Analysis of a process-guided sales consultant
Even the best artists; Painters, musicians, and writers study their ancient performances, break them down into smaller parts, and analyze everything they did. In this way they understand the value of each performance individually and, also, how they qualify each other when looking at their work as a whole.
In sales that is no different. The best sellers are always those guided by processes, those who follow a methodology repeatedly.
Through their past experiences, and also using the experiences of other consultants, vendors analyze, learn, and improve their performance. These professionals manage to maximize their productivity in each step of the process, producing final results with more quality and a higher percentage of success.
What is a sales process?
In summary, a sales process is a series of well-defined, teachable, easily learned and repeated steps that help progress, both for sellers and for consumers. All this through an effective process always guided by decisions and learning.
Unlike many other professions, a well-built sales process is two-sided. Consider both parties, consumers and sellers. Furthermore, it is unique; Because it is created on another process, which are the steps that a prospect takes before making a decision. This process is known as the customer journey .
The smart sales representative knows that following the sales process will improve your results. Knowing that the best performing professionals use this process, we can better understand how to take advantage of its full potential.
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The advantages of the sales process
From the first calls, the process-guided sales consultant is already in front of his peers. He studied what had already been done by others before him in order to achieve good results, and he also used this knowledge in his first contact with the client. This is the process of how good professionals prepare and execute their tasks.
Like the best athletes, the best sales consultants constantly practice and mentally simulate their sales before making them . The preparation structure and path to past successes give the process-guided sales consultant an edge at every stage of their conversation with potential customers.
The twin evil of process-driven sales consultants – imagine a sales consultant who is often lost in conversation. And that he gets to have worse numbers every month, just because sometimes he is not in a good day or, simply because he does not feel very motivated.
Progression
The process-guided sales consultant does not take steps back, but develops and improves over time. Its process, divided into small parts, allows you to identify, focus and work on those skills that you need to perfect to be more effective at the time of the sale.
But that process is not only about how the consultant sells, but also about how he learns and challenges himself . Having regular trainings is on the mindset of a process-guided sales consultant, as he knows that outside help is part of his path to development. The process requires a process to improve processes.
The Evil Twin of Process- Driven Sales Consultants: Imagine a sales consultant who often makes the same mistakes on the job. He doesn’t even understand how he continues to lose business, making it very difficult to repair his mistakes.
Predictability
The essence of the process is repeatability, and that carries predictability. Best practices are repeated multiple times for common results. Like a chess player, the process-guided sales representative sees each new business three or four steps forward.
This consultant knows that A + B + C = D. He starts on path A, does some fundamental tasks during the sale (B and C) and reaches a validated result, D. He does not depart from this process, because he knows that missing parts will generate low results
His discipline and strategic insights guarantee his results month after month, quarter after quarter . He does not do it by closing miraculous deals that no one could close, but by being a master in winning negotiations that he can win.
The Evil Twin of Process- Driven Sales Consultants: Imagine a sales consultant who always forgets the essential ingredients for a sale. Skip the stages for no reason and tend to use the sixth sense to know when the negotiation is going to go well, rather than knowing based on analysis, experiences, or documents.
Efficiency
Aside from knowing the best way to move forward with a negotiation, the process-guided sales consultant also often knows when things aren’t going to work.
Going back to your formula, if you know you can get to A, but you won’t be able to add B, you don’t try to jump to C and D. You know this account doesn’t work. Then he stops and starts working on removing the obstacle that is making it difficult for him to get B. If he doesn’t really get it, he goes on to the next challenge.
A sales process is, once again, bilateral and the process itself tells the consultant if a conversation does not match the success profile so that the consultant can better use his time elsewhere.
This allows you to maximize your efficiency, investing precious hours on prospects with more purchasing possibilities, paying more attention to them and working more thoroughly.
The Evil Twin of Process- Driven Sales Consultants: Imagine a sales consultant trying to sell to everyone, without asking for any commitment or confirmation along the way of sales.
You will constantly live frustrated with negotiations that don’t work after a big investment of time. Or, perhaps, you lose out at the end of a negotiation for lack of attention to specific details, which could have made defeat a victory.
Much more than having one of the 5 essential skills of a complete sales consultant, process-guided sales consultants will be your future sales managers.
Some sales reps achieve the best performances through their charisma and persuasion. Others simply try harder. But being charismatic or working hard are not skills that can be passed from one generation of sales consultants to another.
He is the process-guided sales consultant who manages to teach his team how to develop their performance, helping them to divide and analyze individual processes, improving each key element at the same time. Teaching yourself is again a process.
This content is part of a series to investigate the skills of a complete sales consultant. You can read the first content on the subject here.
