Is It Time To Update Your Sales Process?

0:00When we prospect with integrity, we will get customers who have integrity. Integrity is the foundation from which everything is built on. You better understand value. But at the end of the day, sales is a relationship business. It is a people business. It is a emotional business. This is Sales Budget. This is Sales Budget. This is Sales Budget. You know what time it is? It is 8 a.m. Saturday morning. Mark, it has been a busy, busy, busy week. I know you have a lot going on. You're coming off just coming from an unbelievable conference and sharpening the saw and doing all that great stuff.

1:00I'm excited to talk today. It is. You've been busy too. It is crazy. Things never slow down for us. I don't know about you, but we are recording this on February 28th. Hopefully we are headed into the last month of the very first quarter of the year. It is moving fast. Which means you better be planning already now for the third and fourth quarter. Okay, let's jump right into the topic. The topic today is it time to update your sales process. And of course, to tease you at the end, we're going to talk about the lightning round, which is top 10 ways to retain your best customers. So hey, let's jump into it. Is it time to update your sales process? I know you got some real strong beliefs on that. Yeah, I'll tell you the truth is, I am, this is such a good chair to have right now because I am right in the process of updating my sales strategy. I looked at the first quarter of the year, whatever I did in fourth quarter, just finished me out really strong. But I'm getting some lackluster results in really this first quarter of the year.

2:03And so I'm re-looking at things and updating that sales strategy. So I think that's kind of the first thing that you need to do if you want to decide if it's time to update your sales strategies. Get your ego out of it. And then for the results are not coming, something is shifted and you need to make a change. Yeah, and that all begins with looking at the right numbers. In other words, you know, what are the number of proposals you're putting across the table? How many conversations are you having? What's the percent of deals that are closing? Those are things that you need to be looking at. But I'm going to take it even further. And I think we need to refine our value proposition because the marketplace continues to change. And it's easy for us to have a value proposition that work last quarter, but it isn't working this quarter because the customers needs and expectations are changing. So I say, hey, look at your value problem. How are customers responding to it? And is there a different story you need to put into it? Is there a different connection? Somehow you have to state your return on investment better or clearer.

3:07But look at that initially first. You know, I love what you're saying there because I think that leads really well into a lot of this too. Is that you've got to figure out where the, like, where the sales strategy is coming apart, right? And, you know, like, you know, you may not want to update the entire sales process. You've got to look at the part of the sales process that is breaking down. I like that because again, you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Many times it's just something one little piece that needs to be adjusted. It may be your cadence. What is the, what is the frequency with which you're following up with prospects? Maybe you need to change that. Maybe you need to change the delivery method. Maybe you need to look at your ICP. Do you need to refine it? Do you need to tweak it? Questions you're asking. But you start breaking down each one of those little pieces just to see where are customers falling off? I love Brent's comment if your sales process is old enough to have its old own mid-life crisis.

4:11It's time for an update. Oh, wow. Man, break out the medication, right? Yeah, you know, I was just doing an SKO yesterday in Las Vegas. And it really speaks to this point that Brent said it. So I asked me to do a little bit of Q&A at the end, which I'd love to do Q&A. And one of the questions was around, you know, what do I feel like is shifted in selling today? And I had a lot of answers to that. But the biggest one, and I think the most important one was the biggest mistake I think I see salespeople make, is they're still using the same sales strategy that they were trained on five and ten years ago. And I don't know about you, Mark, but I updated my sales strategy five times last year. I made shifts in it five different times. And so the chances that your sales process are out of date if you haven't changed it in the last quarter are probably pretty good. Well, I think that really hits home. I was speaking to an audience yesterday and was an AI conference.

