Article
3 Ways To Perfect Your Sales Process
February 17, 2022
.JPG)
Jump to a section
Since 2013, Skaled Consulting has been helping businesses accelerate their sales with tactical and technical support. And they’ve made it easier for companies, including Adobe and ADP, to ditch traditional sales strategies and implement next-generation solutions.
Their CEO, Jake Dunlap, says Skaled is one of the (if not the) best in the world at modern sales best practices. So we invited Jake on the Organize Chaos podcast to share his sales insight and how he helps companies perfect their sales process.
In this episode, he shares 3 winning moves your business can make to set up your sales process for success — and ultimately, close more sales:
1. Support sales with documentation
Before Jake founded Skaled, he was the VP of sales at Glassdoor, the VP of sales at Nowait (later acquired by Yelp), and the head of sales at Chartbeat. And during those periods, he noticed that the sales departments weren’t getting the support they needed.
“Growing and scaling companies would give marketing and finance all this help,” Jake explained. “But sales would get left out in the cold.”
These situations didn’t make any sense to Jake. Sales were the front-line teams making revenue for these companies. So, he decided to start consulting businesses on how to provide a supportive infrastructure for their sales teams.
One of the most important aspects of this infrastructure is process documentation. Because once that's in place, it’s much easier to improve the sales process, scale your best sales strategies, and accelerate sales results.
To begin, Jake says to ask yourself: “What content does my team need to be successful?” The answer: documentation of the repeatable processes and systems your sales reps use.
This documentation could include lead generation, email templates, or a handoff process. Basically, any standard operating procedure (SOP) your sales team uses to sell your product or service. That way, you can train everyone on your sales team to do these tasks the same way (and keep them accountable for it).
If you’re starting from scratch here, don’t sweat it. Because Jake also points out that your processes don’t have to be perfect at this point.
“Whether good or bad, narrow in on a process you can train people on because at least it’s something,” he shared. “And if it’s not documented, how can you improve it?”
In other words, don’t worry too much about this step. Because most of your documentation will be changed, reworked, or updated entirely at some point. And according to Jake, “a high-performing sales team is always optimizing.”
“Even if you’re a founder-led sales team, you should be documenting. So when you hire the first people, they can get up to speed faster.”
<blockquoteauthor>Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled Consulting<blockquoteauthor>
2. Use technology to augment your team
Once you’ve documented your sales process (or improved the documentation you had), Jake suggests using technology to augment your team. AKA, invest in a tech stack that makes your sales team more successful.
A tech stack is a collection of tools that optimize and streamline your business processes. And in this case, we’re talking about sales. So, that means any technology that helps reps spend less time on administrative tasks and more time closing deals.
“There are well over 1,500 sales technologies. So if you are doing something manually, there’s probably an app for that.”
One of Jake’s technology examples is training software. Veteran reps spend a lot of time training new employees. But when you use software to streamline and automate the training process, those reps have more time to do what they do best: reach out to potential customers and close sales.
Other examples include a customer relationship management system (or CRM), like HubSpot or Salesforce. And there’s even software like Hootsuite that makes sharing social content easier because reps can post across all channels and see their prospects’ activity from one dashboard.
The technologies you invest in will depend on your sales process and goals. And for a lot of business leaders, they might not know where to start or what tools are the best. Which is part of the reason clients choose to work with Skaled.
“The difference between Skaled and your typical consulting firm is the tactical execution and our knowledge of sales tech,” Jake explained. “Because we’ve done hundreds and hundreds of sales tech implementations.”
It’s helpful to have a partner who knows which tools are valuable and which ones aren’t. But for SMBs who aren’t ready to invest in consulting, you can use free software trials to find the right tools for you.
Think about where your sales reps spend their time and if you can automate those processes. Then, find apps or software to help you do those things and register for their complimentary trials.
Next, have your sales reps test them during the free period. And only keep the ones you deem valuable. Then, be sure to cancel the trials you don’t want before they end.
3. Hire the right salespeople at the right stage
According to Jake, the third way to perfect your sales process is to hire the right people at the right stage. This bit is critical because once you’ve hired sales reps, your business’s sales depend on the quality of their work (and how well they follow your sales process).
