I was speaking at an event a couple of weeks ago and the above question was put forward to me towards the end of my session. I’m not sure what everybody else’s answer would be, however, the downside of standing up in front of people is that you don’t get the benefit of time to consider your response in the way we’d all like to.
My response of ‘Every business should have a documented Sales Process’ was met with some surprise by some members of the audience as they deemed my approach to be somewhat overkill, particularly given that some of the businesses at the event were even sole traders/one man bands.
The follow up question that came back was ‘why would you have a sales process when there’s potentially only one person in the business’ – which is in itself a reasonable response.
What then followed was a really productive session on why a business should adopt a documented sales process in the first place. The expected answers came back in the form of:
- Consistency in delivery
- Opportunity to sell additional product/services
- Everybody is ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’
- Maintain standards and quality
All of which were agreed as good reasons why a Sales Process would be valuable, however, it hadn’t totally silenced the sole traders in the room.
Further points were then made which, very interestingly, shifted the conversation away from what was, up to then, a pure sales discussion.
Some of these answers included:
- Reduced Senior Management involvement due to empowered staff
- Lower staff turnover due partly as a result of the above
- Increased referral capability due to happier customers
- And finally – ‘If we know the process fully then we know exactly how to articulate the ‘precise journey’ of the customer can expect’.
I really enjoyed the discussion with a great group that day but if the final point is valid (which I absolutely believe that it is) then I stand by my comment that any business is never too small to have a Sales Process.
