of “revenge” and a desire to “screw back” the organization. Therefore, throughout the sales and service process it is imperative to establish trust between the customer and the business, to establish in them the belief and the knowledge that the business from which they buy seeks the best for them and that they work decently out of professional integrity. Any other method just will not work in the long term.