5:12And I was talking on sales and it, you know, the point I brought up is that so many people have been trained to close the deal. And really we need to look at, we need to be trained to serve customers. And the challenge is people are trying to look for this, this easy button. They think AI is going to come in and solve this or solve that for them. No, it's a series of steps that you have to go through. Yeah, love what Terry Brock is on saying here. This is a great strategy to cover on the beginning of the last month of the first quarter. It's a good weekend to assess what is and isn't working. And that is how you look at a sales process, right? I think another thing that's really important to note is far too often we wait until results are not there to determine whether our sales process is working or it isn't working. But Mark brought up a really great point. He said, you need to, you need to track behaviors like how many meetings am I getting? How many responses to phone calls or emails? How many proposals am I writing? And if I look at the month of January and my goal is to write six proposals and I only wrote two, right then I need to look at the sales process because something is off.

6:22I'm focused on the wrong target market. As Mark said, my value proposition isn't isn't isn't good. Something is missing and you want to identify that as quickly as possible. Yes, define the macro solution sales strategy need to do some adjustments to that. You've got to look at the micro activities. And again, it's just looking at each individual piece because again, so many times what happens is we can get lulled into a sense of self confidence. In other words, we've closed a couple deals using one value proposition and we think, oh, that's it. That's it. And then we get a little bit of a pushback. I think I don't always. And this is why every time after you close the deal or get rejected, you need to do a autopsy. You need to go back and take a look what, what work, what get work. In other words, you're kind of adjusting this continuously. It's a continuous improvement process. Yeah, I love what Brynn is saying here discovery needs to be updated replaced band with chirp.

7:24Challenge they are facing history of trying to fix the process impact on the company risk of no changes and priority. It's a great little acronym and we'll make sure that it, you know, that it basically hits the hits the hits the show notes. You know, the other thing I think is that even if you are getting results, I still think it's important to look at your strategy and ask yourself, could there be parts of my strategy to be better? I mean, we're talking about updating your sales process just because you're not getting any results, but it's also good to update your sales process, even if you are getting results. I always say that I think the best sales coach out there is you. If you can look at what you are doing and what you're doing well and what you're not doing well and make some adjustments to that, you're going to be in a far better position. Well, that brings up a very interesting point because again, let's take point number five with Brynn the priority. One of the things that we have to always remember, the customer is only trying to solve their top one or two problems.

8:25And again, this is the difference we've talked about it before between interest and intent. Intent is now I've got a priority and I've got to solve that, but I got to probably back up the bus and say, what are the questions I'm asking? Am I qualifying because I'm finding, as I talk and as I work with salespeople, what's happening is they're keeping things in their pipeline. Just for the sake of keeping it full. And what they're doing is they're chasing again, bad opportunities. I've got to be qualifying fast because again, your best process is spending more time with fewer prospects. That's how you're going to close more deals and you're going to do it effectively. I also think another really good sign that it's time to update your sales process is to look at what's happening in the market around you. I was reading the news yesterday and looking at all the different companies that have made so many layoffs.

9:27I was thinking about the fact that we've got some things going on with interest rates and with tariffs. Like I said, the sooner you can note that your sales process needs an update, the better off you're going to be. I think another really good sign of the fact that your sales process needs an update is the market changing around you. If the market's changing around you, you want to take a long look at what you're doing and see if it needs any adjustments or changes. And not that that's a negative because it can be an opportunity, right? Like it can be an opportunity to go into markets that you've not been going into before or offering products and services that had basically not been of interest to your customers before. Oh, I love that because again, it's understanding your customers customer and the industry they play in this week. I was working with a large company. They played about five different industries, various student each one, but you got to understand and break down each one.

10:28And as I was beginning to break down each industry and then looking at who their customers are and who their competitors are, you begin to identify opportunities. Again, this comes back to the macro solution is dealing with microchanges. But here's what I find, many times the industry sends signals before your customer even knows it. So in other words, if you can be the one to come to the table with it, wow, you're going to be more valuable. Hey, we should jump to the question. Because it comes from Rachel in Canton, Ohio. She says I'm new to sales. Welcome to sales new to my company only celebrating one year. While I'm new, I still have not hit my sales goal and I'm getting worried. My boss is getting really frustrated with me. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. How do I know if I have the right sales process or how do I know what I'm doing wrong? Boy, that fits in well to the topic today. What are your thoughts? Number one, first of all, I'm sorry, your boss should be sitting down and helping you sort that out rather than getting frustrated with you.

