Are your sales teams drifting?
Do your salespeople and your marketing department ask you hundreds of questions every day?
Do you feel like you need a little more organization?
You’ve come to the right place.
You’ve probably heard terms like sales funnels and b2b sales process flowchart.
“Yes, Juliana, very nice names but…How do I create them?” Relax, don’t get overwhelmed.
I have some good news: although many think that a marketing and sales process flowchart is difficult or something only professional strategists do, it’s easier than you think.
And in this article, I’m going to tell you some tips, tricks, and sales processes template examples that you can use to get it done fast (they will help you even if you don’t have much experience in project management).
You are welcome 😉
What Is a Marketing and Sales Process Flowchart?
The first thing to do is to have a basic understanding of exactly what you are going to do when you create sales process flowcharts.
Like any other business process, there are a set of steps that you will do every time you go through the sales cycle with a customer. These will apply regardless of what you are trying to sell them and how big the sale is.
So if you want to have success and maximize revenue, I recommend that you take note when building your sales strategy:
- Prospecting and qualifying – you don’t want to go further with unqualified leads! Quality matters, always.
- Pre-approach – warm them up to the idea that you’ve got the answers to their questions
- Approach – once you have early rapport, introduce yourself!
- Assessing needs – what does your prospect need, and how can you deliver it?
- Presentation – it’s time to unveil your master plan!
- Dealing with objections – there will be some, so don’t panic!
- Commitment – the moment your prospect decides to go with you
- Follow up – because the sale isn’t closed until there’s money in the bank!
Every single sale in every single industry will follow a similar process to this. A sales process flowchart just formalizes it, so everyone on your sales team knows exactly how to proceed.
With these sales process steps, your project management team can track each project from before the sale even happens. This way, the sales rep and PM can work together in harmony.
Making a Flowchart
Of course, your sales flowchart will need to break all those steps down into smaller chunks, so that your sales and marketing team always know what to do next.
Sales flowcharts use a system of shapes and interconnected arrows to indicate which action should be taken when a prospect takes a particular action. Each type of process should be a different shape, and ideally a different color, so they’re easy to differentiate. These include:
- Start – the start of the whole process
- Process – what you are going to do
- Subprocess – when there is another step or steps to be taken to complete a process
- Decision – when you or your client makes a decision
- Document – when processes, decisions, and other important information needs to be formalized in writing
Your sales flowchart should visually represent how you will approach, nurture, convince and close a sale. They make it easy for any employee, new or old, to determine what they should do next. This makes it easy to move the sales process along and helps to save time and money.
Having a marketing sales process flowchart will be for your team like when the castaway finally sees land and stops swimming adrift. Yes, that much.
How to Build Your Own Sales Process Flowchart
Ok, let’s get down to the important stuff – start the action!
While there are sales process flowchart templates out there, this is a very personal and company-specific process. A good sales process will be based specifically on the products and services you offer and take into account your internal business administration processes.
So, for instance, when your sales team needs to generate a quote number or process a purchase order, there will be a step on your sales flowchart that corresponds to that task.
A B2B sales process flowchart tells your team what they need to do, and when, but it also makes it easy to track, project manage and measure results.
So, to create a sales flowchart that is specific to your company and the products and services you sell, you might do the following:
- Determine when and how you would find and qualify leads
- Create an offer that would encourage them to opt-in
- Create an automated process that shares high-value information
- Identify a point at which you switch from automation to a human salesperson – usually when a prospect requests more information
- Create steps to find out what a prospect’s pain points are, and how your offerings address them
- Develop a quote and follow up the process
- Identify when / if you will abandon the sales process – because sometimes, a customer just won’t take the next step
- Create a new process to capture and manage orders
- Integrate with payment and accounting systems
- Develop a follow-up and after-sales process
Each step of the individual sales and marketing flowchart will be different, but it will always start at the very beginning of the new client relationship and cover all the steps until the sale is done, the product delivered, and the check-in the bank.
There are many applications, both paid and free, that allow you to build your sales flowcharts in a very simple way. Make friends with the tools, they will undoubtedly save you from this one.
Formalized Processes Make Efficient Teams
You know I’m a big fan of efficiency (and I think all business should be).
The biggest reason you should have a standardized sales process is so that you can quickly and easily replicate steps that have succeeded in the past.
As you scale your sales department, a strong sales process lets everyone know exactly what they need to do to qualify more leads, nurture them, negotiate a favorable contract, and then close the sale.
But this doesn’t start and end quickly. You might have to adjust your sales process when you first start developing it, as you learn more about what works and what does not.
A formal process also makes it easy to onboard new sales reps and provide them with tools that you know work in your industry and for your company.
Your sales and marketing teams will know how to go from one step to the next. Both departments will work in line and the day-to-day problems will disappear, and so will your headaches.
I always say that time is money, and without a doubt, a Marketing Sales Process Flowchart will save you time and maximize your revenue.
So, if you haven’t already started working on this, start applying some project management principles to sales, and discover how much it can improve your sales pipeline.
Come on, it’s time to start kicking ass!