THE SPARK Shampa's Blog

The 7 Steps of a Sales Process

Couple of weeks back I wrote about Sales Process and how important it is for your organization to have one… now let’s talk about the different steps of a sales process so that you can create one easily…

Okay… let’s step through it 😊

A typical sales process starts internally with training your sales agents. It then moves through prospecting, following up and closing the sale. But it does not stop there. The best sales processes include continuous nurturing the customer as the final step.

Here are the 7 steps of a typical sales process:

The time and effort you have to spend on each of these steps may vary but ensuring that you do follow through these 7 steps will go a long way in helping your organization meet their revenue goals.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Get your hands dirty

As a technology builder and business owner, if you ask me for one advice on how to use technology to grow your business, this is it – Get your hands dirty.

As an entrepreneur or business leader, you are extremely busy with a never ending to-do list. You do understand that technology, when done right, is the competitive advantage that will take your business to the next level. And so you decide to make that investment and go for it.

You pay for the technology, hand it over to your team and go right back to your to-do list.

Life goes on as usual, everyone works hard at their job, and nothing changes…

Months go by, maybe a year..

And one day, while looking at the financial numbers, you remember the ‘competitive advantage’ and ‘business growth’ that was supposed to happen but never showed up.

What happened to that technology we paid for?

Nobody knows.

You ask your team how the technology is coming along.. everyone using it, right?

Uncomfortable silence.

All this time, your expensive technology was sitting on the shelf gathering dust, right beside your dreams for ‘explosive growth’ and ‘competitive advantage’..

And that is why, when you decide to invest in technology, do not make it the responsibility of someone else.

Whatever you do, DO NOT take a hands-off approach.

Get your hands dirty.

Get involved.
Try the app yourself.
Know who is in charge of setting it up.
Make sure team is trained.
Put in the checks and balances.
Look at reports.
Check-in from time to time.

If you invest in the right technology, implement it in your business in the right way with everyone using it to their full capacity, there is no reason why you should not see that growth you are looking for.

If you have questions on how you should plan your technology implementation, we’re right here for you.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Why you need a Sales Process

In my last blog, I talked about what a sales process is and what an ideal sales process should be.

Continuing this discussion, let’s talk about the why – Why should you bother creating a Sales Process for your organization… what’s the fuss about?

Having a defined Sales Process has many benefits, here are a few of them:

• Stay on track – When you have a defined process, it’s easier to make sure that every team member follows the correct steps to guide the prospect along the journey and close the sale quickly.
• Measure performance – Sales process helps you create the right metrics to track Sales agent performance.
• Accurate sales forecasts – Since you can track the sales stage of each lead, you are able to forecast your sales numbers more accurately.
• Understand prospects – Having a well-defined process invariably leads to setting up better buyer personas and better research of your prospects.
• Right focus – Since leads are now better qualified, reps can focus on leads that have higher chance of converting.
• No lost leads – Helps sales reps follow up frequently and engage with prospects at the right time reducing the chances of leads falling through the cracks.
• Better customer experience – By mandating the sales process steps you can ensure that reps don’t rush the prospects in order to try and close the sale quickly, which could easily result in a lost sale.

There are many more benefits, but these should be enough to convince you to go ahead and define a new sales process in your organization or take another look at your sales process if you already have one defined.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Your Sales Process

Being a business leader you know that a business does not run on individual excellence or knowledge…. a business runs on its processes. For an organization of any size to succeed in the long term, the management needs to set up strong fundamental processes.

And this is even more true for the Sales department.

So, let’s talk about Sales Processes today.

We’ll cover the basics in this blog and dig deeper over the next few posts.

Let’s start by defining what is a Sales Process.

A Sales Process is a series of repeatable steps that an organization follows to take a prospect from being unaware lead to a paid happy customer and beyond. A well-defined sales process provides a common roadmap or framework that moves prospects through various stages of the sales cycle along the customer journey until they become paid customers.

Sales processes may change depending on the company’s product or service, prospect’s industry or need, but most effective sales processes have a few characteristics in common.

