Sales systems Should be Simple

“Should” is a powerful word and one that carries lots of inferred messages. For a sales system’s simplicity, the term "should" implies that many systems are not simple.

A simple sales system includes only a few segments that correspond with the stages of a buyer's journey—from becoming aware of their need to eventually selecting your solution. For each of these segments along the buyer's journey, the simple sales system should have a definition of possible results. Results should range from “underperforming expectations” to “outperforming expectations.” With this in hand, a quick summary of appropriate activities for each stage will create a loose framework for a simple system.

Anyone in your sales organization should be able to reference a potential sale by its corresponding segment stage. This will also allow everyone to see how many potential clients are in each stage. From there, leadership can coach the sales team on the activities that should be executed for each potential client in each stage.

Like I said, simple.

For companies without a defined sales process, start with the above framework. If you have a really complicated process with a mountain of variables, chances are you have mixed the stages with the activities and you have an opportunity to simplify the process.

Complexity is the enemy of adoption for salespeople. If you make it easy enough to use and simple enough to keep current, you will get better adoption, better results, and more insight into what is actually happening week to week with your sales opportunities.

To your selling success!