It’s likely that you have an idea in your mind of “The Salesperson.” This is the smooth talker, the rainmaker, the person who’s never at a loss for words and somehow manages to turn the most aggressively uninterested prospect into an eager buyer. While this persona exists for a reason, it’s not a good way to build a sales team. As a business owner, you can’t rely on finding that one extraordinary salesperson in order for your company to function.
Structure is a critical component of every function of an organization, but especially when it comes to sales. Since revenue depends upon sales, you want the sales function to be repeatable and improvable.
Structure aids in making the sales process repeatable. It’s impossible to duplicate a person, but a process that can be repeated is very attainable. New team members can be onboarded quickly when they have a distinct process to refer to. Leads have a consistent experience across the sales team—it doesn’t matter so much which Sales Representative the lead works with because the process is essentially the same.
Structure also aids in making sales improvable. When the entire team is using a common framework, there is visibility as to what is and is not working. The process has been deconstructed so that individual components are understood and can be evaluated for effectiveness. Best practices can easily be identified, and any refinements made to the process will benefit the entire team, not just one person. Energy that would otherwise go into reinventing the wheel can be put to better use when the sales process is repeatable.
The Sales Pipeline
One of the most important ways a sales team can instill structure is through the Sales Pipeline. It serves as an overall outline of the main steps the Sales team follows to convert a lead into revenue.
The number and type of steps within the pipeline will vary depending on the needs of the organization. When the product is more complex, more steps may be required. The guiding factor should be a pragmatic one that centers around a simple question: What’s working?
In some cases, different customer segments may necessitate different versions of the Sales Pipeline for the same product or service. While there are many variables, the important thing to recognize is the value of identifying and describing a process that is repeatable and improvable. When the entire sales team adopts the same Sales Pipeline, the effectiveness of each step can be evaluated and improved over time. Each improvement will lift the performance of everyone on the team.
Sales structure is part of Business Development Structure – one of the 11 elements of an exceptional business. Our mission is to multiply the number of exceptional businesses globally. Join the conversation on LinkedIn.