Mapping Your Business’ Process of Selling – Decentralizing

If you’re preparing to sell your business, one of the most important things you can do is remove yourself from it. Although this may feel wrong to many business owners, decentralization is the only way to make your company transferable and scalable. Being the primary “salesperson” in your business was fine in the beginning. But now that it’s grown, you must allow your team to take over the daily operations so you can work on increasing its value. But how do you ensure your team follows your exact sales process when there may be steps, you’re performing at a subconscious level? Join me as I explore how mapping your sales process can help you decentralize yourself from your business.

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TOPIC INDEX:

• – Decentralization: Mapping Your Sales Process
• – The Tug O’War of Business
• – Letting Go of the Ropes
• – Defining the Sales Process
• – Write Out the Steps
• – Invite a Protegé
• – Remove Yourself from the Process
• – The Six Steps of the Sales Process

The Tug O’War of Business: Mapping The Sales Process

There’s a natural progression in the life of a business. When you first began, you probably acted as the primary technician and salesperson. Now, you might think you’re not a salesperson, but in reality, you’ve sold yourself and your product or service since day one. Nobody in your business knows your product better than you. Therefore, nobody can sell it as well as you. The problem is that, in this scenario, you’re a necessary cog in the machine. You see, if you’re the top salesperson on your team, buyers and investors will see a substantial risk. But why?

Well, if you’re spending all of your time trying to fulfill consumer demands, inevitably, other areas of your business are being neglected. This is where business owners often feel the first “tug.” What worked in the early stages now creates an imbalance as the company grows. Oftentimes, what happens next is that you’ll respond to the initial tug by focusing on the areas that have become stressed by the imbalance. As you work to balance things, you’ll begin to feel the next tug caused by your corrections.

From there, your sales or production might begin to decline and you’ll start the whole cycle over again. This could continue in perpetuity (or, at least, until the business is no longer solvent) unless you finally let go of the ropes. However, if you let go without mapping your sales process and training your team to take the reins, potential buyers could be looking at a significant loss of revenue upon transfer of the business. So, how do you let go of the ropes without losing momentum?

Letting Go of the Ropes

As the business owner, you’re the top salesperson. Therefore, the top priority must be getting everyone else up to speed. You must take the process from your head and put it on paper. I know, right now, there are many of you saying, “Justin, I don’t have time to write down my entire sales process.” Well, there’s no excuse not to. You could literally use your phone to record yourself talking through the process and pay a writer to put it into a written format. You could do this very inexpensively. Without putting it into writing, you can’t test the process for scalability or vulnerability.

Now that I’m off of my soapbox, let’s move on. Take a few moments to role-play through your sales process. Start at the point of first contact and work your way through closing, putting it in writing. Once you’ve done this, invite a protégé to experience you walking through the process. As they observe, have them compare what they’re seeing to the written process. They should take plenty of notes. The point of this exercise is to define your sales process. So, repeat it 3 to 5 times before reversing roles.

Yes. You will reverse roles. This will be your first opportunity to see how well a member of your team handles your process. Additionally, this is a vital part of mapping out your sales process. It’s possible you’ll notice a step or two that was overlooked because it’s a subconscious part of your process — an integral step that you include without realizing you’re doing it.

Remove Yourself from the Process

Now that you have one team member who is well-versed in your sales process, it’s time to begin expanding. Allow your protégé to take point on sales while you begin walking other team members through the process. It may be difficult to relinquish control, it’s more important that you’re able to replicate your sales process to increase volume than it is to close every sale. Keep an eye on the KPIs and identify if or why their close ratios changed.

Once you’ve solidified the process with your team, you could begin to explore sales territories or divisions. This should be a slow and deliberate process but once you’ve successfully removed yourself, it can grow much more than it ever could while you were holding the rope. So, what should be included when mapping your sales process? Well, you’ll need to include many details, but it all comes down to six points.

First, you’ve got Preparation. This is where you make sure your team is knowledgeable about your product and who would benefit from it. Then, there’s Prospecting. Here, you’re basically mining your market for potential clients. Next, is Qualification. This is where you’ll make first contact with your lead. After that, comes the Presentation. Oftentimes, this is where business owners really get their juices flowing. This is when you get to show the qualified lead how great your product is and why they need it. Then, it’s time to detail the steps in the closing process. And finally, you want to create lifelong clients. So, follow-up is a vital step in the process.

Wrapping Up…

Folks, if you want to build a business that’s valuable and attractive to prospective buyers, you must remove yourself from the epicenter of the business. Even if you’re not interested in selling your business, decentralizing could help you build the business to increase its profitability. Mapping your sales process is a vital step toward decentralization. You’ve put a team in place. Now it’s time to trust them to do their jobs. Once you’ve let go of the reins in your sales process, you’re free to work on your business, rather than in it.

I know life is hard. I get that. Really, I do. But life is good. Defining the steps of your sales process can be frustrating. But, if you follow these simple tips, it can at least be financially simple. Hey, let’s go out and make it a great day!

Do you want to know more about identifying your sales process or how to further decentralize yourself from your business? Reach out to us. We do this every day.