Sales Process Stages Explained in Mastering Sales Techniques

Let's briefly understand the various steps in the sales process. These are shown in the image below:

There are six steps that a salesperson needs to follow in the sales process. They are as follows:

• Generating leads
• Scheduling appointments
• Opening a meeting with the prospective customer
• Gathering data, identifying needs and presenting a solution
• Handling objections
• Closing the sale

The customer also moves through the various steps with a different term used to refer to them at each step. These terms are as follows: 

• Generating leads - Suspects
• Scheduling appointments - Prospects
• Opening a meeting with the prospective customer - Prospects
• Gathering data, identifying needs and presenting a solution - Potential customer
• Handling objections - Potential customer
• Closing the sale - Customer and client

Overview of Each Stage of the Sales Process

Before deep-diving into these stages, let's briefly understand the sales process as a whole:

The first step is generating leads. It is the key to starting the process as without prospects, there will be noone to sell products to. Lead generation requires a great sales approach formed by a positive attitude, the excitement to sell, accepting the challenging situation and thinking of solutions to get the job done. After generating leads, you need to find your prospects and schedule appointments with them. This is the second stage of the selling process. As you understand, all leads are not of the same quality, you need to identify the prospects and schedule appointments with them through a structured process about which we will learn in our subsequent modules. The next step is opening the meeting with the prospect with whom you successfully schedule an appointment. Making a good first impression is essential. This can be done by being punctual, dressing properly, taking care of personal hygiene and having a positive body language. In this process, you need to build a rapport with the prospect by talking about common interests or market trends so as to sail smoothly to the next step where you will seek basic information from the prospect and identify the needs that can be fulfilled by providing customised products that you intend to sell. Following this, you will have to pitch your solution in a way that is not only impressive but captivates the prospect who will get his doubts clarified about your product by raising objections that need to be handled patiently and to the maximum possible satisfaction of your prospect. The last step is the process of closing sales and after-sales service. For this, you need to understand the buying signals from the prospect. If you notice these signals closing the sale will be easy. These signals are:

a) When the prospect shows openness in sharing personal details.

b) When the prospect asks relevant questions about the product.

c) When the prospect asks about the process of financing your product. 

Let's move on to the next segment to understand the lead generation process and lead generation methods.