What is a sales process?

The sales process steps

Most B2B sales processes follow the same broad steps, from prospecting to handover, though each team names and splits them differently. What matters is that each step has one goal and a clear sign that it is done.

• Prospecting: find companies and people who fit your ideal customer profile.
• Qualification: check need, authority, budget and timing.
• Discovery: understand the problem, its cost and how the buyer decides.
• Solution and demo: show how the product solves that problem.
• Proposal: put the scope, price and terms in writing.
• Negotiation and close: resolve objections, agree terms and sign.
• Handover: pass the customer to onboarding with everything learned in the sale.

How sales stages map to a pipeline

Sales stages map to a pipeline one to one: each stage of the process becomes a column in the CRM, and a deal moves right when its exit criterion is met. The pipeline then shows, at a glance, how many deals sit at each stage and how much they are worth.

Exit criteria keep the pipeline honest. A deal reaches the proposal stage when the buyer has agreed the scope and asked for a price, not when the seller decides to send one. Stages defined by the buyer's actions make a pipeline review a discussion of facts.

Sales process vs sales methodology

A sales process defines the stages a deal moves through, while a sales methodology defines how sellers behave within them. The process says that discovery comes before the demo; a methodology says which questions to ask in discovery and how to qualify the answers.

Teams need both. A process without a methodology produces deals that move through stages without being understood, and a methodology without a process leaves each seller running deals their own way.

How to design a B2B sales process

Design a B2B sales process from how your buyers buy, not from how you would like to sell. Look at recent won and lost deals, list the steps the buyer actually took, and build stages around those steps.

A sales process flowchart helps at this point: draw each stage as a box, the exit criterion on each arrow and the points where a deal can be lost. Keep it to the stages people will use, write it down where the team works, and review it each quarter against what deals are doing.

Where sales processes break down

Sales processes break down most often when stages are defined by the seller's activity, such as "demo given", instead of the buyer's commitment. Deals then look further along than they are, and the pipeline overstates what will close.

Too many stages, stages that differ from one seller to the next, and a process written once and never revisited after the product, the price or the buyer changes do the same kind of damage.