08/11/2024, 13:08 The Ultimate Step-by-Step Sales Process Template (2024)

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The
Ultimate
Step-by-
Step
Sales
Process
Template
(2024)
By Elle Brayton
January 2, 2024

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post

What is a sales process?

Get ready to create a repeatable sales
Why build a sales process? process template. This guide walks through
how to create the ultimate sales process
Sales process template steps template that will boost prospecting,
qualification, and forecasting so that you can
1. Prospecting and lead generation
arm your salespeople with the knowledge
they need to close deals faster.
2. Lead qualification

3. Connect Prepare to take the uncertainty out of

prospecting and lead qualification,
4. Identify pain points create performance and conversion
rate expectations, and get your
5. Conduct a demo or free trial
salespeople aligned.

6. Handling objections and questions

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08/11/2024, 13:08 The Ultimate Step-by-Step Sales Process Template (2024)

7. Make an offer What is a sales process?

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer Stories Log In Book a Demo

8. Close the deal A sales process defines how a company’s

salespeople should prospect, qualify leads,
9. Deliver the product handle objections, and close deals. It’s a
guide for existing sales reps and a training
10. Cross-sell/upsell
tool for new ones.
Building your sales process template in
S kit Do you have a well-documented sales
process? Or, do you have that one sales rep
Subscribe to our newsletter who brags about “just winging it” or “going
with the flow?” Chances are their
Business email* performance is not consistent. They might
get lucky, but that free-flowing “process” isn’t
Submit
exactly reliable. Worse, that rep’s attitude
infects your sales team, and you end up with
a company that can’t meet its targets.

There are many approaches and

methodologies for creating and
communicating a sales process. The first
step is identifying what you want to achieve.

Why build a sales process?

A sales process sets your team up for
success. It translates into deeper
accountability, better forecasting, and
increased revenue.

And with more than 1/3 of salespeople

turning over, the need for a sales process
has never been greater. Why? Because it
gives your salespeople the information they
need to excel at their jobs. A sales process
also helps them create a consistent
experience for your prospects. In short, a
sales process template lets sales reps know
exactly what to do at any given point in the
funnel, whether new or experienced.

81% of sales and marketing teams don’t

review and update their sales processes,
meaning their teams are not operating at
their peak performance level. More often
than not, sales managers know it’s a good
idea to have a repeatable sales process but
don’t know where to start.

At Spekit, we empower sales reps by

delivering knowledge in the tools they use
every day. More on that later, but first, we’ll
cover sales process steps. Then, we’ll share

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08/11/2024, 13:08 The Ultimate Step-by-Step Sales Process Template (2024)

our sales process and how we use it to

Why Spekit Platform Resourcesimprove
Customer Stories
our sales Log In
team’s performance. Book a Demo

PRO TIP: Access the free prospect-centered

MEDDIC Sales Process: 7-Step
Implementation Guide here.

Sales process template steps

1. Prospecting

2. Lead qualification

3. Connecting

4. Identify pain points

5. Conduct a demo or free trial

6. Handling objections and questions

7. Make an offer

8. Close the deal

9. Deliver the product

10. Cross-sell/upsell

Every company will have a slightly different

sales process because of its capabilities,
target market, and culture. Before going
further, here are some awesome resources to
help you get started:

If you’re looking for a sales process

pdf, check out this one from HubSpot
and Aircall. You can also find more
resources on the HubSpot sales
process here.
If you want a detailed step-by-step
tutorial, watch our CEO, Melanie
Fellay’s “Build Your Sales Process in
Spekit: Plays, Stages, Methodology,
and Enablement” webinar. In the first
part of this two-part series, she’ll walk
you through account planning,
prospecting, pipeline management,
quoting, and proposals.
In the second “Build Your Customer
Success and Support Processes in
Spekit: Runbooks, Plays, Renewals,
and More” webinar, you’ll dive into

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account management, performance

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer
scores, Stories
and support. Log In Book a Demo

Here’s a sneak peek of the end-to-end

Spekit sales process:

1. Prospecting and
lead generation
Prospecting is the stage in the sales process
where your marketing or sales team actively
seeks out potential leads. The goal is to
create a pipeline of potential customers your
team can engage with and convert into
customers. Prospecting comes in different
forms. You can prospect on social media and
create lead-generation campaigns. You can
skip this step if your sales process relies on
getting leads from third-party sources (like
referrals or vendor buying lists).

Prospecting is a key step in the sales

process, and SEO can be a powerful tool in
helping your team find potential leads. By
optimizing your website for search engine
rankings, you can increase visibility and drive
more organic traffic to your website. Doing
this will generate more leads and increase
the size of your lead pipeline. By optimizing
content for search engine rankings, you can
ensure the right people see your website
and help your team connect with the
right prospects.

