The importance of having a strong sales process and how to tie it into ServiceNow

Businesses are best able to grow and meet their clients needs when they have a solid sales process in place. This is usually defined as a set of repeatable, linear steps your sales team takes in order to convert an early-stage lead into a customer. Having this constant allows enterprises to achieve their objectives faster, and often more effectively – i.e., managing to close out a bigger deal within a more efficient timeframe.

Why it’s imperative to have a strong sales process

Having a standardised sales process acts as a guide for your sales team and adds structure and accountability to their selling activities; for these reasons, having one in place can lead to more sales closing sooner. It will ensure that your sales team doesn’t miss any crucial steps, and helps them to validate how likely it is that a deal will be closed out. In turn, this leads to minimal wasted time on leads with little or no buyer intent. 

Additionally, sales managers will be able to review in flight deals in detail, as it makes it clear and visible who is delivering strong sales numbers and who may need additional support to help get deals closed. It will also make the forecasting of your revenue more consistent, as you’ll be able to more accurately predict how many sales will be closed from a set number of leads.

What a typical sales process should look like

Generally, a standard sales process (covering all the most important stages) will look something like the below: 

1. Preparation: Know your product, target customers and industry to a tee. Studying your competitors is also very beneficial 

2. Prospecting: Outreach to find businesses that align to your customer profile – there are many ways this can be done, including your CRM database, social media, industry events or just a good old-fashioned Google search 

3. Research: Do your background research on the prospect. Do they really need what you’re selling, or will it be a waste of both parties' time? 

4. Approach: This is a crucial step, as first impressions are important. What’s the best way to get the prospect’s attention? Is there any way you can personalise your approach based on the background research you’ve done? Make sure you listen actively and are empathetic in your approach. 

5. Pitch: Succinctly articulate the unique value of your product and the business pains it can help with. Connect their needs to the key features of your products, showing clearly where it will benefit them. 

6. Objection handling: It’s a given that you’ll likely hit obstacles throughout the sales process. It might be that there's a lack of urgency or authority, or the prospect is worried about their budget, for example. Be prepared to go into enough detail to ensure they are reassured on the quality of your product and why it’s worthy of their time and money 

7. Closing: This is when proposals are sent, documentation is signed off and the deal is finalised. Often, this will involve negotiation or the need to involve multiple decision-makers in the final stages. 

8. Follow-up: Nurturing the customer is paramount: you want them to know that you care about their long-term journey with the product and relationship with your business. Ask for regular feedback and keep them updated about your new services – new customers are prime prospects for your latest offerings!

How you can tie your sales into ServiceNow 

While this is all well and good, the mainstream tools that help organisations with their sales processes are often unnecessarily large and sophisticated. This means that there are likely more features and capabilities than the traditional sales organisation will genuinely use, as well the inevitable steep price tag. Large CRMs like this require a huge amount of maintenance, and often this just isn’t warranted. 

Unifii’s Sales Management application focuses on providing enterprises with what they actually need. The app allows you to manage and nurture all your leads, accounts, contact information and opportunity execution, meaning you can enjoy heightened efficiency and time management enterprise-wide. You are also able to store high level information on your company’s marketing activity and how it ties into your sales activity. The app works entirely within your ServiceNow instance, so there’s no need to use any external tools. 

The Sales Management app has been a part of Unifii’s DNA for years. Adoption by several customers now means it's available here on the ServiceNow store. 

Sales processes are by no means a one size fits all situation, and what works for one enterprise might not work for another. Whatever your process maturity levels today, having a blueprint to build from and guide your execution is crucial for your sales representatives to see consistency, accuracy and success within their results.

For more information on Unifii’s Sales Management App and how it could potentially help your business, please contact one of the team here.