Why a written process beats a good salesperson
A business that depends on one person's instinct for selling has a process; it is in that person's head. When they are sick, on holiday or gone, the sales stop. Writing the stages down lets a second person follow them and lets you see what is happening.
It does not need software. It needs a page everyone agrees on.
The five stages
- Enquiry: someone contacts you. You reply within the hour and ask three questions.
- Conversation: you learn what they need, by phone or in person, and decide whether you can help.
- Proposal: you send a price and a scope, in writing, with a date it expires.
- Decision: you follow up on a set day. Yes, no, or not now, each with a next step.
- Paid: the deposit is in and the work is booked.
Your stages may differ. Keep the number small enough to draw and the action at each stage specific enough to do.
Count who is at each stage
Once a week, count how many people are at each stage and how many moved since last week. A spreadsheet is enough. The stage where people pile up and stop moving is the stage that needs work.
If enquiries are high and conversations are low, the reply is too slow or the questions put people off. If proposals go out and decisions do not come back, the follow-up is missing or the price is a surprise.
Decide the follow-up before you send the proposal
Most lost deals are not lost to a competitor. They are lost to silence. Before a proposal goes out, put the follow-up call in the diary. Make the call on that day, with a question, not a nudge: what would need to be true for this to go ahead.
Connect it to your marketing
When each enquiry records where it came from, the process becomes a report on your marketing. You will see which channel produces enquiries that reach paid, and which produces enquiries that stall. That is the number to spend against.
Our tracking records the source of every form and call for clients, so the sales page and the marketing page read from the same list.