While you never know how a conversation will go with a prospect, there are still some things you can do to build out an inside sales process that your sales reps can use and try to take a prospect through.
In this short video, we outline three key steps to an inside sales process. We believe there are three sales process stages that your reps can take a prospect through.
1. Initial Contact
The first stage is Initial Contact. This is the first time the inside salesperson and the prospect have spoken or interacted. In many cases, this may be a cold call, but it could also be an email exchange.
In this first interaction, the time available to work with is very brief. It could be between two and five minutes if speaking over the phone. If this is an email exchange, the prospect’s attention is limited, so you may only have a couple of sentences to work with.
What is said in the initial contact is a whole other subject. But from an inside sales process, the key thing here is that the goal of this stage is not to sell the product—it is to close the prospect before moving to the next step in the sales process.
2. Conversation
The next step in the inside sales process is the conversation, and this is where the sales rep and prospect will have more time and attention, allowing them to talk in a little more detail.
The conversation will be in the form of an appointment, meeting, or call, and could either be a phone call or an in-person meeting. In most cases, the conversation will be scheduled during the initial contact and take place at a different time, but it may turn out that the appointment sales process stage occurs at the same time as the initial contact interaction.
There are some benefits to scheduling the appointment for another day, as it usually gives the salesperson more time and attention. But there are also some situations where it might make sense to just try to get to the appointment stage while connecting with a prospect on a cold call.
Similar to the Initial Contact stage, the goal of the Appointment stage is to get the prospect to agree to move to the next stage in the sales process.
3. Explanation
The next stage in the sales process is explanation, which is typically the presentation or demonstration. In many situations, this is where you present how you can help the prospect (your product or solution). That could be a demonstration or showing a slide deck.
In some cases, a salesperson might sell a very simple product, and there is not a lot to present or show. In that case, this step in the inside sales process may be more of a presentation of a quote or proposal.
