Effective sales teams build and execute repeatable sales playbooks. For many companies, the challenge is identifying a sales process that is effective and scaleable. This presentation developed for a workshop sponsored by Elevate Ventures walks you through: 1. Identifying your buyer's decision-making process 2. Building a sales process that aligns your interests and your buyer's interests. 3. Measurement strategies that allow for ongoing sales process improvement.

1. Building a Sales Process
That Closes Deals
Frank Dale
CEO, Co-Founder

2. Costello is a deal management platform that
aligns frontline sales reps, managers, and vice
presidents of sales to help everyone work
together to close more deals
https://andcostello.com @andCostello

3. We believe sales is fundamentally
about connecting with people to
solve their problems

4. What drives sales performance today?

5. Technology changed the way we sell.

6. $12 Bspent per year on sales
acceleration tools to
build a machine
Source: Sales Acceleration Market Size Study by Inside Sales

7. The underlying assumption
2x 20% = 2x sales*Activity
volume
Baseline
close rate

8. For a while, that approach
appeared to work…

9. …until everyone else started doing it

10. This is not the outcome we envisioned
reps hitting quota
50-60%
average VP tenure
18 months
average manager tenure
15 months
Source: CSO Insights, 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study

11. Why is the machine not working
as well as we expected?

12. To win, reps must do two things
Build Strong
Relationships
Manage Deals
Methodically

13. Avg. sales rep is
not great at this.
Manage Deals
Methodically
Build Strong
Relationships
Avg. sales rep is
good at this.
In practice…

14. Reps
A negative chain reaction occurs
Managers
VPs
Don’t consistently follow sales methodology
Don’t reliably capture key deal insights in CRM
No visibility into deal quality
Forced to coach reps reactively
Low confidence in pipeline forecast
Can’t explain major win/loss drivers

15. Reps
That leads to rep underperformance
and management turnover…
Managers
VPs
Hitting quota
50-60%
Average tenure
18 months
Average tenure
15 months
Source: CSO Insights, 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study

16. 80%
Company revenue plan
attainment, on average,
when 50% of reps meet quota
Source: CSO Insights, 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study
And ultimately to sales teams missing quota

17. A sales process exists to help reps
manage deals methodically

18. Consistent
72%
50%
Inconsistent
% of Reps
Hitting Quota
Source: CSO Insights, 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study
Rep attainment increases substantially
when they consistently manage deals

19. Company revenue plan
attainment, on average,
when 71% of reps meet quota
111%
Source: CSO Insights, 2016 Sales Performance Optimization Study
Which leads to sales teams, as a whole,
beating their targets

20. What is a sales process?

21. A sales process is the steps we take to build a
business case with our prospective customer
that helps us and them understand why we
should work together.

22. Contact (CRM) Management
Prospect Qualification Discovery Proposal Negotiation Close
Generic pipeline stages are not an effective
sales process
This is at best a grading mechanism, not a repeatable description of how
your customers decide to buy from you.

23. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Close
An effective process is tailored to your market and the
way your buyer makes decision
Key Questions
Activities we perform before moving to the next buying stage
Gives
Gets

24. Our plan for the workshop
Identify your sales roadmap
Identify business case questions
Identify “gets” and red flags
Develop your first draft sales process
Measurement and continuous improvement

25. A sales roadmap is a map that describes how
your typical buyer makes a decision to purchase
from you

26. Sales Roadmap
Who do you speak to?
In what order do you speak to them?
What are their respective concerns?

27. Start with who
Companies do not make decisions.
People make decisions.

28. When you know the order you can guide the
process.
Identify the order of conversations

29. Identify each buying persona’s concerns
Common concerns give you the ability to develop playbooks. To
develop a playbook we need to:
Identify each buyer’s interests (wants)
Identify each buyer’s motivations (goals)

30. Interests and motivations are expressed by buyers
through questions and objections

31. Sales Roadmap Exercise
Who do you speak to?
In what order do you speak to them?
What are their respective concerns?
• Interests (wants)
• Motivations (goals)

32. Step 2
Identify your sales roadmap
Identify business case questions
Identify red flags
Develop your first draft
Measurement and continuous improvement

33. People act when there is a compelling
gap between where they are and where
they want to be

34. We gather the inputs for our business case through
asking questions.
We demonstrate our business case using presentations
and proposals.

35. 1. What do we need to know in order to qualify
someone as a fit for our product or service?
2. What do we need to know in order to demonstrate
why it is in the buyer’s interest to act?
Business Case Exercise

36. Step 3
Identify your sales roadmap
Identify business case questions
Identify red flags
Develop your first draft
Measurement and continuous improvement

37. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Close
Sales process first draft
Key Questions
Activities we perform before moving to the next buying stage
Gives
Gets
1. Take each step from your sales roadmap and place it under a stage
2. Place the buyer’s questions and typical requests at each step under “Gives” at the
respective stage
3. Take your qualification and business case questions and put it under the stage that
is appropriate under ”Key Questions.”
4. Place your requests under the ”Gets” column. These are actions you need the buyer
to perform like sharing data or scheduling meetings with coworkers.

38. Step 4
Identify your sales roadmap
Identify business case questions
Identify red flags
Develop your first draft
Measurement and continuous improvement

39. Red flags
Purchase decisions require the buyer to act.
Buyer’s demonstrate their willingness to act
through actions not statements.

40. Red flags serve as stage gates in your sales
process. They prevent you from investing
time and resources into deals that will not
close.

41. Effective red flags are objective. The action
either happened or it didn’t.

42. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Close
Identify red flags
Key Questions
Activities we perform before moving to the next buying stage
Gives
Gets
Under the ”Gets” column. These are actions you need the buyer to perform like sharing
data or scheduling meetings with coworkers.
1. Take 5 minutes to identify additional actions that if not performed indicate a deal is
off-track.

43. Step 5
Identify your sales roadmap
Identify business case questions
Identify red flags
Develop your first draft
Measurement and continuous improvement

44. You can’t measure data you don’t have.
Data capture

45. Basic measurements
Close rate
Sales cycle time
Average contract value

46. Conversion rates
1. Measuring conversion percentage from stage-to-stage is the
fastest way to identify areas for improvement in the sales
process.
2. Conversion rates from stage-to-stage at the rep level can be
used for coaching.
3. Measurement and reevaluation periods are driven by sales cycle
times.
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Close

47. https://andcostello.com @andCostello