The Ultimate Guide to Sales Process Consulting

Ever feel like something's wrong with your sales, but you can't quite put a finger on what it is?

Maybe you're going through the motions, repeating the same old steps for years and years - and yet, it feels a little stale. Or, worse, your results are dipping. 

If you're not sure what's causing this, it might be time to get an outside option. Often, a fresh pair of eyes can quickly identify something that you're missing simply because you're too close to the problem.

As Henry Ford once said, 

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own. 

If you're looking to get some outside perspective, you may want to consider hiring a consulting firm. There are many subsets of consultants, from general management consulting firms to highly specialized services that tackle more specific issues. 

Since you're reading this article on our site, you're probably looking for some help with your sales process - and believe it or not, there are specialized consultants for that, too!

If you'd like to learn a little more about what sales process consultants do, how they work, and where you can find them, read on! We'll also cover an exercise you can do to maximize your time with the consulting firm you hire. 

What Do Sales Process Consultants Do?

Sales process consultants play a crucial role in helping businesses optimize their sales organizations and achieve better results. Like other outside consulting firms, they provide a fresh perspective to their clients' strategies and operations. Sales process consultants work closely with companies to identify key areas for improvement and provide solutions that streamline their sales operations and drive revenue growth.

One of the primary tasks of sales process consultants is to simplify and standardize sales processes. Their consulting services include analyzing customer segmentation, buying patterns, and expectations, which they then use to help companies create streamlined processes that eliminate wastage and bottlenecks. This allows sales teams to focus on high-impact activities and improve overall efficiency.

In addition to streamlining processes, sales process consultants also help companies transition from traditional sales methods to digital sales channels and capabilities. They guide businesses through sales process reengineering and digital sales transformation, enabling them to capture more business in the digital landscape. If your sales organization feels a little bit dated, a sales process consulting service might help modernize things. 

This type of consulting firm can also play a crucial role in training sales teams on how to maximize productivity. They introduce sales automation tools and standardized sales roadmaps to improve work efficiencies and help sales representatives close more deals. By implementing tools like CRM software, they eliminate bottlenecks and enable sales teams to work more productively.

Overall, sales process consultants bring expertise in creating standardized sales processes that can be easily monitored, enforced, and automated. They align sales teams to common objectives and provide guidance on leveraging technology to drive sales growth.

A sales process consulting engagement can take many different shapes and sizes depending on the firm you hire and the problem you're trying to solve. Here's one example of a simple but comprehensive look at a sample engagement.

What are the benefits of sales process consulting?

Sales process consulting offers several benefits for businesses, including:

1. Streamlined processes: Sales process consultants help sales leaders identify and eliminate wastage and bottlenecks in the sales process. By simplifying and standardizing processes, they enable sales teams to focus on high-impact activities, leading to increased efficiency and productivity. [^1^]
2. Improved alignment: Consultants assist in aligning sales teams and sales management to common objectives throughout all sales process steps. This alignment ensures that everyone is working towards the same goals, resulting in a more straightforward and high-visibility sales process. [^1^]
3. Identifying inefficiencies: Sales process consultants conduct a thorough review of sales processes, identifying inefficiencies and implementing solutions. They analyze various aspects, such as planning, lead distribution and tracking, task prioritization, time and workload management, and sales forecasting. By addressing these inefficiencies, consultants help improve sales process health and overall performance. [^2^]
4. Sales process improvements: Consultants recommend and implement sales process improvements, such as automation, agile sales, and lean sales approaches. These improvements enable sales teams to close more deals and enhance follow-up cycles, resulting in a better customer experience throughout the sales process. This can result in better customer retention, more repeat customers, and other signs of a happier customer base. [^2^]
5. Increased productivity: Sales process consultants work closely with sales teams to introduce work efficiencies and automation tools like CRM software. By leveraging these tools and optimizing workflows, consultants help sales reps with performance management and sales activity management, leading to increased sales and revenue. [^3^]

Sales process consulting provides businesses with the expertise and guidance needed to streamline processes, improve alignment, identify inefficiencies, implement improvements, and increase productivity. By leveraging the benefits of sales process consulting, companies can optimize their sales operations, drive growth, and ultimately provide exceptional services to their customers.