11:34But I think probably where I would start is I would look around me and I would look at the team and see who on the team is performing, who on the team is doing well and start to look at what their sales process is. Even sit down and talk to them. They're far, they're really probably very likely to help you and tell you what it is that they're doing that you're not that could help you be effective. That is so key. If you try to solve it yourself, you're just not going to have the expertise team up with somebody and it's just grabbing coffee with them. If you can shadow them, if you can, you can work with them for a few hours. You know, chances are there's somebody in your organization, Rachel, that you can do that with. But you're right, shame on your manager for not sitting down with you and helping to spell it out because here's the whole thing. Rachel, don't get overwhelmed. Don't get overwhelmed. Take it one step at a time. Work with somebody who's more experienced than you, who's doing it right, find one element that they're doing right, work on that and then you just keep working your way through the process.

12:39And you'll get there. We've all we've all been there. We all started out one time in sales and we all struggled initially. Boy, it's there initially. Don't we all still struggle on occasional. Hey, how many times do we wake up in the morning and go, man, it sucks. Business is bad. I know. And then boom, two days later, it's unbelievable. There are ebbs and flows in this business. And that's another thing, Rachel. Long term, you need to have a accountability partner. You need to have somebody who can who you can help coach and they can help coach you because again, so sales is not a solo activity. Sales is a team sport. The more you team up with somebody else just to support you and you support them, the better off you're going to be. Yeah, I would say the other thing you need to do is the first place you need to look is where is the sales process breaking down. So go through each step. One of my, you know, whenever I work with a team, the very first question I ask is talk to me about.

13:42Talk to me about where the where the sales process is kind of coming apart. Is it harder for you to get through the door? Is it harder for you to have the right conversations? Are you putting proposals on the table, but the proposals aren't getting accepted? Like break down your sales process and figure out what's working in it and what isn't working in because that's going to help you target what part of the sales process needs to be fixed. I love it. Hey, we got a global audience. Isaac is joining us today from Paris. Great to have you great to have you Isaac. And this is the value about sales because again, this applies to Rachel. It applies to everybody. You have to keep the radar up to be continuously learning because again, your sales process is always going to evolve. Here's the question. I'm going to ask anybody after you lose a deal. Do you go back and ask the customer, hey, what could I have done differently to secure your business? Very few sales people ask that question, but I'm going to challenge you if you just do that.

14:46Now, that's not to depress you. That's to help gain you some insight. So don't hesitate to ask customers you didn't get business from. How you can get the business. Yeah, I think it's also really important, you know, if I were sitting in your shoes, I would really, I'm assuming that you're really tracking the behaviors that you're doing. And it leads really well to a comment that Andy, who was joining us today from El Salvador, hell impressive. Most sales labs are due to doing everything right, nothing wrong, yet forgetting to do things. The era of omission versus commission. I mean, really well said, right? Like so, you want to make sure that you're tracking the sales calls you're making, tracking the fact that you are calling on people that are within your target market, figuring out what emails or what voicemail messages or what networking events you're attending so that you can easily assess what was effective and what wasn't effective. You know, I like that because it's also don't make just because one thing goes wrong with one customer. Oh, I got to get rid of it. I got to throw it out. No, no, you do not have a statistical viable study at all.

15:58So you do have to be a little bit cautious. Don't get knee jerked around because otherwise what happens is you're going to throw everything out every week. One thing that I really suggest doing is write down all the questions that you're asking your customers, make sure you record them. And I hope you're recording your call, whether you're using Kong or course or something like that, you know, if you're doing it online. And as you write down the questions, what are the responses you're getting? It is amazing how just updating questions, just tweaking questions. How do we phrase them? How do we, you know, what is it that we ask that alone can yield incredible results to helping you secure more more sales? Yeah, I also, you know, you said you haven't hit your sales goal. So what that tells me is you have closed some sales, right? So some things have worked. And why? Like go back to those, look at the, you know, last ten deals you close, last five deals you close, last three deals you close and figure out why you close them.

