Not all salemens are created equal. Actually, only about 1 in 5 have the ‘it” factor when it comes to making sales. With these types, the best approach is a hands off approach. The other 80% however, must follow detailed sales process that show what to do through each step of the sales process. You need to develop and streamline your company's sales process according to best practices within your industry and the sales world in general. We have come up with basic guideline to help you create your company’s sales process.

1st Level

Suspect, Prospect, or Lead. We need to begin by defining your contact type. Knowing the difference between these contact type can avoid a lot of misappropriated time.

• Suspect. A suspect is a contact you “suspect” could be a potential target. Sometimes you might not even have a name of this suspect. Sometime it’s just a company’s name. You have no idea if this contact is a probable buyer.
• Prospect. A prospect is a suspect who has interacted with you in some form. A phone call, site traffic, etc. Your objective at this point is to get the prospect to a place you know the person making the decisions have a clear interest in what you are offering.
• Lead. A prospect transforms into a lead after you have determined there will be a future. Whether or not it’s now or in the future doesn't matter. What does matter is the immediacy of their need. This is the difference between a hot lead and a cold lead.
• Customer. A customer is a contact purchased or has a contract to purchase your goods or services.

2nd Level

The Process. You hope to get customers right away but thats just not reality. You have respect for the process. Turning a suspect to a customer and hitting your marks every step of the way. Having respect for the process and being knowledgeable on how to take a contact from suspect, to prospect, to lead, to customer will avoid  unnecessary time wasting.
Engaging. The 1st step in process. Usually, this takes place during the step from suspect to a prospect. This requires some type of interaction with the contact. This interaction includes the introduction of yourself, who your company is, and product or goods you offer.
Qualify. After you have interacted with the suspect and concluded they are a good fit, you need to determine if they are now a good fit with the goods or services you provide.the lead further to make sure it's a "fit" with your company and what you offer.
Evaluate. If they turn out to be a good fit, you must now evaluate your lead to spending your resources going forward with a quote. You need to know and understands factors affecting the decision making process.
Propose. After you have evaluated your leads situation and have determined it is appropriate to move forward, it’s now time for the proposal. Make sure your proposal is inline with the buying cycle. You need to make sure  your proposal has enough  detail and time to meet the clients needs.
Close The Deal. This is the part of the process where you must go back and make sure there are no objections or areas that need to be renegotiated. This is where you need to make sure the deal is done. You must stay vigilant and keep in contact until the finish line is crossed. don’t sllep on this step. It’s the step where many deals have died and they could have been easily avoided by some attention.
SOLD!  You’ve managed every step of the sales process correctly and you turned that suspect into a customers. Great Job!

3rd Level
Tools. Finally, you must label the sales tools you do possess and figure out which ones that you need to transform your contact from a suspect to a customer and be successful.