You can read more about the general outcomes and expectations related to B2B Sales Consulting for Early-Stage Startups here.

How to Hire a Sales Process Consultant

Key Points:

• Hiring the right sales process consultant is crucial for the long-term success of your business.
• Look for a consultant with quantifiable experience in B2B sales, as B2C strategies may not translate well. 
• Evaluate the consultant's use of data in their strategies and decision-making process.
• Consider booking a free 30-minute consultation with Vouris to take the first steps in working with a sales process consultant.

When it comes to hiring a sales process consultant, it's important to choose someone who has quantifiable experience in B2B sales. The strategies that work for B2C companies may not necessarily lead to success for your B2B approach. 

In addition to experience, it's crucial to evaluate how the consulting firm incorporates data into its strategies and decision-making process. Numbers don't lie, and data should drive the decisions you make for your sales operation. 

You might also consider whether the consulting firm you're considering really understands how the other parts of your business fit together. For example, how does your marketing strategy align with your sales strategy? Can they help analyze multi-channel strategies? Can they build new strategies as part of their engagement with you?

It's also helpful to identify a specific goal for your engagement. If you're evaluating potential consulting firms, it's important to bring as much context to the conversations as possible. For example, if you're clearly struggling with repeat business, ask them how they'd address the issue. If you feel like you're weak on data or customer relationship management, challenge your prospective consultant during the interview! 

Sales process consultants are meant to be problem solving experts who can deal with a complex set of problems. If you can get a sense of how they break things down into first principles and isolate the true issue - the root problem - you'll quickly separate people who can deal with complexity. 

Consulting relationships are meant to be finite, with a clear outcome. Of course, a consulting contract can be long term or offer chances to engage in repeat business - it all depends on the types of firms you're considering. For a sales process engagement, though, you should define exactly what you want to get out of it and communicate that clearly with the firms you're interviewing.

Successful consultants will have relevant case studies and customer stories to consider. If they don't - that's a red flag! You should speak to people who have dealt with your pain points and who are familiar with your business' workflow management solutions. 

Keep in mind that the sales world is constantly evolving - sales process consultants need to keep up! Modern sales organizations need modern sales consultants who can walk the walk when it comes to data, current sales best practices, and workflow automation tools. They need to intimately know the things that affect your sales effectiveness! 

Lastly, you may want to share your sales process (or at least a basic sales plan or action plan) with the consulting firms you're interviewing. If you're going to challenge them with complex problems - which you should - it's only fair to share 

How to Design Your Own Sales Process

If you're looking to bring in sales consulting experts - especially ones focused on your sales force's process - it's a good idea to have your current system mapped out in writing. 

This will help any external sales experts get a holistic view of what your team's selling process looks like. Good consulting clients make it easy for the consultant to understand how your sales function works. This might include an overview of your sales roles, sales cycle, sales activities, and any other key areas that would lead to successful sales efforts.

Here at Vouris, we help technical founders build data-driven, repeatable sales processes. One of the steps we take with every client is to build out a clear process using our Sales Process Designer.

This tool will give you a high-level look at your sales organized into clear deal stages, with corresponding meetings per stage and exit criteria for each stage. 

Using the Sales Process Designer, you'll:

1. Define the distinct deal stages that make up your sales process.
2. Define the meetings that need to happen in each deal stage. 
3. Define the exit criteria for each stage.

Depending on the size of the market you target, your sales process might look considerably different. 

Here are examples of SMB, Mid Market, and Enterprise sales processes:

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It's no surprise that sales processes usually look dramatically different depending on the size of the market you sell into - but they're also often quite different from company to company. But, whether you're targeting small businesses or Fortune 100 companies, the same basic structures apply, regardless of business size. 

The better the handle you have on your company's sales process, the easier it'll be to identify bottlenecks and strengths and weaknesses. If you can outline your sales steps in detail, from dealing with potential clients to building relationships with existing clients, you'll set up your consultant for success. 

At Vouris, we specialize in B2B sales consulting for early-stage startups, ensuring that our strategies are tailored to your unique needs.

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