Selling Journey

The selling journey is about understanding and exploring a prospect's needs and objectives to offer a tailored solution that increases trust and adds value.

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The whole selling journey on one page. Download the PDF or PNG at the end of this chapter and pin it next to your desk.

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Prospecting / Lead Generation

Description: Identifying potential clients who might be interested in the solution. This happens through inbound marketing, outbound outreach, events or referrals.

Key Activities: Researching potential leads, attending trade shows, using social media, and starting cold outreach.

PreSales Actions: Work with sales and marketing to add technical insight to targeted campaigns. Point out industries or companies where the product solves a major pain point.

Initial Contact

Description: The first contact with the lead, usually by email, call or meeting. The aim is to learn what the lead is interested in and needs.

Key Activities: Setting up introductory calls, responding to inbound enquiries, and clarifying basic details about the offering.

PreSales Actions: Prep the sales team with technical collateral to share during the initial outreach. Join initial calls if technical queries arise.

Sales Discovery / Sales Qualification

Description: Assessing if the lead is a good fit for your solution based on their needs, budget, decision-making authority, and purchase timeline (BANT (opens in a new window)).

Key Activities: Conduct discovery calls, determine pain points and requirements, and evaluate the potential deal size. Use the BANT form (opens in a new window) for this.

PreSales Actions: Attending qualification calls to understand potential technical requirements. Assist sales in categorising leads based on functional and technical fit.

More about Sales Discovery (opens in a new window)

Functional & Technical Discovery

Description: Looking deeper into potential clients' technical environment, integration, pain points, and needs. (Cohan 2022 (opens in a new window))

Key Activities: Hosting detailed discovery sessions, mapping clients' current technology stack and potential integration points, and understanding their pain points and desired future state. Find out the critical dates and events, too.

PreSales Actions: Lead or co-lead discovery sessions focusing on functional and technical aspects. Document clients' functional and technical requirements, infrastructure, and potential challenges.

More about Functional & Technical Discovery (opens in a new window)

Functional & Technical Qualification

Description: A detailed look at the technical and functional requirements the solution must meet for this client. You learn the technical environment and the functional needs in detail. Then the solution you propose fits the client's architecture and requirements.

Key Activities: Conducting detailed technical assessments and functionality checks. Verifying compatibility with existing client systems and processes. Assessing the skills of the client team to manage and integrate new solutions.

PreSales Actions: Hold functional and technical discussions with internal teams, including Delivery, Product Management, IT and Sales. Define the scope and specifications of the solution clearly. Assess how well the solution fits functionally and technically, with a focus on what matters most to the client. Then decide whether to advance the opportunity or step away.

More about Functional & Technical Qualification (opens in a new window)

Product Demonstration & Workshops

Description: Presenting software features and benefits tailored to potential clients' needs.

Key Activities: Setting up and conducting tailored product demos, addressing questions and objections, and highlighting the unique selling proposition (USPs).

PreSales Actions: Prepare tailored demos, ensuring alignment with client-specific needs. Address any queries or concerns during the demonstration.

More about Demonstration (opens in a new window)

Ballpark Pricing

Description: Offering an estimated price considering technical complexities, customisations, or special support.

Key Activities: Pricing based on client requirements.

PreSales Actions: Provide insights into any functional and technical aspects that might influence pricing (such as custom development).

Service Discovery

Description: Identifying additional services or technical support that the client might need. This is mainly done by the Professional Service Department to create a statement of work (SOW). This phase may not be required for smaller SaaS solutions with no configuration effort.

Key Activities: Discuss integration, potential configurations, customisations, or training.

PreSales Actions: Handover and align with professional services before service discovery. Guide the client to potential service requirements based on functional and technical discoveries. Support professional services with knowledge so that they can document and create implementation documents such as a statement of work (SOW) or similar documents.

More about Service Discovery (opens in a new window)

Proposal & Value Proposition

Description: Provide a detailed proposal that outlines the solution's capabilities, pricing, terms, and expected return on investment (ROI (opens in a new window)).

