In the early stages of a business, you often have two simultaneous problems that affect the efficiency of your sales process. First, it is often the founder or management team that are the only ones that understand the nuances of your market. Second, because you are arguably providing a unique product or service, your target market or the use of your product or service may be undefined.

“Create a set of standard sales materials that embodies the founder’s knowledge.” 

Creating an efficient sales process that all your resources can use takes some time, but can be very fruitful once it is completed. The goal is to create a standard set of materials and a standard process that everyone in the selling process uses.

Your standard sales materials should consist of the following:

• Introductory E-Mail. Craft an e-mail that all salespeople use as part of the selling process.
• PowerPoint Presentation. This 10-15 slide PowerPoint presentation is the core selling tool you use.
• Sell Sheets. A series of one page (front only or front and back) that digs deeper into your product or service.
• Standard Proposal and Pricing Sheet. Develop a standard proposal and pricing sheet that can be used for every sales opportunity.
• Supporting Presentations. In the same manner you create supporting Sell Sheets, you may need to develop additional supporting presentations on areas that customers expect additional depth.
• FAQs. Develop the responses to a set of frequently asked questions.

With standard tools and a standard process in place, you can train all existing personnel (and new personnel) around these items. This creates a level of consistency and efficiency in bringing people up to speed on how the organization thinks it should be communicating to customers.