The Seven-Step Sales Process

If you are one among the hundreds of employees in the U.S working in sales, you know that even for the most natural salesperson, it can sometimes be an uphill task to turn potential leads into closed sales. Across different industries, you need different skills and domain knowledge to prove to your customers that your solutions will help them overcome their problems. This seven-step sales process acts as a good start that’ll help you customize business solutions and, more importantly, target the potential customers as you move them through the sales funnel. Here are the seven basic steps in any sales process:

Step 1: Prospecting

Step 2: Preparation

Step 3: Approach

Step 4: Presentation

Step 5: Handling objections

Step 6: Close the sale

Step 7: Follow-up

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Client’s Profile

The client is one of the world’s leading FMCG brands. With its headquarters in the midwestern US, the FMCG industry player has several products under its portfolio including products such as- cookies, cereals, crackers, fruit-flavored snacks, and cooking oils.

Project Background and Solution Offered

2018 turned out to be a year of contradictions for FMCG brands that resulted in declining profit margins. Due to this FMCG brands are now leveraging technology and are substantially investing in sales optimization techniques. The client- a leading FMCG industry player was facing several challenges in converting potential sales leads to closed sales. The FMCG industry player wanted to identify an effective sales process and replicate them across the organization to substantially increase sales and optimize the sales process. The FMCG industry player wanted to launch an advanced sales analytics-based initiative aimed at optimizing the local sales processes.

The overarching goal of the sales process template was to improve sales through the development of a sales process template. Furthermore, based on the FMCG brand’s marketing performance, trade promotions, pricing strategies, economic indicators, and other business conditions our experts were able to offer actionable insights on the adequate sales process steps along with a value proposition into how the client could optimize their sales performance for the future.

Value Delivered to the Client

The sales process template offered a holistic approach to sales optimization without resorting to the use of fragile spreadsheets and complex CRM systems. By increasing the alignment between the sales process and potential leads, the FMCG company was able to improve efficiency in many spheres including national portfolio and customer retention strategies down to the execution level.

The adoption of appropriate sales process steps also enabled the client to identify FMCG industry trends, sales trends, estimate growth potential as well as optimize sales and marketing activities. The sales process template was also beneficial in driving overall sales through improvements in marketing effectiveness, which improved by 60%.