A sales teams fundamental requirement is to sell more cars more profitably. In order for them to do this it is vital they have a sales process that can help achieve this consistently and efficiently, whilst delivering the businesses standards of customer interaction.
It may sound simple and sensible, however, we are constantly seeing how little time is spent in honing this process to deliver maximum gain. There are many reasons why businesses are weak in this area and here are a few of the warning signs.
Signs that your sales process is failing
More often or not the sales process is developed in a reactionary sequence. As issues arise such as changes to compliance requirements, actions are added to the process to meet the need quickly. This band-aid approach can result in a process that is not as effective as it could be and you may start to see some or all of the following signs:
- Time wasted by Sales Teams
- Poor sales performance
- Lost sales and profit
- Inconsistent customer experience
- Dissatisfied customers
- Compliance problems
Discover what the needs of the business are
When evaluating a sales process for a client we firstly like to understand the needs of the business. BDM’s Discovery phase essentially gathers information so that we can really understand you, your staff and your customers. A discovery phase is something you could instigate yourselves, or we would be happy to help you. We recommend focusing on the following areas during your discovery phase:
- Compliance – What are the requirements are you meeting these?
- Administration / Accounting – What are their needs
- Database – What information is needed and what would be valuable
- Marketing – what could be gathered during the sales process that could help you in the future?
- Staff – Skills sets and any gaps
- One to one interviews – discover what the staff involved in the process think
Evaluate each stage of the process
After your discovery phase is complete it is important to document where you are and what you have uncovered. We produce a written summary of the discovery process before we then start to look in detail at each and every stage. Our approach is to look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, again something you could do within your business.
Obviously the stages can vary between businesses, but fundamentally should cover the nine points listed below and you should attempt to explore every element of each stage.
The nine roads to the sale
- Meet and Greet
- Qualification
- Appraisal
- Presentation
- Demonstration
- Objection Handling
- Negotiation
- Close
- Handover
As with any new changes to business processes it is important to be able to monitor them and determine if they are having positive impact on the business. There are a number of ways you can do this and we would be happy to advise you if you need any help or have any questions about any of the issues raised.
You can e-mail BDM at info@bdm-voice.co.uk or, please feel free to leave a response below.