Key Activities: Crafting detailed proposals, explaining the value proposition, and setting clear terms and conditions.

PreSales Actions: Help draft the proposals for functional and technical sections. Validate the functional and technical feasibility of any promises made in the proposal.

More about Value Calculation (opens in a new window)

Negotiation

Description: Working through any objections or concerns from the potential client, discussing contract terms, and aligning pricing.

Key Activities: Addressing contractual concerns, negotiating pricing or payment terms, and clarifying service-level agreements.

PreSales Actions: Clarify the functional and technical points in the negotiation. Work with sales on possible compromises or alternatives.

Closing

Description: Finalise the deal by obtaining the contract signed and initiating the onboarding process.

Key Activities: Sending the final contract for signature, celebrating the win, and transitioning the client to the onboarding or client success team.

PreSales Actions: Handover the account to Professional Service, Onboarding and Client Success. Offer reassurance on post-sales functional and technical support or onboarding. Validating final functional and technical agreements.

More about Closing & Contracts (opens in a new window)

Onboarding

Description: Guiding the new client through the initial setup, ensuring a smooth transition and positive first experience with the software.

Key Activities: Setting up training sessions, assisting with software integration, and providing initial support.

PreSales Actions: Collaborate with the onboarding or implementation team to ensure a smooth transition. Guide clients through technical hiccups.

Expansion/Upselling (Post-Sale)

Description: Identify opportunities to provide additional value to the client by upselling additional features or expanding to other departments within the client's organization.

Key Activities: Regular check-ins with the client, presenting new features or modules, and discussing potential expansion.

PreSales Actions: Identify expansion opportunities based on evolving client needs. Offer demos for new features or integration

Renewal & Advocacy

Description: Ensuring that the client renews your subscription and potentially turns into an advocate for your solution.

Key Activities: Discussing renewal terms, gathering feedback, seeking referrals, and testimonials.

PreSales Actions: Support the renewal discussions. Collaborate with the client for case studies, focusing on success points.

RFX process: This can start at any point in time

Description: Responding to RFI, RFP, and RFQ requests.

Key Activities: Drafting technical responses and attending related meetings.

PreSales Actions: Lead the creation of responses to the RFX and lead sessions and workshops.

More about RFX Process (opens in a new window)

Long-term Development

Description: Cultivating relationships with leads that may not be immediately ready to purchase but show potential for future business. You nurture these leads with steady communication, educational content and periodic check-ins.

Key Activities: Sending periodic newsletters, sharing useful content, offering webinars and keeping in regular touch, without a hard sales push.

PreSales actions: Share insights or product updates now and then that may help the lead later. Arrange webinars or workshops that address the potential future needs of these leads.

Disqualification

Description: Recognising that a lead or potential client is not the right fit for the current offering. This may be due to budget constraints, differing technical requirements, or a mismatch in business goals.

Key Activities: Tell the lead clearly why you disqualified them. Keep the experience positive, and point them to a more suitable solution where you can.

PreSales Actions: Conduct an assessment to confirm whether the product truly does not align with the client's requirements. Provide detailed feedback to the sales team on misalignments and suggest alternative solutions or future product updates that might cater to such leads if possible.

Win/Loss Analysis

Description: Analysing the reasons for winning or losing a deal.

Key Activities: Gathering feedback and adjusting future strategies.

PreSales Actions: Add to the analysis by naming the strengths and weaknesses you saw during the sales process.

More about Close Won / Close Lost Lessons Learned (opens in a new window)

Best Practices

Regularly Review Sales Stages: The sales process should change as the market, product or team changes. Regular reviews keep the stages effective and relevant.

Use CRM Systems: A CRM tracks progress through the sales stages, gives you insights and makes sure nothing gets lost.

Sales and Marketing Alignment: Ensure that both teams are aligned in terms of messaging, lead qualification criteria, and handovers.

Continuous Training: As product and market evolve, continuous training ensures that the sales team remains effective throughout all stages.

Feedback Loop: Encourage the sales team to give feedback on the sales stages and process, so the process keeps improving.

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