Apr 15, 2009
Posted by melissa in Sales Blog Posts | 2 Comments
Defining sales stages
Each new business prospect goes specific steps or phases before they become your new customer. Sales stages for most businesses would similar to this example:
- Phase one – customer indicates a interest (a new sales lead)
- Phase two – Customer is qualified with basic questions regarding their budget and other criteria to determine if they are a suitable prospect.
- Phase three – Specific pricing, customization, and related details are discussed.
- Phase four – Customer makes verbal commitment to purchase.
- Phase five – Written commitment or contract to buy. Sale is consummated.
Defining sales stages is quite simple, but sales phases may be unique to your business and industry. Each prospects works through your basic sales phases over time. What sales phases apply to your sales process? Visualize the process and then define each specific sales stage.
In our next blog, we will discuss about using sales phases and related numbers to evaluate and refine your sales pipeline.
5 steps seems about the average, is there such a thing as too many steps in sales process? Is 6 too many, 7?
I think that each business can be somewhat unique in the sales stages that apply to that business. 6-7 sales stages is certainly not too many, but yes, there could certainly be too many sales stages.
Remember the key point of having sales stages is so you have a method for tracking your sales pipeline and evaluating the related numbers to ensure that you have a full sales pipeline.