Steps to the Sale

Today’s one minute marketing topic is Steps to the Sale – mapping the sales process

When talking with business owners about their sales process, I’ll ask for a list of steps that prospects move through, ending with closing the sale. The company’s sales process or as I call it, steps to the sale, is usually a short list, such as shown in Figure 1: Lead Generation, Sales Call, Proposal, Closed Sale. 

Figure 1

Figure 2

Once we begin to discuss the sales process in more detail, steps that were overlooked or not mentioned are uncovered. The process usually starts to look something more like Figure 2 reflecting the full measure of steps needed to close a sale.

Unpacking these steps is critical to effectively plan your marketing. Marketing and sales need to be integrated throughout the process to most efficiently move the prospect through the steps to the sale. 

Further discussion is required to build out the process specifically for the purpose of understanding how marketing and other parts of the company operation touch and support the steps to the sale. We’ll cover that in a separate blog and video.

Map out your sales process – list all of the activities that your company completes to close a sale. It’s a great tool for managing sales, training new staff and for our discussion, building the marketing to support the sales process. Let’s review your list together.

We’ll review your steps and answer any questions you have about your marketing.