Do you have a documented sales process, or do you just hire good salespeople, turn them loose, and say go get them?
If you're being honest, it's probably the second one. And it's far more common than most owners want to admit.
The Hire and Hope Approach
Here's how it usually goes. You bring on a talented salesperson with a strong resume and a good pitch in the interview. You give them a product overview, maybe a CRM login, and a list of leads. Then you hope their talent and hustle carry them to results.
Sometimes it works. More often, it doesn't. And when it doesn't, the easy conclusion is that you hired the wrong person. But in a lot of cases, the real issue isn't the person. It's the absence of a process they were ever set up to follow.
Why a Map With No Destination Doesn't Work
Hiring a great salesperson without a defined process is like handing someone a map with no destination marked on it. They might eventually find their way through trial and error, burning time, deals, and confidence along the way. Or they might just get lost entirely and give up.
A documented sales process gives your team the destination and the route. It tells them what a qualified lead looks like, what happens at each stage of the conversation, how to handle common objections, and what a win actually requires.
Without it, every salesperson is reinventing the wheel on their own, and your results become entirely dependent on individual talent instead of a repeatable system.
What a Real Sales Process Includes
A strong sales process doesn't need to be complicated, but it does need to be specific. At minimum, it should define the following.
What qualifies a lead as sales ready. The specific stages a prospect moves through from first contact to close. The key questions or talking points at each stage. How objections are typically handled. What resources or tools support the salesperson at each step. And how deals are tracked and reported.
When this exists on paper, your team has a repeatable path to follow instead of relying purely on instinct.
The Connection Between Process and Retention
Here's the part that often gets overlooked. A clear sales process doesn't just help you sell more. It helps you keep your best salespeople longer.
Talented salespeople want to win. When they're operating without a process, winning becomes inconsistent and frustrating, even for someone who's good at their job. Over time, that frustration leads to burnout or them looking for an opportunity somewhere with better structure and support.
A strong process, paired with the right resources and clear expectations, gives your best people the tools to consistently succeed. And salespeople who are consistently winning rarely walk away.
How to Start Building Your Sales Process
If you don't currently have one documented, start here.
- Map out your current sales cycle exactly as it happens today, even if it's messy. You can't improve what you haven't defined.
- Identify where deals most often stall or fall apart. These are the gaps your process needs to address first.
- Talk to your best performing salesperson. What are they doing differently that isn't being taught to the rest of the team? That's often the foundation of your best practices.
- Document the process in simple, clear steps that a new hire could follow with minimal training.
- Attach resources to each stage. Scripts, templates, and tools that make it easier for your team to execute at a high level.
Growing Your Company Through Your Sales Process
A calculated, well resourced sales process is one of the most critical elements of scaling a business. It removes the dependency on any one individual's natural talent and replaces it with a system the entire team can execute and improve over time.
Ready to Build a Sales Process That Actually Works?
At ActionCOACH North Kansas City, we help business owners map out, document, and implement a sales process that drives more revenue and keeps top talent in place.
Start with two weeks of free business coaching and find out what's missing from your current sales approach. Start Your 2 Weeks of FREE Business Coaching