B2B Sales. How to organize your sales department?

Whether you are an entrepreneur or just an independent contractor, we all are salespeople. Let`s see what the sales process consists of and which parts could be improved.

In sales, no matter what business you are in, you are meeting with those six steps:

Prospecting

Prospecting is the first stage of the sales process when the company has to figure out the audience, which is having the problem the company could solve. The prospecting stage is quite important, as it defines the narrowness of the sales funnel.

Typically, while prospecting all the audience of people who potentially have a problem could be divided into three types:

• people you don`t know (cold market)
• people you know (warm market)
• people your people know (referrals).

Logically, the conversion rates are highest for the warm market, then goes referrals and cold market after it. But how to expand the funnel and get closer to the customers of the market that might buy if you don`t know them?

1. Social Media
2. Networking events
3. Cold market prospecting
4. Turning strangers into friends
5. Influencers (centres of influence).

Approach and contact

After you got people, you are ready to contact and approach potential customers. Nowadays, with the existence of social media, it became easier to approach a lot of people at once with one message. Before sending letters, emails, you should have a written sharp script that will be catchy and will get your answer. Phone calls are still important, even for Millennials and Gen Z, as someone prefers to talk to understand faster and ask questions that arise during the explanation of salesperson. Phone calls are also important to customer support and maintenance, which we will discuss further.

Presentation/Demonstration

Although presenting the product does not make you money, it is quite an important step to do. To close the deal and sign the final agreement, you have to perform the product presentation. There are some mistakes or leaks that might be in your presentation:

1. Talking too much
2. Not asking enough questions
3. No customization and personalization (especially important in 2020)
4. Bullshitting people.

After a successful presentation, a customer might at once agree on the deal, you proposed or will take some time to think and evaluate all possible offers he has.

Follow up

In our high-speed world, the follow-up matters as much as the initial inquiry, and you never know what it will lead to. In my experience, some sales happened after the follow-up. The follow up could indicate that you are serious and determined as a partner to cooperate with. Follow-ups have to be a systematical, not the occasional, as it is natural for people to procrastinate, postpone and forget about things.

Referrals

After closing the deal, the game is not over yet. After you have earned the trust of your existing customer, you should expand and ask for some acquaintances and referral from that customer. Word of mouth as being one of the most efficient marketing and advertisement channel will work on you if you are always asking for a referral and explore new potential customers.

Customer relationship maintenance

Surprisingly, this is one of the most important and probably most difficult processes of the sales cycle. Maintaining good relationships with people, customers will ensure that the company will be there in the long run. We all are people who have feelings, interests, and despite the fact that we are business partners, it`s essential to maintain good people relationships with people on whom your business depends on.

For me, it was crucial to understand how important is the stage of prospecting, which means getting out of the comfort zone, out from your bubble and getting qualified leads. It does not matter if you are in car sales or software business — you have to organize your sales cycle so that you perform all the stages and perform them good.