What your sales process says about your brand

It’s the worst feeling ever…

Sometimes I find a solution that I think will be perfect to solve my problem, only to realize that everything beyond the headline of their site is garbage.

I request a sales call, and nobody gets back to me.

I somehow get on a sales call and have to wait days for a quote.

Or maybe I get that quote but onboarding is painfully slow and incomplete.

Why is it that so many companies tout great products and solutions, but fail to deliver even on the sales process from there (let alone the actual solution)?

Let’s dive in.

Trust In Sales

Writing some fancy words on your homepage is just the easiest thing to do in the sales process. You craft a great landing page that describes the problem that prospective customers are having, and they’re hooked.

Prospects realize they have the pain you’re describing and want your solution.

But then the burden of effort goes from the side of the prospect, in raising their hand to say they want in, to your side in helping solve their problem.

That’s called Sales.

They have given a signal of trust to you…and now it’s up to you to keep that trust.

I talked previously about the 10 Sales Rules I Live By, and if you’ll notice, many of those rules revolve around gaining and keeping the trust of a sales prospect.

• Send a proposal on time
• Follow up and provide value
• Listen, don’t talk
• Define what success looks like

All are things that your future customers hold dear, and it’s up to us to honor that trust and maintain it.

Even if you look at it from a cold-hearted analytical prospective, this is sales momentum too. A prospect wants to move forward….just don’t impede them.

Time kills all deals.

Keeping Hope Alive

When I’m being sold something I feel this transfer of hope going on.

I’m on a Zoom call with someone describing my problem, and hopefully if the fit is right they say “Yeah, we can take care of that for you”.

At least that’s what I say in our sales calls.

You want to create a kickass podcast that will transform how your brand is represented in your niche? One that will bring in sales and partnership opportunities? We can 100% do that with you.

Me, in every sales call for our Castos Productions service

In that instant, you are making a promise to the customer that from that point forward you’ve got their back.

You’ll send that damned proposal, you’ll book the onboarding call, you’ll make sure they’re connected with the right Customer Success Manager, and you’ll make sure the solution you’re selling them fixes their problems.

Think about the last time you bought a solution like this…did you feel some amount of relief when you found the right partner?

I know I do, every time.

And conversely, when I think I’ve found a good solution only for the company to fail in the sales process (even well before implementation of their solution) I’m so disappointed because it’s such an easy win.

Just do what you said you’re going to do. Help me get to the point of starting to solve my problem.

Playbooks

We’re huge on Playbooks at Castos, and have one for every part of our business. It’s such a big part of our business, in fact, that a part of every all-hands meeting on Mondays is reserved for a “Show And Tell” of what someone did with their Playbooks the week prior.

And sales is no exception. In fact, Sales has the largest playbook in the whole company, and we’re not even a primarily sales-driven organization.

But I’ve taken the time to document almost everything I do from a sales perspective. Everything from prospecting to how I use Hubspot to how new customers are sent to Success to sales scripts and overcoming objections.

Thing about writing out a Playbook is it offers you a chance to reflect on your process for something, and almost every time I write (or revise) one, I find an opportunity to improve it.

My time in maintaining my Playbooks is an opportunity for creating a “Best Case Scenario”, and then it’s just up to me (or whoever is executing on the Playbook) to make that best case scenario happy.

Don’t be afraid to be a bit ambitious with your playbooks. They should be optimistic and forward looking in nature.

Auditing Your Sales Process

Here’s a simple homework assignment you can do to ensure that your sales process is keeping the promise that you’re making on your website.

Audit every step that a customer goes through to engage with your brand. From a website visit to a booking form to a sales demo to receiving a proposal. List out the steps, and ask yourself

“Is this consistent with the promise I made initially, and with the brand I want to build?”

If the answer is yes, awesome. If not, you’ve got work to do.