Finding the right people for your sales positions is easier said than done. And Jake has seen a lot of companies struggle with this task. More specifically, there are two instances where he sees growing companies make the biggest talent mistakes:
Promoting from within versus hiring an expert
“When Skaled went from zero salespeople to 40 in just 16 months, I made the mistake of promoting junior leaders to manage junior people,” Jake explained. And his team struggled because they were led by people who were just then learning how to lead.
But, when you hire someone with managerial experience, you know they’ve been through the trenches. So they have the expertise to lead your team, grow your team, and accelerate sales results.
“You need a manager who can build scaffolding that gets you to the next stage. And maybe that person can stretch into a director role and oversee 2 or 3 managers [one day].”
Unless you feel 100% confident that your sales reps can handle the rigors of managing a sales team, consider hiring a new, experienced manager when you’re ready to bring one on. That way, you can trust that your sales teams are being well managed. And you can focus on adding more people to your team.
Neglecting sales operations
According to Jake, the second biggest mistake is when companies don’t hire enough operations people to support their sales reps. AKA, the people who help your frontline salespeople sell more efficiently by managing and improving the systems behind your sales process.
As Jake mentioned, a high-performing sales team is constantly optimizing. Whether you're updating the training, improving lead generation, or simplifying work flows, operations can take up a lot of time. Which is why he believes these roles are so important (yet still one of the most underrated positions).
“We surveyed 167 senior salespeople and sales leaders,” Jake told us. “And almost 50% said they’re spending between 15% to 30% of their time every single week on operations activities.”
In other words, your sales team might be wasting a lot of time in operations when they could be using that time to focus on closing sales. So, Jake suggests hiring a sales operations manager for every 10 reps you have on your team.
And when it comes to hiring your first sales ops person, the same rule applies for promoting from within. “Stop promoting SDRs (sales development representatives) and salespeople to be your first sales ops,” Jake reiterated. “And hire someone with a few years of sales ops experience instead.”
While it might be more of an investment up front ($15K to $20K more in salary), Jake says it will be a big win in the long run. Because your sales team will have more time to focus on closing, and your sales process will get the attention it deserves.
Hiring the right people at the right stage isn’t just a cliche. It’s a strategy that can help your sales process reach its highest potential. Because what’s a high-performing sales process if you don’t have high-performing players who know how to execute it?
Perfecting your sales process isn't an overnight project. But if you take Jake’s advice to invest in documentation, use tech to augment your team, and hire the right people at the right time, you can take significant steps toward making it better every day.
👉 To find more tips on perfecting your sales process, listen to the full podcast.
Share it!
More from this author
Become a better business leader in 5 minutes or less
Join over 163K readers getting the The Manual in their inbox every Wednesday.
Similar Blog Posts
Article
3 Ways To Perfect Your Sales Process
February 17, 2022
Since 2013, Skaled Consulting has been helping businesses accelerate their sales with tactical and technical support. And they’ve made it easier for companies, including Adobe and ADP, to ditch traditional sales strategies and implement next-generation solutions.
Their CEO, Jake Dunlap, says Skaled is one of the (if not the) best in the world at modern sales best practices. So we invited Jake on the Organize Chaos podcast to share his sales insight and how he helps companies perfect their sales process.
In this episode, he shares 3 winning moves your business can make to set up your sales process for success — and ultimately, close more sales:
1. Support sales with documentation
Before Jake founded Skaled, he was the VP of sales at Glassdoor, the VP of sales at Nowait (later acquired by Yelp), and the head of sales at Chartbeat. And during those periods, he noticed that the sales departments weren’t getting the support they needed.
“Growing and scaling companies would give marketing and finance all this help,” Jake explained. “But sales would get left out in the cold.”
These situations didn’t make any sense to Jake. Sales were the front-line teams making revenue for these companies. So, he decided to start consulting businesses on how to provide a supportive infrastructure for their sales teams.
One of the most important aspects of this infrastructure is process documentation. Because once that's in place, it’s much easier to improve the sales process, scale your best sales strategies, and accelerate sales results.