An ideal sales process is:

1. Actionable – Should clearly state what a sales agent or another team member should do
2. Repeatable – Each team member should be able to follow it every time
3. Predictable – The steps should be pre-defined and known by the team member expected to act on it
4. Flexible – It can change depending on situation

Given the advantages, use of sales processes by every sales team should seem like an obvious decision, but you’d be surprised how many organizations don’t have defined sales processes.

If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you close more sales by helping you implement clear effective sales processes, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Empathy in the age of algorithms

A lot is being said about Artificial Intelligence nowadays and you must have heard at least some of it…

Some say it’s the greatest revolution…

Some say it is the greatest threat to humanity…

Some are excited…

Some are terrified…

But keeping the hype and fear aside, a question that is beginning to bother us, especially those of us who are in the business of working with customers and the relationships that businesses have with their customers, is how that relationship will change in the future…

We all know that building long-term relationships with our customers is essential to the growth of the business. So, when the intelligence is artificial, but the customer is real, how can a business build long-term relationships?

Customers are real people – with feelings, emotions, and personality.

They want to be heard. Especially when they are frustrated or upset with your organization, they want to feel listened to and understood.

And that is where empathy comes in.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes – to look at a situation from that person’s perspective. That’s not easy, but often that is what makes the difference between losing a customer to a competitor versus building a loyal advocate of your brand.

Customer empathy helps identify a customer’s needs, establish connection with them, and also manage conflicts better. Often it is not about solving a problem or receiving a refund. Even when a situation has no resolution, sometimes just acknowledging a customer’s feeling helps provide a better experience.

In a recent study by Salesforce, 84% of customers said that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.

So, the question every business needs to ask is: Can artificial intelligence make your customer feel like a person?

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you build long-term customer relationships by providing better visibility, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

the enemy of innovation

When you think of ‘innovation’ what comes to mind? Do you think innovation is inventing something totally new that changes the world? Do you think inventiveness is only limited to scientists and engineers? Does it only apply to creating new products?

In today’s world ‘innovation’ is ‘doing or building something different that creates or adds more value’.

Inventiveness is not limited to scientists and engineers.

It is not limited to achieving big breakthroughs.

Nor is it limited to creating new world-changing products.

It could be a small everyday improvement …
that makes a difficult task easier …
that makes the complicated simpler …
or the expensive more affordable …

So, if everyone can innovate, why is it not more common?

There are many reasons why innovation is so hard to achieve.

There are many barriers to innovation …

But the biggest barrier to innovation is also the one that is least obvious and least talked about.

Inertia.

Organizational Inertia.

Businesses are built to deliver predictable results.

Consistency.

Certainty.

Reliability.

These are the traits that make a business successful today.

But these are also traits that stifle innovation that will make the business successful tomorrow.

And that is the challenge that organizations face.

Rewarding the status quo will not trigger meaningful innovation.

Original ideas are not predictable.

Fear of failure does not generate bold ideas.

So, the first step to break this Inertia is to deliberately commit to innovation.

Start small.

But reward bold innovative behaviors.

And don’t back off when bold ideas fall flat.

Because that is where innovations begin.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you drive innovation by making complex time consuming processes simpler through automation and intelligence, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

CX Failures … and how to avoid them

How often have you heard about CX failures?

Do you hear about ambitious ‘Customer Centric’ initiatives that aimed to overhaul everything and put customers at the center of everything… but really achieved nothing?

Probably not.

Mainly because companies tend not to boast about them.

But they happen all the time.

Businesses decide to become ‘Customer-centric’ … they tear down their existing operational models … rush to choose the biggest CRM name in the market … spend hundreds of thousands of dollars implementing it … and then …

Nothing.

No benefits.

Neither the business nor their customers see any tangible improvements.

Such incidents are then quietly swept under the rug, and everyone goes back to business as usual.

But what is the reason behind these implementation failures?

Often it boils down to 3 main reasons:

• It costs too much
• It takes too long
• It disrupts Business as Usual

So, as 2023 approaches and organizations start planning for new ways to boost Customer Engagement, especially in the current market scenario, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Opt for incremental improvement of business operations
2. Choose technology that can be implemented quickly (lower cost)
3. Focus on what is important to the customer and will deliver the most results

Adopting this practical, implementable, and cost-effective approach instead of over-complicated strategies will help you deliver value to your customers without failed promises and major disruptions.

