In whatever industry you are working most sales processes are similar, at least if you see it from a higher perspective. The ultimate goal in the sales process is to sell more and increase the turnover for your company. After selling a product or service it is important to retain a good relationship with the customer to make them purchase more in the future.

So, in short it all starts with having a good product to sell. The product needs to be something that people need or want to have. Therefore it is important to start coming up with an idea and do a market analysis to make sure that people want your product. A product can be anything from a service to a material product.

Once securing your idea and making sure you believe it is going to be something you want to sell, you have to create the product and some sales material. We are not going to go into the production process but just discuss the sales process.

The first thing you will do is to create a list of suspects. Who could be interested in what you have and how could you reach out to them? Once you have attracted a person that much that he stops and listens to what you have to say he is called a prospect.

When they have started to listen to your offer you have the possibility to modify your offer a bit to be able to deliver what they really want, especially if you are selling a service or package of products.

The best way for you is to be able to make them understand that your standard product is the best for them. This way you will have less work to be able to deliver the product.

If you are not able to sell exactly your product it is very important to listen to what they really need. They have ideas about the final result, but perhaps you have other solutions to their problems if you only understand their needs. By focusing on what they want rather than what you want to sell you will be able to be much more successful in your sales.

After you have understood what they need and thought about solutions for this you will create them a proposal. This proposal will include what your offer is and the benefits for them to choose this solution.

Your proposal will be discussed and you will be able to negotiate the price and terms to be able to deliver a solution of your customer’s needs.

Now - it is important to understand that you will not be able to find a solution for everyone. Also, you have to be sure not to deliver to a price you are not ready to give. The price strategy is something you have to think about before. It might be that you will do loss on some clients, but in that case it has to be included in the overall strategy.

In most cases you will also have competitors to consider. What are they offering and how can you offer a better solution? And, most important, how can you communicate this to your suspects, prospects and customers? All sales work, including what goals you have, are usually stored in a Sales Software (could also be called Sales Management Software). The Sales Software will also help you to do a lot of things automatically.

Once you have sold something you have created a customer from a prospect. The whole process to get here is usually quite costly and therefore something you want to do as little as necessary.

The most important thing is now to retain a good relationship with your customer. How can you make sure that they come back to you again when they want more things that you are able to deliver?

This is a struggle that most organisations are fighting. Your customers will be manipulated by your competitors so it is important to really work with this process.

This process is usually called Customer Retention Process.

To have a good relationship with your customers will help you to improve your business and not have to focus so much on suspects and prospects. We will bring some ideas around how to keep your customers loyal and happy in another article.