17:03Like learning, we've talked a lot about what you're doing. They're omitting or not doing well here, but you also really want to learn from what is working and what you're doing that's effective. And so I go back and figure out because you did something really right in those connections and those relationships. And most of all, Rachel, don't zero in only on what's not working. Celebrate your success, celebrate your, you're going to be in a much better position to improve, much better position to, to really understand sales when you celebrate your success. In other words, you did get one phone call at one point. You had one conversation, one right, you had something, celebrate that because again, it's so much of sales is mindset. And if your mindset is in the tank, it is amazing at how your results are not going to be there. But if your mindset is, hey, I'm making this happen. You're going to, you're going to ask better questions. You're going to listen better and the customer is going to respond much better for you. Yeah, I'm also wondering too, is this the sales process that your boss gave you, which is good? That's a great starting point.

18:08I mean, if I went to work for that company tomorrow, the very first thing I would ask for is the roadmap, right? The sales process is the roadmap. But also don't be afraid to tweak it and make it a little bit your own, to make some adjustments to that, to that. Because how, you know, if Mark and I worked for the same company, how he goes about getting a deal may be a little bit different. It probably would be that I would be because we're different sales people and going after that in a different way. So you may be using this quote unquote off the shelf. And it's a really great place to start, but make sure that you make some adjustments to it. Oh, that's so true. Hey, I got to put Sashu. I hope I'm pronouncing you right. Just had a potential client go in a different direction, asked him what factor into his decision. And he took the time to respond. You're right. This is the whole thing. Ask customers that don't buy from you. What is, and it's amazing at how you know what? You're actually going to develop a deeper relationship with them. So thank you so much for sharing that comment.

19:09Hey, here's a situation. Sales is going to be continuously evolving. Don't ever think for a moment that whatever you have, you know, working today is going to work for you forever. It is always changing. And something I'm going to, I'm going to challenge people on. Oh, I love Terry's comment. It's most important to put in the reps, analyzing what went right. I want to talk about putting in the reps. So many times what happens is people say, oh, my sales process isn't working, but they haven't made any sales calls. How can you judge your, your, your process not working if you haven't made any sales calls? Maybe what you have is you have an attitude problem, mindset problem. Maybe you have a lead generation problem. Maybe you have other things. Again, this is understanding from a micro perspective, what you need to change to help yourself from a macro. Yeah, I mean, it's so well said, right? Like it's, I think, you know, I think the important things to take from today's show or number one, make sure that your sales process is well documented.

20:09You know how you go about getting the sale. And if you don't, if you don't have a sales process and need to know how to put one together, go back to some of the shows that we've done here at sales logic. You'll you'll find one on sales process and then track that because you are now living in a world where there is more change happening externally to your business than internally to it. So the chances that your sales process needs updated right now are probably pretty good. So, but as Mark said, you cannot change that sales process until you have the data to know what you were doing. I mean, my sales process isn't working. If I didn't make the calls, but if I did make the calls, then then that's really good information. You've got to do it. I mean, I can't sit around and eat cake and say, I can't lose weight, right? I'm going to go through the process and then we got to determine like, why is my heart not healthy? If I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

21:12So that's really important when it comes to the sales process. I love it. I'm going to summarize real quick. Look at your, look at your value prop, look at your ICP, look at your cadence, look at the messaging you're asking and look at the stories that you're sharing. Break each one of those down and begin to understand. And you know what, you will improve your sales process. You ready for the book? I am ready for the book. The book is from our, our good friend, Scott McCain. He just came out with Beyond Distinction. I had a chance to read it this past week. And it's an excellent book because it's going to get you really thinking about what is the, what's your focus with customers? And how do customers see you? He is an extreme customer service guru. I used to term guru with Scott and the book Beyond Distinction is an excellent book to read. Oh, you know what? I got to grab that one. I have not read Scott's and I'll do that this weekend because I am hot and heavy still into integrity first selling. That's what I'm, that's what I'm doing.

