A sales process nobody follows was written for the wrong company: yours, as imagined rather than as it is.
You design the process, document it and train the team. Two weeks later one rep is doing it their way, another is using the old method, and the third is improvising.
That happens when the process does not match how they actually sell.
Why it is worth having
- Consistency: everyone sells the same way, at the same quality
- Scalability: new hires learn it and get productive faster
- Predictability: you know how long things take, so you can forecast
- Accountability: you can measure performance against something
- Training: there is a standard to train against
- Coaching: you can point at where a rep needs help
Start by mapping what already happens
Do not invent a process. Find out how your best reps sell. Interview your top 3 and ask each to walk you through a deal from first contact to closed-won, step by step.
Patterns appear quickly. They all qualify before demoing. They all send a proposal before negotiating. They take different amounts of time over it, with Sarah at 5 days where Tom takes 10. They use email, phone and meetings in a different order.
Your real process is how your best people already sell.
Define stages you can observe
Build stages that fit your business rather than copying someone else's. A typical B2B SaaS pipeline runs like this.
- 1. Prospecting: identified a lead, made first contact
- 2. Qualification: had a conversation, confirmed the fit and the budget
- 3. Demo: showed the product, they are interested
- 4. Proposal: sent formal pricing and a contract
- 5. Negotiation: discussing terms, the deal is close
- 6. Closed-won: signed and complete
- 7. Closed-lost: they chose a competitor or decided against it
In real estate the same shape might put lead at 1, showing or listing at 3, and offer at 4.
Make every stage observable. Interested is a feeling, and two people will score it differently. Had a discovery call is a fact.
Entry and exit criteria
Write down what has to be true for a deal to enter a stage, and what has to happen before it leaves. Then write the activities a rep should be doing while it sits there.
Clear criteria are what keep a pipeline clean, and what make a forecast mean anything.
Write the playbook
One page or a short handbook: the stages, the criteria, the activities, how long each stage should take, what to say, what to avoid, and examples of calls that went well and badly.
A qualification call script of about 15 minutes might thank them and name a comparable customer and outcome, move into discovery about their situation, probe how they handle the problem today, position how similar customers solved it, ask directly whether there is budget, then agree the next step and a date.
Templates remove the guesswork. A rep who knows what to say makes the call.
Train it, then reinforce it
Walk the team through each stage and explain the reasoning. Show good and bad examples. Have people role-play the calls, and answer the objections in the room.
Then keep it alive in weekly one-to-ones. Review where deals sit, coach against the process, and say publicly when someone follows it well. Adjust where the feedback is right, because the first version will need changes.
Measure it
Watch three numbers: average time in each stage, win rate from each stage, and the ratio of deals across stages. Velocity should be steady, win rates predictable, and the pipeline should look like a funnel.
When those look wrong, work out which it is. The process is broken, the reps are not following it, or it was never right for this market.
Four ways it fails
It does not match reality. You require a qualification call before a demo, and your best rep demos to anyone who will take the call. Observe first, then build.
It is too rigid. Do X, then Y, then Z, with no exceptions, leaves no room for the deal actually in front of them. Be consistent on what, flexible on how.
It is never enforced. The document exists and nobody opens it. Make it part of your one-to-ones.
It never changes. A process set 3 years ago in a market that has moved is a museum piece. Review it every year, with the reps who use it.
Written by the team at Ambivo, a business platform that keeps CRM, accounting and ERP on one customer record. This article is general guidance on the topic rather than a description of Ambivo features.