This blog post aims to offer suggestions to address sales pipeline processes. I recently read a LinkedIn post in which a potential prospect expressed frustration with her buying process and how inefficient sales pipeline processes cost the seller the sale. The potential prospect talks about the:
> lack of human interaction throughout the buying process
> inability of the seller to actually connect through her preferred communication method
> cumbersome sales pipeline processes she had to endure to no successful avail
> poor follow-up
> inbound forms she was required to complete to get a response
Frustrating Buying Processes
As sellers our goal should be servicing others in sales. Whether she was a qualified prospect for the company or not, a brief, easy-to-schedule conversation would have ended her frustrating buying process and left her with a favorable impression of the company and its representatives. A second LinkedIn post from a consultant outlined a conversation he had with a company executive, who acknowledged the impact his broken sales pipeline processes were having on his prospect’s buying journey and his decision to fix the situation.
My experience was similar. I was trying to buy a popular item for someone as a special occasion gift. The accolades of how great the product and service were off the charts positive. Yet when I tried to find contact information to communicate my order with the vendor, it was very difficult to find. My customer journey was cumbersome at best, and I should have gone somewhere else.. These three scenarios prompted me to think about how sellers can address inefficiencies in their sales pipelines and enhance their customers’ journeys. If your potential prospects feel pain working with you and your company, your sales pipeline process is broken, and no amount of AI will fix that until the process is repaired and efficient.
Sales Pipeline Processes at Different Levels
Front Line Working with Potential Prospects
You must know or discover that a problem may exist. If potential prospects express dissatisfaction with a particular process, the answer is not, “That’s how we do it here.” Awareness that a process is not working and is causing frustration in the customer journey experience is step one.
Regardless of business type, customer acquisition and retention are expensive propositions. So, when a customer comes in via inbound, it’s imperative to address their want or desire quickly, efficiently, easily, and courteously. You must acknowledge that a problem exists when potential customers are dissatisfied with how their inquiries were handled.
Furthermore, if you know, you must care, attempt to remedy the situation where you can, communicate appropriately that prospects are dissatisfied and having a bad customer journey, and escalate the issue. A complacent attitude will do nothing to satisfy the customer or rectify the process.
How to ensure effective sales pipeline process improvements from the start
When this happens to you and you don’t know how to improve the process, ask the customer who is frustrated with their buying process how it could have worked better for them. Suppose you know how to improve the process, then map it out. In either case, escalate the problem to your manager with the solution through the appropriate channels.
Investigate and Research
Once you receive this problem-solution scenario, listen to the front-line representative and their description of the problem and solution. Investigate and research the problem/solution. ( Receive a problem with no solution? ask for one or work on a viable solution:
1.) Did it occur once or regularly?
2.) Why did it happen?
3.) Was better training needed?
4.) If it’s a one-off, you can address the issue and monitor that it doesn’t arise again.
5.) ·When you discover it’s the seed of a bigger issue and the solution is viable and can be easily implemented, do so and monitor the results.
Additionally, you are given a problem/solution scenario and it is determined that the solution is not easily implementable, requires tools, or requires approved sales pipeline processes adjustments:
Ask Impactful Questions to Map Out Sales Pipeline Process Improvements
Address the following:
1.) How chronic is this situation?
2.) Calculate the impact of the current sales pipeline processes and their effect on the prospect buying process and customer journey
3.) Assess the cost. Lost relationships. Lost opportunities, lost sales, and a bad reputation?
4.) Determine the dollar figure of that loss
5.) Is it urgent to fix the problem?
·6.) What is your resolution to the problem?
In other words, if you know the solution, make a case for what you need, why you need it, and the impact if your request is not approved, and determine who can approve the resolution.
What if the Solution is Bigger Than You
The problem is bigger than you? Conquer and correct, connect with your upper management, who have the authority, budget, and willingness to initiate change, and commit other appropriate internal resources and departments to improve the sales pipeline process and customer journey.
Elisa Ciarametaro, Principal at Exceed Sales, Inc., offers sound sales suggestions that make an impactful difference and better sales outcomes to individual contributors, managers, and executives in sales, sales development, marketing, and customer service. To learn more about Elisa Ciarametaro get more information at www.exceedsales.com, sign up for our newsletter, call Elisa at 917 653 0125, email elisac@exceedsales.com or follow her on LinkedIn.