Related activities include:

Searching LinkedIn
Attending trade shows
Attending networking events
Email outreach
Cold outbound lead generation

2. Lead qualification
Not all prospects are created equal. Some
have the potential to be fantastic clients.

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Others may turn out to be bad-fit customers

Why Spekit Platform Resourcesand should
Customer
be Stories Log In
avoided. It’s not just Book a Demo
a matter
of whether or not the prospect can afford it –
it’s about whether their needs match your
product’s capabilities. Compare the prospect
to any Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) that
you’ve created in advance. If your leads are
being pre-qualified by another team, mention
that in your sales process documentation to
clarify the responsibilities.

Additionally, you should have a lead

qualification system in place to track and
monitor the progress of each lead throughout
the sales process. Having an organized sales
process template can help with this.

Related activities include:

Research the prospect online and on

social media
Conduct a discovery call

3. Connect
This will be your first “real” contact with the
prospect once they’ve passed the qualifying
stage. It can happen over multiple channels,
like phone calls, email, social media, or in
person. In some companies, the BDR/SDR
hands the prospect to the sales rep. If there
has been no prior contact with the prospect,
your sales rep may need to take a more
proactive approach. Remember, getting in
touch may take several tries if this first
attempt is a cold call.

Related activities include:

Reach out attempts via different

channels
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Defining meeting specifics (location,

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer
channel,Stories
date/time) Log In Book a Demo

Identifying and inviting key decision-

makers

4. Identify pain points

This is where you dig deeper into a
prospect’s situation and identify the areas
where they need help. Note that this doesn’t
all need to happen during your initial call. You
can accomplish this by asking them
effective questions to draw the right
information out or by conducting surveys and
providing questionnaires.

Related activities include:

Preparing questions in advance based

on your prospect research
Interviewing decision-makers
Interviewing important stakeholders
Sending surveys and/or
questionnaires

5. Conduct a demo or free trial

Very few people will be willing to purchase a
product they haven’t seen, so you’ll probably
have to provide a demo or free trial to get the
prospect truly interested. Do your best to
ensure that important stakeholders like a line
manager and/or an end user get to see the
demo. Many products executives purchase
fall flat because they don’t get feedback from
the people who will be using them.

Related activities include:

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Building a trial environment to match a

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer Stories Log In Book a Demo
prospect’s use case
Scheduling free trial start and end
dates if applicable
Defining a list of users allowed to
access a free trial
Customizing demo script to match
prospect needs

6. Handling objections
and questions
Your prospect will likely have questions
and/or objections after the demo (you should
be worried if they don’t). Some of them will
be simple and easily addressed using your
team’s stock knowledge of the product, while
others may require the assistance of a sales
engineer or someone from the product team.
When handling objections, your sales reps
need to be honest. Don’t let them fall into the
trap of saying what the prospect wants to
hear just to make a sale.

The truth will come out when the prospect

finally uses the product. Many sales
organizations have a policy of clawing back
sales compensation if a customer churns
soon after buying.

Related activities include:

Consulting with Customer Success or

Engineering
Having a follow-up call with a sales
engineer
Adjust the trial environment to
address objections

7. Make an offer
Once all objections have been handled to the
prospect’s satisfaction, it’s time to draft and
issue a formal proposal. This proposal will
include as many details as possible about the
transaction, from what they’re paying to what
they’re getting. Be sure to add details like the
purchase amount, applicable discounts, and
number of licenses purchased. You should
also include the payment terms, expected
support level, and renewal period. The
prospect may negotiate the terms, in which

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case you will make adjustments until both

Why Spekit Platform Resourcesparties
Customer Stories
are satisfied. Log In Book a Demo

Related activities include:

Draw up a formal proposal document

Arrange meetings to discuss terms
Document any questions and
concerns

8. Close the deal

The deal can be closed when your sales rep
and prospect agree on final terms and
conditions. This is where contracts are drawn
up and signed and POs issued. Depending on
the situation, your team may have to do some
last-minute encouragement to get a
customer to close sooner if you’re trying to
catch a quota period. Such encouragement
includes offering incentives like a free month
of service, discounts, or perhaps creating a
sense of urgency.

Related activities include:

Get approvals from the prospect

Secure purchase order
Determine payment method and
timeline
Clear contracts with legal

9. Deliver the product

The sale doesn’t end when the purchase is
made. Many deals fail after the contract is
signed. Don’t let your sales team relax until
after fulfillment has been completed to
everyone’s satisfaction. This could
range from delivering a physical product

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to accessing an online platform or

Why Spekit Platform Resourcessoftware
Customer Stories
product. Log In Book a Demo

Related activities include:

Scheduling delivery of the physical

product (if applicable)
Handoff to customer success or
implementations
Check-in calls to gauge levels of
satisfaction

10. Cross-sell/upsell
It’s worth following up with the customer
after they’ve beenusing the product for a
while to see if there’s an opportunity to
expand their product usage, whether by
adding additional licenses or offering related
products or services. Different organizations
tackle this in different ways. Some would
prefer that the customer success team
handle this, while others have dedicated
account management teams to expand
existing customers.

