Write down how you sell, in one page
A one-page description of how you sell gives a new seller a way to start and gives you a way to inspect. Cover who you sell to, where inquiries come from, the deal stages, the rules for usual cases and the next-step rule.
Where it goes wrong
A founder asked her best seller to “write down how you do it” so that the new hire could learn. He wrote eleven pages. The new hire read two, then asked the same questions as everyone before. The pages explained what the seller felt. They did not say what to do on Tuesday morning.
A useful description takes five minutes to read and tells a new seller what to do on Tuesday morning. One page forces you to choose.
Who and where
Name the customers you want and the places they find you. Three lines, no more. If you cannot choose, write down the customers you already have and what they have in common. The pattern is usually there, and it tells you who the page is for.
Add one line about who you do not sell to. It saves a new seller from spending a month on the wrong inquiries.
Stages with exit rules
List the deal stages in order. For each stage write what must be true to leave it. A stage without an exit rule is where deals go to sit, because nobody can tell when they are allowed to leave.
Keep the number of stages small. Five or six stages is a reasonable start for a small team (a rule of thumb, not a benchmark). Every added stage is a place where a deal can wait and an extra field to fill.
Read the guide to funnel stagesRules for the usual cases
What happens with a late reply, a discount request and a quote with no answer. One line each. These are the situations where a new seller improvises, so decide them once, in writing, and the improvisation stops being your problem.
Start with the three cases that caused an argument last month. They will show you, faster than anything else, which rules your team already needs.
The next-step rule
Every open deal has a next step with a date. Write it as a rule and check it in the weekly meeting. It is the cheapest control you can add, and it makes the rest of the page visible in the CRM.
The First 30 days operating kit has a Word template for department rules, if you prefer to start from a page that is already laid out.
What counts as a next stepDo this week
- Write the three lines: who you sell to, where they find you, who you do not sell to.
- List the stages and one exit rule for each.
- Write the rules for the three cases that caused an argument last month.
The whole first month in one kit: a 51-page guide, worksheets with filled examples, five Word templates and six spreadsheets.