To begin, Jake says to ask yourself: “What content does my team need to be successful?” The answer: documentation of the repeatable processes and systems your sales reps use.
This documentation could include lead generation, email templates, or a handoff process. Basically, any standard operating procedure (SOP) your sales team uses to sell your product or service. That way, you can train everyone on your sales team to do these tasks the same way (and keep them accountable for it).
If you’re starting from scratch here, don’t sweat it. Because Jake also points out that your processes don’t have to be perfect at this point.
“Whether good or bad, narrow in on a process you can train people on because at least it’s something,” he shared. “And if it’s not documented, how can you improve it?”
In other words, don’t worry too much about this step. Because most of your documentation will be changed, reworked, or updated entirely at some point. And according to Jake, “a high-performing sales team is always optimizing.”
“Even if you’re a founder-led sales team, you should be documenting. So when you hire the first people, they can get up to speed faster.”
<blockquoteauthor>Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled Consulting<blockquoteauthor>
2. Use technology to augment your team
Once you’ve documented your sales process (or improved the documentation you had), Jake suggests using technology to augment your team. AKA, invest in a tech stack that makes your sales team more successful.
A tech stack is a collection of tools that optimize and streamline your business processes. And in this case, we’re talking about sales. So, that means any technology that helps reps spend less time on administrative tasks and more time closing deals.
“There are well over 1,500 sales technologies. So if you are doing something manually, there’s probably an app for that.”
One of Jake’s technology examples is training software. Veteran reps spend a lot of time training new employees. But when you use software to streamline and automate the training process, those reps have more time to do what they do best: reach out to potential customers and close sales.
Other examples include a customer relationship management system (or CRM), like HubSpot or Salesforce. And there’s even software like Hootsuite that makes sharing social content easier because reps can post across all channels and see their prospects’ activity from one dashboard.
The technologies you invest in will depend on your sales process and goals. And for a lot of business leaders, they might not know where to start or what tools are the best. Which is part of the reason clients choose to work with Skaled.
“The difference between Skaled and your typical consulting firm is the tactical execution and our knowledge of sales tech,” Jake explained. “Because we’ve done hundreds and hundreds of sales tech implementations.”
It’s helpful to have a partner who knows which tools are valuable and which ones aren’t. But for SMBs who aren’t ready to invest in consulting, you can use free software trials to find the right tools for you.
Think about where your sales reps spend their time and if you can automate those processes. Then, find apps or software to help you do those things and register for their complimentary trials.
Next, have your sales reps test them during the free period. And only keep the ones you deem valuable. Then, be sure to cancel the trials you don’t want before they end.
3. Hire the right salespeople at the right stage
According to Jake, the third way to perfect your sales process is to hire the right people at the right stage. This bit is critical because once you’ve hired sales reps, your business’s sales depend on the quality of their work (and how well they follow your sales process).
Finding the right people for your sales positions is easier said than done. And Jake has seen a lot of companies struggle with this task. More specifically, there are two instances where he sees growing companies make the biggest talent mistakes:
Promoting from within versus hiring an expert
“When Skaled went from zero salespeople to 40 in just 16 months, I made the mistake of promoting junior leaders to manage junior people,” Jake explained. And his team struggled because they were led by people who were just then learning how to lead.
But, when you hire someone with managerial experience, you know they’ve been through the trenches. So they have the expertise to lead your team, grow your team, and accelerate sales results.
“You need a manager who can build scaffolding that gets you to the next stage. And maybe that person can stretch into a director role and oversee 2 or 3 managers [one day].”
Unless you feel 100% confident that your sales reps can handle the rigors of managing a sales team, consider hiring a new, experienced manager when you’re ready to bring one on. That way, you can trust that your sales teams are being well managed. And you can focus on adding more people to your team.
Neglecting sales operations
According to Jake, the second biggest mistake is when companies don’t hire enough operations people to support their sales reps. AKA, the people who help your frontline salespeople sell more efficiently by managing and improving the systems behind your sales process.