22:12Well, thank you, integrity first selling various companies are buying those bulk orders for all their employees. And it's, it's great. We're getting a number of events, you know, on the calendar. Hey, before we jump to the lightning around, let's take this question. If I might ask a question from Sissue, I hope I'm pronouncing it right. If a potential client contacts me by text, but I really want to have an opportunity to speak with them on the phone, how would you recommend I persuade them to jump from one media to another? What are your thoughts? Yeah, so first of all, you absolutely can always ask a question because this is what the show is about is that it is definitely about you. Well, this happens to me all the time. People follow my contact form and I've got to persuade them to, you know, jump on a, jump on a call with me. And my approach is always, you know, first of all, thank you so much for reaching out. I'm really excited to talk with you. I've done a little bit of research on the company. I just have a couple of questions. I'd love to just jump on a quick call and we could walk through that. And usually people responded at really, really well. And they're almost surprised that I'm willing to jump on a call with them.

23:19Yeah. And with a text, it's really easy. You just call the number. I mean, just absolutely go ahead and call the number because I love to say, hey, I don't even know if I'm the right fit. I don't know if I'm right. Could we jump on the phone for just a couple minutes and let's, let's have a conversation. Hey, a good friend from Atlanta. Let's see, Doug layman is jumping in good morning to you. And you ready for the lightning round. I am lightning around top 10 ways to retain your top customers. Oh, number one, you better, you better work on retention right from the start. It better happen in the first 90 days, checking in and making sure that they're happy. To be sharing with them insights and information that they can use to understand their customers better. Yeah, make sure that you've got a strategy in place to help them get return on investment from your product and they understand the result that they're getting. Number three, develop additional relationships with that account, depending on the size is going to determine the number of relationships, but you can never have enough.

24:20Yeah, make you need to be ridiculously easy to do business with. There needs to be no barrier between you and how they buy another product or service have a question need information. Number five, make sure you're following up with everybody who is in line with using what it is that you sell. In other words, there was the user, the implementer, whoever it might be, but follow up with them to make sure that what you've delivered is meeting their expectations. Yeah, I'm going to say number six kind of building on that is that you need to build relationships beyond one contact. If you want to really stay with the customer for life, you need to be deep into their company. Number seven, always be thinking, what's the next sale? What's the next item that you can put in front of them that you can help encourage them or show them that wow, having this is going to help them grow their business even more. Yeah, solve their problems really fast like when they have an issue, solve it as quickly as you can, as you can solve it, make sure it's one phone call for them.

25:22And the final one, make sure you are putting everything in your CRM system you have an existing account. It's easy to kind of just pass off, but make sure you do it because remember when you close a sale, you're opening a relationship. We've had a great show this morning, haven't we? Yeah, really, really always, always because of the fantastic audience and keep the questions coming. Mark and I, Mark and I love them. It's our favorite part of the show. Absolutely, absolutely. And pop us emails and questions throughout the week too, because hey, if you're listening to sales logic, we absolutely appreciate it. Hey, thank you for listening because what we do is we are here just to help you. If you like what you hear, hey, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. And hey, if we've helped you earn a single dollar, which I know we have, share our show with some other people because we're always looking to add additional listeners. Hey, thank you for listening. I'm Mark Hunter. And I'm Meredith Elliott Powell. Remember when you sell with confidence and integrity. All of this uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive advantage and the sale becomes logical.

26:25All right, thanks. Everybody have an awesome weekend. Go update your sales process. We'll see you right back here next week for another episode of sales logic. Thanks for joining us.