Without a clear-cut sales processSales Process Sales Process is a series of strategic steps or a set of activities aimed at driving sales growth through the alignment of personnel, market insight, methodologies, relevant business units, and technology., no medium-to-large B2BB2B B2B is an acronym for Business-to-Business, a model for selling, relationship-building, or engagement. sales team or enterpriseEnterprise Enterprise (in the context of sales) is a relatively large organization typically composed of multiple levels, locations, and departments which need multi-layer software systems that support collaboration across a large corporate environment. can attain success. Pipeliner is the only CRM solutionSolution Solution is a combination of ideas, strategies, processes, technologies and services that effectively helps an organization achieve its goals or hurdle its challenges. to allow a company complete flexibility in adapting its sales process to CRM and to allow a company’s sales process to be rendered in seven different completely visual views.
For different productProduct Product refers to anything (an idea, item, service, process or information) that meets a need or a desire and is offered to a market, usually but not always at a price. lines, products or functions, today’s business may have separate sales processes. Pipeliner was the first CRM to provide the ability to set up multiple pipelines.
How many stages should a company have for its sales process? We have always recommended between three and ten. We don’t believe it’s efficient to have more than 10 steps in a sales process because the steps can become redundant—in such a case, it might be better to combine steps.
Activities Per Sales Step
Sales enablementSales Enablement Sales Enablement is a strategic process that provides a company’s sales professionals with tools, technology, training and other resources that improve their performance at customer engagement and at generating value for all stakeholders in the sales process.—relating seller activity to buyer action—has been part of Pipeliner CRM for some time. We have now taken this function to a whole new level. Our new Sales Step Activities feature allows companies to embed a real sales playbook—again, like no other CRM solution available today—providing true sales guidance to salespeople.
This new functionality is totally visual, just like all Pipeliner features, allowing a salesperson to rapidly grasp and use it. We have also made implementing this feature very easy for a CRM administrator.
Sales Step Activities allows an enterprise to lay out particular steps to take in order for a deal to move out of that stage and into the next one. But here is where we leave other CRM solutions in the dust: since no two companies are alike, we provide eleven different types of activities that can be added to a sales process step, including:
- Filling in an opportunity description
- Creating a task
- Using a document templateTemplate Template is a generic file with a framework showing the standard sections or features of a specific kind of document, used to create a new document of the same type faster and easier.
- Running a campaign
- Creating a note with an image
- Attaching a document
- And more
Automation can even be applied to sales process steps. You can:
- Create An Influencer Map—create a map of relationships influencing the opportunity within the prospect company.
- Map Sales Roles—visually display the various roles within your prospect or customerCustomer Customer is an individual or an organization that purchases a product or signs up for a service offered by a business. company.
- Enroll to an email sequence—the prospect or customer will now be sent a series of emails you have set up.
- Run Automatizer—automate any routine or repetitive tasks for that sales process step.
You may make any of these activities mandatory. In other words, an opportunity can only be moved from that stage once a particular activity has been completed, or a number of activities have been completed.
You may apply sales step activities to any pipelinePipeline Sales pipelineis a visual representation of the stage prospects are in the sales process. within CRM.
Setting Conditions
Any step activity may be based on a particular condition. A condition could be, for example, the size of the company being sold to—you would send a different ebook or document to a company with over 500 employees than one with 50. Another condition could be the deal size; a larger opportunity might have other activities than a smaller one.
The person to whom a salesperson is communicating might dictate another condition. They would communicate differently to the actual buyerBuyer A buyer is an individual or organizational entity that purchases a product or subscribes to a service. than the person who is simply reaching out to evaluate their product and who, themselves, don’t have any real interest.
Utilize Any Sales Methodology
Any sales methodology a company is utilizing may be incorporated through this new Sales Step Activities Feature. This includes Sandler Selling System, SPIN SellingSPIN Selling SPIN Selling is an acronym for four types of questions (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) a sales professional should ask a prospect to establish a customer-centric selling paradigm and increase closing rate., SNAP Selling, Challenger Sale, RAIN Selling or any other set of sales techniques.
Step Activities Creation
The person acting as CRM administrator will need to research and outline activities for each stage of the sales process. This should be done with the assistance of the sales managerSales Manager Sales Manager is an executive who leads a sales unit, team or department by setting goals and meeting targets, formulating plans and policies, designating tasks, and developing salespeople. if the administrator and the sales manager are different people.
Don’t aim for perfection with each stage’s sales activities right at the outset—just as you shouldn’t attempt a perfect formulation of the sales process itself right in the beginning. I always make this suggestion in both cases: start somewhere. Begin with a few steps, and then a few weeks later you’ll realize another should be added. A few months later, you’ll see another is needed. Just begin with something and continue from there.
Fantastic Analysis Tool
Because of precise activity guidance within each sales process step, sales team and sales process analysis can be conducted with equal precision. You can see which opportunities are closing and which are not, what kind of activities your salespeople have performed, and why a salesperson wins more than loses deals or the opposite. Better analysis means improved support, and education and training, for your team.
Coming Soon: Process Approval
Another robust Pipeliner feature, Process Approval, will be released shortly, and it will work in tandem with Sales Step Activities. This feature will mean that, for example, any proposal over a certain size must be approved by management, and until it is, it cannot be moved forward.
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