Building a professional sales organization is one of the most important things an entrepreneur must do. Unfortunately, for me anyways, it is more difficult to build a sales organization than it is to build a product. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years:
- Sales-ready lead – write down the definition of a sales-ready lead and make sure everyone is on the same page. If a lead is passed to sales and it isn’t sales-ready, it should be immediately returned back to marketing for automated nurturing.
- CRM process – there are many affordable CRMs out there from companies like Salesforce.com and SugarCRM with all the bells and whistles you need. The important thing is documenting what is expected of sales reps and sales manager and defining usage standards. It is very difficult for a company to plan as well as manage growth if the CRM is not truly adopted by the sales organization.
- BANT consistency – a consistent definition of Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline is critical for creating opportunities in the sales pipeline. Too often, different interpretations of these characteristics specific to an individual organization cause serious problems.
Embracing these three tips will result in a more successful sales organization.
David Cummings on Startups 