How consistent is your sales team at bringing in net-new business? Without a consistent stream of opportunities entering the top of the funnel, the end-of-month results will be disappointing. Instead of net-new, the revenue will be primarily be from flipping the MIF.
A process is a series of steps for a repeated outcome. Processes bring predictability, efficiency, and consistency to net-new business.
Every business has processes:
- Service processes like service call entry and ticket management ensure happy customers.
- Financial processes like order fulfillment and collections ensure a controlled financial environment.
- HR processes like on-boarding and benefits administration ensure compliance and happy employees.
While businesses have all kinds of critical processes, when it comes to generating net-new sales, it’s often hard to find documented processes in place.
Without processes in place, business becomes chaos.
Sales Leaders: What Are Your Processes for Net-New?
In many sales teams, net-new business is like the wild west. There are one or two progressive reps that seem to bring in new deals. The rest struggle, living off the base. In a world of shrinking margins and decreasing selling prices, life without a consistent stream of net-new is a slow death spiral.
We need processes in place if we want to consistently drive net-new sales.
Over the past few years, I’ve become a huge fan of the Entrepreneurial Operating System. Many of our clients use this system created by Gino Wickman and documented in the book, Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business.
Wickman believes process is critical to business success. “There are two key steps that leadership teams must take in order to systemize their core processes. The first is to identify, simplify and document all of the core processes within the business and the second is to ensure that everyone in the organization follows these processes.”
The Three Core Net-New Processes
The first step to build a consistent net-new business strategy is to identify the core processes. When it comes to net-new business, I think there are three core processes:
- Prospecting: How are your sales teams prospecting for new business–especially from target accounts that meet your ideal profile.
- Lead Generation: How are you attracting and converting buyers who are actively searching for what you are selling?
- Cross Selling: How are you actively promoting additional products, services, and solutions to your client base.
Documenting Your Processes: Net-New Playbooks
Whether or not you like the Patriots, you can bet Bill Belichick has playbooks. His team knows the details of the plays. Then, they execute them with discipline and precision. As a result, they are now headed to their 8th AFC Championship game.
Every core process related to net-new needs to be documented. I like to call these playbooks.
For net-new business, these playbooks contain the strategies, enabling technologies, and execution plan.
Just like Belichick walks the sidelines holding his playbook, sales leaders need to own the playbook for net-new. This book becomes the basis for coaching the reps to execute through repeated practice, role play, and consistent inspection.
This quarter I’m in the process of creating playbooks for the three core processes of net-new business. It’s my hope that these will become a catalyst for more net-new business in our client base.
Stay tuned. If you’d like to drive a conversation around your net-new business strategy, I’d love to talk.
*This article originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse on January 14, 2019.