And that is critical for these uncertain times.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you drive practical and cost-effective CX improvements by providing one platform that automates tasks and provides insights for marketing, sales and service departments, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Doing More with Less

The mood is gloomy … The predictions are dire …

Newsrooms as well as water cooler discussions are filled with talk about slowing growth, budget cuts, layoffs, …

Trimming the fat …

Tightening the belt …

Faced with an economic recession just around the corner, businesses are bracing for a long hard winter.

What do you do?

How do you respond?

This is the time to do more with less.

Efficiency is now the name of the game.

Are you facing this challenge too?

Are things slowing down in your organization too?

Are you having to do more with less?

If that is the case, here are 3 strategies that will help you drive growth in your organization during these challenging times:

1. Narrow down your focus to the high-potential and high-revenue customers and markets. Prioritize what works. Create a plan to target your best customers and the best markets for new sales opportunities. Leverage a tool that includes real time data to track progress of leads and accounts, and does it across marketing, sales, and service departments.
2. Use automation to increase efficiency. A tool that automates tedious manual tasks and takes care of day-to-day communications and notifications is important during normal times of course, but is absolutely critical during these times when you may find yourself short-staffed but with the same long list of deliverables.
3. Simplify your technology by reducing the number of apps and tools. In most organizations, sales and service reps spend less time selling and attending to customers and more time doing tedious tasks like data entry on multiple apps and outdated tools. This would be a good time to take inventory of all the tools that are used by your organization or department and remove any that don’t add significant value or take the business process forward.

What strategies are you using in your organization to drive efficiency and do more with less?

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you drive efficiency by providing one platform that automates tasks and provides insights for marketing, sales and service departments, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Unscripted

Does the customer service in your organization have a heart?
For a very long time … for decades really … predictability, consistency and efficiency have been the main mantra of customer service in all businesses, especially large enterprises. And companies have tried to achieve this with rigorous training of their customer service reps and asking them to follow a rigid script for every customer interaction. The more complex and emotionally charged the customer interactions are, the more companies used technology to double down on this rigid approach by automating the interactions.

But as technology is evolving, a more human approach to customer service is taking hold. We can call it ‘human-centric customer service’. This is the model where human agents work in tandem with high-tech platforms and yet use their human skills of complex problem-solving, communication, and emotional engagement to provide the best experience to their customers.

When you ask agents to follow scripts that have a decision-tree, you train them to behave more like machines that follow a certain algorithm. Although this approach is easier to automate, agents end up losing their human skills like creativity and empathy.

Even if this rigid approach results in improving metrics like reduced call times, it ultimately results in poor customer experience and dissatisfied customers.

So it’s important that instead of looking at customer interactions as isolated events or ‘transactions’, we look at them as important steps along the customer journey.

Great service requires authentic human connection … and human connection can never be scripted.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub can help you create a human connection with your customers by helping you stay in close touch with them, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

Why don’t people buy

If your almost-closed deals are not closing at the last minute and your prospective buyers are consistently backing out and your revenue targets are not being met, it’s time to dig deeper and look for the reason why this is happening.

Here are the 5 main reasons why people don’t buy:

1. No need – Pretty straightforward – the person doesn’t need your product or service.
2. No hurry – This is the classic ‘Let me think about it’ response.
3. No trust – If the prospect does not trust you, there is no way you can close the sale.
4. No time – Sometimes the prospect is busy and has a lot on her plate, and you are not the priority right now. Other times, this is just procrastination and initial inertia of committing to your product or service.
5. No money – Sometimes ‘no money’ really means that they don’t have the money to purchase. Often, it means they don’t have budget for it at this time. Or, it could be that they don’t think that buying your product is money well spent.

If you would like to know more about how ConvergeHub lets you overcome these objections and help you close more deals, talk to us.

Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.

ConvergeHub is an enterprise-grade customer relationship management software that helps businesses build long-term relationships with their customers and prospects. It is easy to implement, can be quickly customized to suit any business, needs very little training, and will quickly get your business on the path to 10X growth.