As Jake mentioned, a high-performing sales team is constantly optimizing. Whether you're updating the training, improving lead generation, or simplifying work flows, operations can take up a lot of time. Which is why he believes these roles are so important (yet still one of the most underrated positions).
“We surveyed 167 senior salespeople and sales leaders,” Jake told us. “And almost 50% said they’re spending between 15% to 30% of their time every single week on operations activities.”
In other words, your sales team might be wasting a lot of time in operations when they could be using that time to focus on closing sales. So, Jake suggests hiring a sales operations manager for every 10 reps you have on your team.
And when it comes to hiring your first sales ops person, the same rule applies for promoting from within. “Stop promoting SDRs (sales development representatives) and salespeople to be your first sales ops,” Jake reiterated. “And hire someone with a few years of sales ops experience instead.”
While it might be more of an investment up front ($15K to $20K more in salary), Jake says it will be a big win in the long run. Because your sales team will have more time to focus on closing, and your sales process will get the attention it deserves.
Hiring the right people at the right stage isn’t just a cliche. It’s a strategy that can help your sales process reach its highest potential. Because what’s a high-performing sales process if you don’t have high-performing players who know how to execute it?
Perfecting your sales process isn't an overnight project. But if you take Jake’s advice to invest in documentation, use tech to augment your team, and hire the right people at the right time, you can take significant steps toward making it better every day.
👉 To find more tips on perfecting your sales process, listen to the full podcast.
More from this author
Article
3 Ways To Perfect Your Sales Process
February 17, 2022
•
Share it!
About this episode
Since 2013, Skaled Consulting has been helping businesses accelerate their sales with tactical and technical support. And they’ve made it easier for companies, including Adobe and ADP, to ditch traditional sales strategies and implement next-generation solutions.
Their CEO, Jake Dunlap, says Skaled is one of the (if not the) best in the world at modern sales best practices. So we invited Jake on the Organize Chaos podcast to share his sales insight and how he helps companies perfect their sales process.
In this episode, he shares 3 winning moves your business can make to set up your sales process for success — and ultimately, close more sales:
1. Support sales with documentation
Before Jake founded Skaled, he was the VP of sales at Glassdoor, the VP of sales at Nowait (later acquired by Yelp), and the head of sales at Chartbeat. And during those periods, he noticed that the sales departments weren’t getting the support they needed.
“Growing and scaling companies would give marketing and finance all this help,” Jake explained. “But sales would get left out in the cold.”
These situations didn’t make any sense to Jake. Sales were the front-line teams making revenue for these companies. So, he decided to start consulting businesses on how to provide a supportive infrastructure for their sales teams.
One of the most important aspects of this infrastructure is process documentation. Because once that's in place, it’s much easier to improve the sales process, scale your best sales strategies, and accelerate sales results.
To begin, Jake says to ask yourself: “What content does my team need to be successful?” The answer: documentation of the repeatable processes and systems your sales reps use.
This documentation could include lead generation, email templates, or a handoff process. Basically, any standard operating procedure (SOP) your sales team uses to sell your product or service. That way, you can train everyone on your sales team to do these tasks the same way (and keep them accountable for it).
If you’re starting from scratch here, don’t sweat it. Because Jake also points out that your processes don’t have to be perfect at this point.
“Whether good or bad, narrow in on a process you can train people on because at least it’s something,” he shared. “And if it’s not documented, how can you improve it?”
In other words, don’t worry too much about this step. Because most of your documentation will be changed, reworked, or updated entirely at some point. And according to Jake, “a high-performing sales team is always optimizing.”
“Even if you’re a founder-led sales team, you should be documenting. So when you hire the first people, they can get up to speed faster.”
<blockquoteauthor>Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled Consulting<blockquoteauthor>
2. Use technology to augment your team
Once you’ve documented your sales process (or improved the documentation you had), Jake suggests using technology to augment your team. AKA, invest in a tech stack that makes your sales team more successful.
A tech stack is a collection of tools that optimize and streamline your business processes. And in this case, we’re talking about sales. So, that means any technology that helps reps spend less time on administrative tasks and more time closing deals.
“There are well over 1,500 sales technologies. So if you are doing something manually, there’s probably an app for that.”
