By Frank Visgatis, President & Chief Operating Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® – The Sales Training Company
I have said for years that salespeople who are not following a process when they sell are relegated to being “point-to-point” salespeople. In other words, they always know what their next step is, but when you ask them, If successful, what will be five steps after that?, they are usually at a loss to tell you.
Often the pushback I will get will be from the position of, “Well, if the deal closes, why should I care?”
I’ll tell you why.
Without process, every sale is an “event.” While process is repeatable, events are anecdotal. Unless you are selling on purpose, it is very difficult to replicate success. You end up trying to reinvent the wheel with every new opportunity.
In fact, without process, you run the risk of falling prey to Einstein’s definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting the results to be different.
For managers, no process often means no accountability on the part of the salesperson. If a deal doesn’t close, they’re told it’s because “sales is an art, not a science.” Additionally, some managers are complicit in a creating a culture of obfuscation because it becomes a line of defense when sales forecasts are missed.
CustomerCentric Selling® is a sales process. We think it’s the best one out there (pride of ownership). However, the reality of the situation is this: If you and your company are not currently following a process, any process you select and manage to should help you improve results.
Whether it is sales revenue or personal sales excellence, improvement requires growth. However, in order for growth to be possible, there first must commitment to process.
