The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Whether you are a small start-up company or a large corporation, you must engage in sales work to bring in clients to your company who are interested in your products and services. This involves certain steps a sales associate must take in finding a client, initiating contact and closing the deal.
Companies will use an assortment of different techniques and procedures based on the specific clients they have, what they are offering as a product or service, and what type of CRM software the company may be using. But the sales work itself usually involves the same process.
How Sales Work Is Done Today
Prospecting
Long gone are the days where a salesman would walk up to a person’s door with their sales box of kitchen knives or men’s penny loafers. Today, most contact is done over the phone, online, through the regular mail or onsite at the place of business.
Yet sales work still involves prospecting for clients and making that first important contact. Prospecting involves finding clients through a number of ways that can include cold calling, using listings of previous clients, or gaining referrals through a professional network. After gaining a list of prospects, initial contact is made.
The first contact is crucial in building a relationship with the client. The person is introducing themselves; the reason for the contact and how they want to fulfill the client’s needs. While the initial contact may not lead to an actual sale just yet, it does open up the door in communicating with the potential client and letting them know the business exists as it can offer a service or product to help them.
Continuing Contact
If the client doesn’t go for a bite of the sale’s line, then the associate should continue contact by providing information about the company and solutions that could help the client come to a decision with making a deal. This continued contact may be done over the phone, through email, and during face-to-face meetings.
The sales associate should focus completely on the customer and their needs as they help the client see what the company can do for them until the client agrees to the services or product. This is also referred to as follow-up. During the follow-up, a sales associate may rely on CRM to help with their business strategy. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology solution that allows the associate to understand the customer’s needs, provide an enjoyable customer experience and help build profits.
Closing The Deal
This comes with a completion of the sales transaction, as the sales associate provides services to complete the deal for the client. While this may be the end of the current service or product that is provided to the customer, it should not be the end of the sales work. The associate should be building a business relationship with the existing client that could lead to future sales or referrals of new clients.
Streamline The Sales Process To Identify Problems While Increasing Profits
A company’s sales work may involve more or less steps to reach its goals. Create a sales process that works best with the products and services offered to clients, and identify problems that may arise so that sales associates can work efficiently. When it comes to sales work, the client’s needs always come first.
