What is a sales system and why it trumps a sales process
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What is a sales system + why it trumps a sales process
A sales system spells out the formula required to make a customer, in a clearly understood sequence. It is similar to a sales funnel or sales process, only more comprehensive. If you are familiar with sales process, sales funnel or sales cycle, sales pipeline, then you are halfway to 👌 understanding a sales system. All these phrases mean much the same. They describe a sequence of stages to turn a prospect into a customer.
When designing and building such a sequence, I prefer to build a system rather than a process. When compared to a process, a system implies a larger scale. A system is more encompassing and end-to-end.
A sales system can be regarded in two parts. Part one is words and pictures used each day to communicate to customers across various channels. Part two is the chosen applications which serve the words and pictures.
Frederick W Taylor, Scientific Management,1911
Each sales system requires a minimum number of customer interactions. Customer interactions occur each time the startup comes in contact with the customer. One startup may require five value propositions, 30 email scripts, three PDF documents, one video, one live chat, and one telephone call before a customer is created.
The second part of the sale system is applications. Applications support the sales system by storing and serving scripts and digital assets to customers in the correct sequence, sometimes automating entire actions once performed by a salesforce.
A sales system aint..
Sales system should not be confused with system sales – a phrased used in the franchising industry. According to Wikipedia, system sales represents the total sales of all outlets that use a brand, or that use all the franchised brands owned by one franchisor.
Quote taken from salesforce.com, posted an article in 2016.
An online sales system differs from a conventional system
Building a sales system 20 years ago was a feat only large companies could afford. Today’s salesforce can produce words and pictures at a fraction of what it cost yesterday. Teams can point and shoot using personal smartphones and there are free online libraries of stock images to choose.
Since 2011, the number of applications in marketing alone has grown from 150 to 5,000 in 2017. These applications are created within a cloud-based ecosystem, meaning they were designed to work together. There is no limit to how these applications can be plugged, coupled and connected.
Sales system flowchart
Below is a flowchart that describes a sales system. A sales system spells out the formula required to make a customer, in a clearly understood sequence. A sales system involves gathering intel, decision-making and creation of words and pictures.
Intelligence is information gathered both inside and outside the business. Intel is gathered and stored for the purpose of improving words and pictures. Words and pictures are the exterior or veneer, which customers and competitors experience.
Build your sales systems on the 4Qs
Sitting bang-smack in the middle of the sales system flowchart is the 4Qs. The 4Qs is a decision-making framework. Most startups take intelligence and shove it directly into words and pictures. They don’t synthesize intel, they copy it.
The 4Qs provides a decision-making framework which helps startups make sense of intel and decide what to do with it. Some intelligence will influence words and pictures. Other intel will be discarded.
Key takeaways
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