Nancy Bleeke | The Replaceable Founder Sales System – From People to Playbook

Step 1: Start with the process.

• You need to clear out the following subjects in order:
  • What to do?
  • Who does it?
  • How to do it?

• Start your process so you can outline your roadmap.
  • What do you do from the time you get a lead?
  • What does the conversation look like?
  • What’s the objective?
  • When do we know they’re qualified?

• There are so many benefits when you outline your processes.
  • Someone else can follow it.
  • You can coach to it.
  • You can also use it to map your pipeline for accurate forecasting.
  • It makes you sure you have the right resource when you move people along each stage and track its success.
  • You can easily find out what needs to be fixed when you’re not getting your desired results.

• The point of this step is to get your processes out of your head and map them out on paper.
• Use Nancy’s example below to map out your processes. Note that you can add in or lessen a stage depending on your preferences.
  • Connect
    • The beginning of your funnel.
    • This is when a lead comes in.
    • Elaborate what are the key actions you make when someone comes in through this funnel.
    • Know what commitment you should see on your lead before moving them on to the next stage.

• • Qualify
    • Identify your key qualifications to make sure that you and your team spend time with the right opportunities.
    • Check your hard qualifiers.
      • It can be in a form of the quantity they buy, the budget they have.

• • • Define your qualitative qualifiers.
      • It is important so can identify the clients who are hard to work with.

• • • What are the actions you do to make sure your clients are qualified?

• • Convert
    • This part will utilize your conversation to engage an information exchange that needs to happen for someone to move forward.
    • Map out the points during this stage.
      • What do you do before, during, and after the conversation?
      • What are the resources we should show to clients to move them along?
      • What are the resources we need internally to support that?

• • • During this process, you’d need a script at the beginning, but you’ll also need a framework.
    • If the buyer doesn’t commit to a sale, you need to identify the next step you should take as well.

• • Activate
    • This is your onboarding.
    • It is important to map this out carefully to avoid clogging up your sales.
      • How do you get things signed?
      • How do you pay for it?
      • What is the timing of the delivery?

• • Grow
    • Keep thinking about how to grow every opportunity that comes your way.
      • Repeat business.
      • Upsell and cross-sell.
      • Ask for referrals.

• • • While this happens naturally, you can make it even faster by mapping out your process.
    • Cycle through the process as they get through this last phase.

Step 2: Get to know your people.

• Know who your buyer is.
  • Who are your ideal clients?
  • What are the problems you can solve for them?
  • What are the opportunities you can help them capture?
  • What’s the value they’re looking for?
  • How do they make decisions?
  • Where do they hang out so we can find more of them?

• Know your team members.
  • Currently, 60% of companies have reported that they’re understaffed in sales.
  • If you’re going to hire a sales rep, you should be clear on who is going to be the best fit for you.
  • Be proactive and do some prospecting. Try LinkedIn searches.
  • Searching for a qualified candidate might take hundreds of hours. Making use of a recruiter saves you a great amount of time.
  • Homegrown your talent.
  • Identify what qualities and skills set you’re particularly looking for.
  • Approach your prospect sales rep by marketing your business to them.
    • Smaller businesses are mostly mission-driven and have transparent leadership which make them attractive employers.

• • Be selective of your applicants/prospects and do multiple interviews.
    • Observe their behaviour as it is important in the sales world.
    • How do they communicate with you?
    • How do they follow up?
    • If you’re having a hard time understanding their behaviour and if you observed they’re not following the process, this will resound after you’ve hired them.

• • Get into the story of your prospective employees and ask behaviour-based questions. This will give you an idea of how to structure a competitive offer.
    • How did they end up in sales?
    • What makes them keep it as their career?

• • Hiring your salespeople needs a lot of effort. After all, they are your revenue drivers and your brand.

Step 3: Create your playbook.

• The playbook brings the first two steps together.
  • It helps your people accomplish what they’re assigned to do.
  • It’s how you include how to make a sale.

• It is your one resource document outlining your business processes.
• In Nancy’s example, the playbook has three main sections. Feel free to add a couple more if it suits your business.
  • Dedicate the first section to help people know your company.
    • Introduce them to your company.
    • State your mission.
    • Introduce your team members.

• • The second section could contain the services and products you provide and to whom.
    • What are the problems you solve, opportunities you give?
    • State your demographics.
    • Include your client profiles.

• • The third section could have the processes your business has and how to execute them properly.

• If your playbook is documented, it helps you save a lot of time in continuing to figure things out.
• It will be quicker to onboard a person when you have documented your playbook.
• In addition, your playbook serves as a reference for your team members.
• Sit in on meetings and document your observations. This serves as your starting point when putting up your playbook which you can refine afterwards.

System Note

• These three steps make up your efficient sales system.