Dead Simple Start-Up Sales Processes

One of our biggest sales operations hang-ups to date has been the lack of clarity around the sales process and lead/opportunity designations, so I spent a lot of time last week documenting Argyle's sales process and tweaking Salesforce to accomodate.  

We created specialized values (beyond Salesforce's standard values) for Lead Status, Activity Type, and Opportunity Stage and a few flow charts to reflect our view of the world and our evolving sales process.  We discussed as a team this morning.

A few lessons learned:

• The process should be obvious.  It is important that it is very clear to the team how they should log their activities, opportunities, etc.  They've got a thousand things on their plate, so the workflow should be dead simple and straightforward - otherwise you don't get the data or behavior that you're seeking as a manager.  For example, it was previously unclear when the rep should convert a Lead into an Opportunity.  No longer - we set very clear criteria for doing so.
• A very clear process helps the team do their job.  Selling becomes just that - a very clear process.  Deals start to look the same, conversations get more consistent, and punches get tighter.  The goal is to make the process completely repeatable.
• Beware of transition states - objects can exist in limbo forever.  We created new values like "Unable To Qualify" so that leads don't exist as "Contacted" forever and "Closed Dead" so that stalled Opportunties don't sit in the "Negotiation" stage indefinitely.  Everything should move toward a terminal state.
• Recognize that your sales process is always evolving.  We've made some strides recently, but still have a long way to go before we reach the sales process Promised Land.  You can always simplify or augment as necessary.  The sales guys will usually pipe up if something isn't working very well!  

 Thoughts?  Anything else to consider for early-stage, sales-driven start-ups?

Sales People Do Exactly What You Pay Them To Do

The Argyle sales machine is powered by three very talented youngsters:  Danny, Matt, and Clay AKA "DMC".  Even though they're not 15 year sales veterans, they're very quickly learning the trade and very quickly driving results.  

They're also very quickly showing many of the classic sales behaviors!

They follow the money.  We made a minor tweak to our comp plan last month and the team very quickly figured out the types of deals that make them the most commission.  And now they're trying to find as many of those deals as possible.  Similarly, they're quickly learning to make calculations regarding their time, the particulars of the prospect, the likelihood a deal closes, and the likely pay-off.  This is exactly the type of balancing act that you want them to learn as a manager.

They ask for what they need to make more money.  Our product is constantly evolving and we definitely have a few shortcomings in some important funtional areas.  And the sale guys are very vocal about it.  In their minds, addressing these shortcomings will help them sell more product...which will help them make more money!

They ask for what they need to save time...which helps them make more money.  We use Salesforce.com and we have (what I suspect is) a reasonably advanced implementation for a team as small as ours.  But our guys are always driving for more process and cleaner workflow so that they can spend more time dialing and less time administrating.  (This type of process feedback is one reason our team rocks!)

In short - our sales team does EXACTLY what we pay them to do.  Which is why it is critical that sales compensation plans align with broader sales, marketing, product, etc. strategies.  More on this in a future post. 

The Sales Break Up Voicemail

If you've ever worked in sales, then you know this routine:

• Lead pops up via free trial, whitepaper download, demo request, etc.
• Sales guy immediately calls lead...no answer, leaves voicemail and sends email.
• Sales guy tries to contact lead for a week or two with no response - leaves more vmails, emails.
• ...
• Sales guy eventually moves on to the next lead.

 This is a universal occurence and of couse we deal with it a lot at Argyle.

I recently read a blog post about leaving a "break up" message with these leads.  (Can't remember the source - will add a link if I can dig it up.)  Instead of the standard follow-up stuff - thanks for your interest, just following up, value proposition, etc. - the break-up message is literally a break-up:

Hey there - it's Eric calling from Argyle.  I've tried contacting you a few times regarding your recent inquiry.  We haven't been able to connect, so I'm guessing you've moved on to other options.  If there is anything I can do to be helpful, please don't hesitate to call - otherwise, this will be the last time I contact you.  I appreciate your interest in Argyle!

We've started doing this at Argyle...and it works.  Don't have any quantitative data, but the anecdotal evidence is pretty compelling!  Prospects call back and they respond to the email.  And if they don't, then your sales reps don't waste anytime chasing down prospects that aren't ready to start the sales process.

I suggest giving it a shot.