A sales team is usually a key player in a company. It typically consists of sales representatives who are tasked with closing the deals, managers who lead teams, and outreach specialists who find potential clients through a process known as prospecting.
When someone first approaches you to buy your products or service, their first point of contact is someone from the sales team. That means that they have to be trained and ready to maintain the relationship as they lead the person further down the funnel and ensure the purchase.
In order to provide the necessary resources and education to your sales team, let’s take a look at what they actually do. Here are the 7 sales team functions that are crucial to any business!
Prospecting – Finding Potential Customers
Prospecting is, as the title suggests, the process of identifying potential customers. Your sales team should have a clear idea of what the ideal buyer persona should look like and then find the people who best fit that description. This means that they get in touch with people who are most likely to do business with your company.
This is usually done through social media. In the B2B world, the best network is LinkedIn since it’s the most professional one. It also has a very wide pool of users who are all there to do business. There are also certain tools that are there to help with this task. For example, Sales Navigator allows teams to target individuals based on a much wider set of criteria.
If you decide to go this route, check out some growth-hacking steps for LinkedIn!
Qualifying – Determining if the Prospect Fits
After the team finds potential customers, or leads, the next step is to qualify them. This process involves determining how well they fit all the criteria. Some of the things to be on the lookout for involve:
- Their financial situations – can they afford my product or service?
- Their requirements – do they need my product?
- Their authority – are they the ones making the decision to make the purchase?
If they fit all the basic criteria from step one (age, job, interests) and the ones from this step, then the sales team proceeds with nurturing the lead and guiding them down the pipeline. If they don’t fit, then it’s time to move on to someone else. If the issue persists and reoccurs consistently, then you should adjust your targeting methods.
Pitching – Showing the Prospect What You’ve Got
The first step after ensuring the prospect is highly likely to make the purchase is to contact them. This is usually done via a message, email, or phone call. Although the call is a more outdated method, you should adapt the strategy to your business.
Ideally, this message should be compelling, persuasive, and tailored to the recipient. The agent who’s sending the message should be someone who already has experience working with people and understands that different kinds of people respond better to different kinds of language and approaches. The perfectly crafted message should include the following elements:
- An attention-grabbing subject line,
- A friendly line about something more personal than business,
- A direct explanation of your product or services,
- A reason to do business with you,
- Proof of previous success, and
- A call to action to direct them further.
Although the message should contain all these elements, it shouldn’t be too long – a sentence for each will be enough.
Handling Objections – Answering Questions
Once a conversation starts, the sales rep is tasked with keeping it going. Usually, the ones interested will reply with questions, and the agent has to be prepared to answer them.
Usually, these questions will be something about your company, product, or service. Invest in providing your sales team with a high-quality orientation before they start finding you potential customers. If you don’t, the agent will have to pause the conversation to ask for additional information. While they’re waiting for your answer, the lead is left on read – which is one of the most unprofessional possible things you can do.
It’s also very possible that the future customer will ask something along the lines of ‘Why should I…?’ Even though the initial message should contain a reason, you need to have a few more up your sleeve. At this point, it would be best for the agent to share a screenshot, graph, or any other kind of proof of previous success.
Following Up – Nurturing the Lead
After that first conversation comes to an end, it’s advised to leave the potential buyer alone for some time. Let them think your proposal over or speak to someone else in their company. After a few days (48 hours minimum!), it’s time to send a follow-up message.
This should be a reminder, most effectively in the form of a question. Similarly to the initial message, this one should also start with something a little more personal, such as asking them how their day is going. It’s good to also address their pain points again, and then nudge them towards the fact that your company is offering a solution. To provide something of additional value, the message can also contain a link to a blog, video, or some other type of content. This way, even if they opt out, at least you got a website visit out of the interaction.
A pro tip in this case would be to include a limited-time offer. For example, if you have a product to sell, let the person know that they can get a discount if they order in the next week or so.
Closing the Deal – Getting it Done
The last, and to most, the favorite step is to finalize the deal. If an agent has been in contact with a prospect since the very first message, they should be the ones to close it. Although some companies prefer to have their CEO handle this part, many people would feel more confident and comfortable in keeping in touch with the same rep throughout the entire journey down the sales funnel.
Account Management – Keeping in Touch
After everything has been done and the prospect has turned into a customer, the rep’s job still isn’t done. The next phase is account management.
After closing the deal, you can safely assume that the agent and customer have been in contact multiple times and started building a relationship. This phase is all about maintaining it. This can be done via emails, newsletters, or even phone calls. The agent should check up on the customer’s satisfaction and ensure that they feel comfortable to reach out if they have any further issues or questions.
This way, there is a possibility that the person will want to do business with you again. Or, if you’re offering some kind of continued service, that they’ll want to keep renewing their subscription.
Most importantly, successful account management can be a form of marketing. Word-of-mouth recommendations have always been among the most trusted sources of information when it comes to doing business. So, if you leave a great impression on someone, they’re much more likely to recommend your company to their partners, and the leads generate themselves.
Conclusion
Sales teams are the most profit-driving sectors of any company. That’s why it’s important to help them in any way you can. This involves providing them with helpful materials about your company, way of doing business, and the service/product itself.
In this article, we covered all the steps a sales rep needs to take in order to ensure your company keeps thriving and generating new business. These included:
- Prospecting,
- Qualifying,
- Pitching,
- Handling Objections,
- Following Up,
- Closing the Deal,
- Account Management.
If you’re looking for a remote sales team to handle the process for you, look no further! Book a consultation with NextPilots, and let’s work out your next sales strategy!