A B2B sales process identifies the places where prospects can’t move forward without help from a sales representative. If you haven’t already created your B2B sales process then a previous blog post “How to create a B2B sales process” will help. Read on to learn more about how you can improve B2B sales processes.
Improve B2B sales process
While there are 7 steps involved in creating a sales process, there are just 5 steps involved in improving a B2B sales process.
1. Analyse
What is working, what isn’t? Think of your last 5 deals – what did they look like?… What were the customer touch points?… How long did it take and how long was there between each step? How was each step carried out? – online, face-to-face, phone?
2. Define buyer’s journey for target persona
Buyer’s journey
What is the buyer’s journey process from your customer’s perspective?
- Awareness: The buyer realises they have a problem
- Consideration: The buyer defines problem and researches options to solve it
- Decision: The buyer chooses solution
What is a target persona?
A persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and your existing customers’ data. It includes customer demographics, behaviour patterns and traits, motivations, goals and barriers to reaching their goals. Include as much detail as possible and give each persona a name!
3. Define the action that moves your prospect to next stage
Based on your prospect’s actions, what causes a prospect to move from one stage to next?
4. Define exit criteria for each step to improve B2B sales process
These are the things that have to happen in order for the sale to move from one stage to next. They might include:
- Demo
- Video
- Testimonial or case study
- Reference visit
- Blog
- White paper
- Meeting with CEO
- Tech questions answered or meeting with CTO
5. Measure sales process results
How many prospects transitioned into and out of each step in a given time period? How long did they remain at each step?
- What is the average time prospects stay in each step?
- Which step (if any) takes too long for prospects to move out of?
- What percentage of prospects close after a demo?
- What percentage of prospects request a demo after initial discovery call?
- Churn rate. How can you use this data to identify mismatched prospects early in the sales process?
Improve B2B sales process presentation
To make things nice and easy for you to implement these 5 steps, here’s a presentation you can use in your next sales and marketing meeting! Download it via Slideshare.
Any other suggestions for improving B2B sales processes? Let me know in the comment box below.
Related post: How to create a B2B sales process
First published 11 June 21.
