Your Sales Process Is Perfectly Designed… Just Not for the Results You Want

Your sales process is perfectly designed...

...to produce exactly the results you're getting.

Before I recommend changes, I study how a sales team actually works.

A common conversation goes something like this:

"Our reps always..."
...demo too early.
...discount too quickly.
...qualify poorly.

The instinct is to coach the rep.

Sometimes that's the right answer.

Often it isn't.

More often than you'd think, the process is producing the very behavior leadership wants to eliminate.

Take early demos.

I look at the sales process and see a stage called Demo immediately after Discovery.

What message does that send?

Complete discovery. Check the box. Run the demo.

But a demo isn't a stage.

It's a tactic.

Sometimes the next best step is a demo. Sometimes it's another discovery conversation. Sometimes it's bringing in a technical resource or a new stakeholder.

The process should reinforce good judgment, not replace it.

Before changing your people, ask whether your process is teaching them to behave exactly as they are.