One of Jake’s technology examples is training software. Veteran reps spend a lot of time training new employees. But when you use software to streamline and automate the training process, those reps have more time to do what they do best: reach out to potential customers and close sales.
Other examples include a customer relationship management system (or CRM), like HubSpot or Salesforce. And there’s even software like Hootsuite that makes sharing social content easier because reps can post across all channels and see their prospects’ activity from one dashboard.
The technologies you invest in will depend on your sales process and goals. And for a lot of business leaders, they might not know where to start or what tools are the best. Which is part of the reason clients choose to work with Skaled.
“The difference between Skaled and your typical consulting firm is the tactical execution and our knowledge of sales tech,” Jake explained. “Because we’ve done hundreds and hundreds of sales tech implementations.”
It’s helpful to have a partner who knows which tools are valuable and which ones aren’t. But for SMBs who aren’t ready to invest in consulting, you can use free software trials to find the right tools for you.
Think about where your sales reps spend their time and if you can automate those processes. Then, find apps or software to help you do those things and register for their complimentary trials.
Next, have your sales reps test them during the free period. And only keep the ones you deem valuable. Then, be sure to cancel the trials you don’t want before they end.
3. Hire the right salespeople at the right stage
According to Jake, the third way to perfect your sales process is to hire the right people at the right stage. This bit is critical because once you’ve hired sales reps, your business’s sales depend on the quality of their work (and how well they follow your sales process).
Finding the right people for your sales positions is easier said than done. And Jake has seen a lot of companies struggle with this task. More specifically, there are two instances where he sees growing companies make the biggest talent mistakes:
Promoting from within versus hiring an expert
“When Skaled went from zero salespeople to 40 in just 16 months, I made the mistake of promoting junior leaders to manage junior people,” Jake explained. And his team struggled because they were led by people who were just then learning how to lead.
But, when you hire someone with managerial experience, you know they’ve been through the trenches. So they have the expertise to lead your team, grow your team, and accelerate sales results.
“You need a manager who can build scaffolding that gets you to the next stage. And maybe that person can stretch into a director role and oversee 2 or 3 managers [one day].”
Unless you feel 100% confident that your sales reps can handle the rigors of managing a sales team, consider hiring a new, experienced manager when you’re ready to bring one on. That way, you can trust that your sales teams are being well managed. And you can focus on adding more people to your team.
Neglecting sales operations
According to Jake, the second biggest mistake is when companies don’t hire enough operations people to support their sales reps. AKA, the people who help your frontline salespeople sell more efficiently by managing and improving the systems behind your sales process.
As Jake mentioned, a high-performing sales team is constantly optimizing. Whether you're updating the training, improving lead generation, or simplifying work flows, operations can take up a lot of time. Which is why he believes these roles are so important (yet still one of the most underrated positions).
“We surveyed 167 senior salespeople and sales leaders,” Jake told us. “And almost 50% said they’re spending between 15% to 30% of their time every single week on operations activities.”
In other words, your sales team might be wasting a lot of time in operations when they could be using that time to focus on closing sales. So, Jake suggests hiring a sales operations manager for every 10 reps you have on your team.
And when it comes to hiring your first sales ops person, the same rule applies for promoting from within. “Stop promoting SDRs (sales development representatives) and salespeople to be your first sales ops,” Jake reiterated. “And hire someone with a few years of sales ops experience instead.”
While it might be more of an investment up front ($15K to $20K more in salary), Jake says it will be a big win in the long run. Because your sales team will have more time to focus on closing, and your sales process will get the attention it deserves.
Hiring the right people at the right stage isn’t just a cliche. It’s a strategy that can help your sales process reach its highest potential. Because what’s a high-performing sales process if you don’t have high-performing players who know how to execute it?
Perfecting your sales process isn't an overnight project. But if you take Jake’s advice to invest in documentation, use tech to augment your team, and hire the right people at the right time, you can take significant steps toward making it better every day.
👉 To find more tips on perfecting your sales process, listen to the full podcast.
Full Transcript
Never miss an episode
.svg)
