The difference between a sales process and a sales funnel and why you cant track either of them.

There’s a lot of talk about sales processes and sales funnels. Although they sound similar, they are two completely different things. 

A sales process is a structured, step by step and duplicatable mechanism used to move a prospect through a sales funnel.

A sales funnel is a mechanism that indicates what specific stage or ‘milestone’ a prospect is currently moving through. 

Basically, a sales process references the various sales skills and techniques that an individual uses to assist a prospect in taking some type of action. There is a sales process that sales people follow based on where their prospect is in the sales funnel. Example: if a prospect is located in the ‘negotiation’ or ‘follow up’ stage of the sales funnel, the sales rep will be using follow up processes and strategies to maintain contact with the prospect and continue nurturing the relationship with the prospect. 

Sales Funnel = Where Is Prospect & What Is Next

Sales Process = How To Move Prospect To Next Stage

Now that we’ve got that squared away, let’s take a moment to address the invisible elephant in the room: the lack of tracking and reporting with regard to sales process effectiveness and sales funnel conversion rate by stage.

Sales managers and executives cannot access reports that show them the overall (or specific) effectiveness of their sales processes (no, glancing at a P&L doesn’t count), nor are they able to generate reports that show accurate conversion rates pertaining to the movement of prospects through the sales funnel. In fact, without being able to measure conversion rates by sales funnel stage, you cannot generate a report to illustrate the effectiveness of the sales process. This also creates another problem: if management is not aware of specific inefficiencies within their sales process, then the topics covered in sales trainings are delivered to the team based on nothing more than a guess of what topics will impact the sales team the most.

If you’re a sales manager or executive and you identify well with these frustrations, we want to talk to you! Sales Domination Systems is a real sales system and CRM built to give sales people the tools they need to dominate sales while generating accurate and unique reports for managers. We have a sales solution to your CRM problem. Call our office today to schedule a discovery call 877-643-0109 or visit dominatesales.com/demo to book your private tour.