Question
I own a small growing digital eCommerce agency based in Philadelphia. I'm searching for a mentor to help develop our sales process, as we are growing and running into issues due to not having a clearly defined sales process when it comes to starting a new relationship with a client. We work with Magento & Shopify Plus.
We have mainly worked on small projects the last several years, but our goal has always been to go big or go home. We are running into the following issues in our sales process:
- Initial contact with large clients generating between $20-200m in revenue we don't have a good process dealing with these size clients. We are trying to figure out how to put it all together so we can gather requirements in a structured process while being considerate of our time.
- Understanding what resources to bring into the sales process and when. Example: We have a client who needs a full eCommerce implementation with complex customizations and integrations, but then they also need marketing services. We don't have a process of when and how we bring in other resources to discuss their needs. Our biggest problem is having a process and structure because it might come off to a client that we are unorganized, but the real issue is we haven't figured out how to put it all together.
- How to estimate on phases accurately? We currently do it by hours, but we've been advised to do it by days.
Answer
Hey there,
you have to first of all understand that sales processes will vary for different clients, however, you can create a universal engagement process where you take the client(s) through a discovery session. The more you find out about their problem(s), the better positioned you will be to solve it for them.
Bigger clients will respond differently compared to smaller clients, so you have to create a blueprint that focuses on results (they like to see than hear). They are not time wasters, and like you mentioned, you want to be considerate of your time as well.
To understand what to bring into a sales process will be based on the engagement you have with the client. The good thing is, this particular client asked for the marketing services. So, in that case, it won't be a hard sell. However, if you offer such services, and find out that a client may need it, you bring it up after you have already started working on the initial project, not before. You don't want to overwhelm them. First things first, then the others will follow.
Regarding phases, we could have a chat about structure and see what could work. Feel free to contact me if you need further help.