Related activities include:

Conducting a QBR to assess the

needs
Coordinating upsell campaign with
customer success
Reaching out to your product team for
new features

Hint hint – we partnered with the team at

Skaled to create this incredible Sales
Playbook framework in Google Sheets. You
can download it for free here!

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Building your sales

Why Spekit Platform Resources
process template in Spekit
Customer Stories Log In Book a Demo

With Spekit, sales playbooks live where sales

plays happen. Spekit surfaces information
when and where reps need it, allowing them
to close deals faster without disrupting
productivity. Being an AI-powered platform,
Spekit leverages AI for content creation,
recommendation, and summarization.

Spekit enables the creation of contextual,

agile playbooks that surface across every
customer touchpoint. The playbook content
is broken down into bite-sized answers to
guide reps through sales processes and
workflows seamlessly. Sales reps can also
use Spekit AI to find and recommend
content, such as case studies, relevant to
prospects and clients ahead of meetings
based on emails and call summaries. In other
words, critical information gets delivered
through the tools your salespeople use
every day.

So your sales process isn’t locked away in a

learning management system or an aging
document; instead, relevant information
surfaces as your salespeople and
customers move through the stages of your
sales process.

Rapid adjustments to your

sales process template
Sales process templates in Spekit can be
easily adjusted as your strategy evolves. You
don’t have to wait months to make changes
that you know will drive growth. Instead, you
can publish and communicate playbook

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updates in minutes. Spekit also allows you to

Why Spekit Platform ResourcesgaugeCustomer Stories
the effectiveness of your Log In
sales Book a Demo

process, determine who is using

your resources, and identify areas
of improvement.

Pipeline building with in-

app persona guides
Help reps build more pipelines faster with in-
app persona guides. Since prospecting
happens in real-time, your playbooks should
too. Reveal competitive battle cards,
objection handling tips, and more in the
moment of need.

“Spekit’s true power is delivering

playbook snippets in context. If I train
my head of sales to qualify, it makes
more sense for him to see the process
when he’s about to qualify someone.
Contextual enablement is definitely the
future.” – SAM CHOI, VORTEXA - READ
THE FULL CASE STUDY

Streamlined planning
and account building
Spekit delivers in-app sales plays for high-
value accounts, target industries, personas,
and more. No more scrolling through a 100-
page Google Doc.

“Spekit has served as our one-stop-

shop for all of our reps that have
questions regarding our sales processes
and best practices, which saves me time
so I can focus on other priorities for the

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team.” – KYLE ELIGIO, SENDLANE -

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer
READ Stories
THE FULL CASE STUDYLog In Book a Demo

Benefits of using Spekit for

Your Sales Process Template
Sales reps using Spekit have achieved 20%
higher quota attainment, a 70% increased
deal save rate, and spent 50% less time
communicating new initiatives and changes.

How Spekit customers measure ROI

Real-time coaching and support

Help reps push deals through the funnel with
real-time coaching and support. Top-
performing sales reps are 2x more likely to
report they can always find answers to
questions independently.

“Spekit allows our reps to be self-

sufficient in mastering their tools, sales
processes, and the continuous changes
to our business in a contextual and
intuitive way.” - HARISH MOHAN,
OUTREACH.IO

Retention and expansion

with customer playbooks
Drive retention and expansion with customer
playbooks embedded within Clari, Gainsight,
or any web app. This gives your Customer
Success team the knowledge they need to
turn new customers into lifelong champions.

“With the help of Spekit, questions

never go unanswered. Spekit has
significantly reduced the time
employees spend searching for

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content.” – GLORIA RAMCHANDANI,

Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer
COPADO StoriesTHE FULL CASE
- READ Log In Book a Demo

STUDY

Readymade playbooks
If you don’t have time to create playbooks
from scratch, Spekit has readymade
playbooks. Get the JBarrows Filling the
Funnel Playbook, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Prospecting Playbook, or ZoomInfo Best
Practices Playbook.

For a step-by-step breakdown of how to

build each stage of your sales process in
Spekit, watch this webinar.

Sales process final thoughts

You need at least one documented sales
process if you want your sales team to hit
consistently – or even exceed – quota. But it’s
better to cover your bases and have multiple
processes for different scenarios. Using our
documentation process template to generate
these sales processes, you can create a
comprehensive set of team guidelines so that
your sales reps can be confident and know
exactly what to do, no matter their situation.

Contact us to digitize your sales process

template and drive adoption with the leading
just-in-time learning platform.

Sales Enablement

About the author

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08/11/2024, 13:08 The Ultimate Step-by-Step Sales Process Template (2024)

Elle Brayton
Why Spekit Platform Resources Customer Stories Log In Book a Demo
Director, Content & Communications

Elle is a boy momma 2x, brand builder, storyteller, growth hacker, and
marketing leader with 12+ years of experience scaling SaaS B2B
organizations.
Follow me on LinkedIn ->

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