How to fix the weakest link in your sales process
Stage-to-stage conversion analysis
Every sales process can always be improved. However, knowing where to start can be overwhelming:
Do you work on discovery skills that get buyers to open up about their problems and decision making criteria?
Do you work on giving effective demos that prescribe solutions to their problems?
Do you work on making your proposals higher impact?
Do you work on negotiation skills?
Do you focus on data hygiene?
The list of possibilities is endless. On thing’s for sure. You can’t do them all at once.
My favorite ways to tackle this are:
A closed lost analysis (as described in last week’s post)
A stage-to-stage conversion analysis, which is the topic of this post.
I love the stage-to-stage conversion analysis because it gives context to the closed lost analysis, resulting in a more actionable output. Here’s how to put it together:
1. Identify your process stages
Most sales processes are some version of the following stages.
If your stages are different, or you have more than 5, don’t worry! This approach works on any linear sales process.