The 10 Step Sales Process

The 10 Step sales process

The 10 step sales process is a process used in a sales situation in which you as a company have an ongoing, pre-existing relationship or expect to have one. This particular process is used when you have a wide variety of products that can focus on any particular aspect of their life and your ability to advise them and to sell them products relies on you having a full and proper understanding of their entire situation. An example would be for a commercial bank manager. In order to recommend the best product for the individual the manager must really have a good understanding of the customer’s personal financial situation as well as their business.

Step 1 – Agree the appointment. Explain what it is going to be for, what time you will call or meet them and get them to understand that it is worth their while having the meeting with you.

Step 2 – Planning and preparation – Gather as much information as you can on the customer from previous notes, the database etc. Using this information, try and plan which products are the most likely to be relevant.

Step 3 – Greeting the customer – Again, re-iterate the reason for the meeting and make a good first impression.

Step 4 – Relationship building and set out an agenda - Use the Closing the doors model to create a relationship and then set out an agenda for what needs to be covered in the meeting

Step 5 – Gathering information – Really start digging for the hard facts, get a thorough understanding of everything you need to know.

Step 6 – Agree and prioritise needs – It is likely that in the previous two stages of the process you will have identified a series of problems that need to be addressed. The customer may not be able to afford to resolve all of the issues, or may not be so interested in addressing all of them. Chat the customer through the issues, agree which ones are most important to them and prioritise those needs.

Step 7 – Making proposals – At this point, you should be using the information gathered in steps 4 and 5 to re-establish rapport if necessary with the customer and then to make any proposals that you can to satisfy the needs of the customer.

Step 8 – Close the sale – As with every sales process, the close is of utmost importance. You must recap on all of the needs and the solutions proposed and at this stage gain commitment from the customer to the sale.

Step 9 – Next steps – This is the point where you really need to manage the customer’s expectations, explain to them what will happen next and how long it will take. Explain what they need to do, if anything, to keep the ball rolling.

Step 10 – Administration – It’s up to you to complete all necessary paperwork to get the ball rolling, as well as to make note of all the information you gathered in the conversation.