Every sales and operation team has their own best practices, and hopefully, these live in a single-source-of-truth document that’s easily accessible for your team. Having your sales and operations process documented can boost your efficiency and consistency, train and align your team, manage time and resources, and increase conversion rates.
Here’s the thing about processes, though: They change all the time. That’s why using a collaborative tool like Mural to document your sales workflow is clutch — it’s easy to collaborate with your team to update and improve documentation as your sales team process changes. Plus, it’ll look nice, and that’s not nothing!
Sales processes can be complex, which means it might seem easier to just stick with what you know rather than adopting new sales process workflow software. Think bigger! Mural can help tackle some of the complexities of creating and implementing your sales and operations processes with visual collaboration tools.
For more information on how Mural can help you empower your team to close deals faster, check out these tips.
If you’re stumped on how to create a sales process, start with these best practices. Whether you’re building a B2B sales process, a SaaS sales process, or an online sales process, these tips will help you build a comprehensive, easy-to-understand diagram for posterity.
Identify each stage of your sales funnel in an easy-to-follow flowchart. What happens at each step? What people and resources are involved? What tools do you use at each step? Make sure your sales process is consistent with what’s going on in your customer funnel.
Don’t skimp on details! To ensure consistency among your sales team, make sure you document every part of your process, even details that might not seem helpful to veterans. New sales team members won’t know what they don’t know, so help them out with a thorough sales process flow diagram.
According to a study by CSO Insights, sales reps spend only about 36.6% of their time on actual selling activities. Sales process automation can’t only help you save time; it can cut down on steps in your sales process so your team can focus on, well, selling. Tasks like lead generation, data entry, and analytics can be easily automated and free up your team to nurture leads and build relationships.
As team feedback and sales analytics roll in, you’ll probably have to review and revise your sales process. Mural’s flexible permissions allow your team to jump in with valuable feedback at any time. Learn more about how Mural can help you win deals and build stronger partnerships here.
Explore free template recommendations and popular use cases.
A sales process is a set of structured, repeatable steps your sales team can take to dependably turn leads into happy customers. It’s designed to be an easy, step-by-step reference to standardize your sales process and align your team.
The process of sales can differ from team to team, but typical sales process steps might look as follows:
Typical issues that occur in the sales and operations planning process are lack of alignment, gaps in documentation, poor lead management, insufficient training, or not following up with customers. Having a well-documented sales process can eliminate some of these mistakes and give your sales reps confidence and autonomy.
While both a sales process and sales methodology are critical components of a successful sales strategy, they vary in scope and granularity. A sales process is a step-by-step framework for sales teams to guide customers through the sales funnel. Think of this as the “what” and “when.” A sales methodology is an approach, philosophy, or set of principles a team uses to execute their sales process. Examples of sales methodologies are SPIN Selling, Challenger Sales, or the MEDICC sales process.