Sales Guidelines

Selling is an art and mastering this art if the key to thrive your business according to the long term goal. The guidelines provided in this section will help you learn important facets of selling a product and help you identify areas of improvement in your own processes.

Why ERPNext?

ERPNext is a suite of integrated modules used to collect, transact and report on data from their business activities. It enables the flow of information between the different parts of a company and with outside stakeholders like customers and vendors.

Benefits

Eliminates information silos
Automates and standardizes business's core processes
Enables better decision making by mining the processes and real-time reports on data
Prioritize security and compliances - Our robust rule- based features restricts the access of sensitive data
SaaS based model and low cost of ownership, hence, bigger ROI and more perceived value
100% open source and highly customizable as per businesses policies and processes, ensuring compliance and govt. regulations

SDR Onboarding

The first thing you need to do is, understand the process and get familiar with ERPNext CRM. We have seen people getting confused between Qualification Call (QFC) and Discovery Call (DC). Learn the difference and understand what are the agendas of these calls. Also, people are often struggling to generate basic reports. So when you start your journey as an SDR, understand the steps of our recommended sales process, different DocTypes that we use and navigate through the CRM.

Sales Process Steps

Lead Assignment (SDR)
Lead Qualification (SDR) (Qualified / Unqualified)
Discovery call (SDR + Account Executive (AE)) (Accepted / Rejected)
Demo (AE)
Opportunity Creation (AE)
Query / Multiple demo sessions (AE)
Negotiation (AE)
Legal (AE + Legal Team)
Proposal (AE)
Closure (AE)

Sign Off On The Pitch

Before you start taking up leads, you have to learn the sales script and get your sign-off done. This will arm you with proper ammunition to handle objections, ask problem-based discovery questions, understand the intrinsic motivation of the buyer, etc.
Practice the script, schedule peer-to-peer role plays, take feedback, improvise on it and get your sign-off done from your Sales lead. You are not advised to hit the road until you complete this.

Lead Qualification

Prioritise: You really wanna be cognizant about who you spend your time with. Be very picky when it comes to taking up the leads to dial. Check the lead score for that matter, see the source of the lead. (Contact Us leads over trial accounts), understand what’s the company size, etc.
Background Research: Don’t blindly dial the numbers. Do some background research about the prospect and also about their company. Visit their LinkedIn profile, company website, etc. It will not take more than 2-5 minutes but will give you something to break the ice on the call.
Establish Mutual Beneficial Agreement (MBA): Get that consent from the prospect at the start of the call. Tell them that it’s’ okay to say no and we can also do the same, without hurting each other’s feelings. This will help lower their guards. You will learn more about this in the pitch part.
Pitch Practice: Practice the pitch really hard. People say that scripts don’t work. But they do if executed properly. You don’t wanna sound robotic. Don’t just say sentences because they are there in the script. We are going to ask a lot of questions so it’s really important how you frame your sentences as well. It should not sound like one of those Teacher - Student viva. Humanising the conversation is really important here.
Acknowledge The Answers: When a prospect is answering your question, usually the thing that goes in the back of our head is “What’s gonna be my next question?” (Since we are following a script.) Due to that, we don’t pay enough attention to what the prospect is saying and once their answer is over, we just shoot another question. Don’t do that. Listen to the prospect carefully and be genuinely interested in understanding their problem. Here is an example, let’s say that prospect just explained their pain points. According to the script, the next question would be “How is it impacting your business?”. Instead of asking this question directly, say something like “Thanks for the detailed explanation about your challenges. Now I have a really good understanding of what you are going through” (Frame it in a better way). Something along those lines and then go for the next question.;
Add Your Personal Touch: Script is just for your reference. You don’t have to say things exactly how it’s written there. Add your personal touch. Understand where to use what sentences and how to use those sentences. If the sentences are not used appropriately then they might not create desired impact on your leads. If you wanna do that, practice it, record it, see how it sounds, and then use them at the “right time”. BUT DON’T PRACTICE ON PROSPECTS.
Qualify Them Out: The job of an SDR is to arouse curiosity. Change your mindset, the goal of the qualification should not be to set up a DC. We personally try to identify all the possible ways why this particular deal can go south. Be genuinely interested, try to learn about their processes and challenges, see if there is even a need for an ERP, identify those red flags. This will drastically improve your Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) ratio.
Outcome Oriented: Focus on quality, not quantity. One can pass 10 opportunities from 15 DCs and one can also do the same from 10 DCs. We all are smart enough to judge what’s the better option. Ultimately it’s the outcome that matters.

Discovery Call

Communicate the agenda of the call with the prospect properly. Make sure that they are not expecting a demo on the discovery call.
Make sure to share all the details about the lead with your AE well in advance. Also talk about what all things are already discussed in the Qualification call so that we don’t end up asking the same questions again.
Give a call 1 hour prior to the meeting, confirming whether the meeting is on. If the meeting is on, rename the Title of the meeting with adding “Confirmed” at the beginning and send the invite again. This will ensure that your invite is at the top of their inbox and also it sends a solid message that they are committed to showing up. This will increase your show rate drastically.
Don’t end the DC without agreeing on the next step. Block the calendar on the same call itself.

Miscellaneous Points:

Take Notes: Most important one. Take detailed notes of each and every conversation. Add those notes in the comments section so that a proper sequence is maintained. If you want to update the same in the Follow up table, do that too. Taking notes is really important because if anything goes wrong, you can go back to those notes to unstick a deal. Saying “Didn’t we agree on this?”, “Didn’t you tell me how important it was?”, “Didn’t you tell me you are losing x amount of revenue because of this?”, etc.
Hygiene Of The Data: Whenever you make a call, or send an email or do a qualification or there is any progress, update those relevant fields accordingly. At every step, make sure you are changing the status and stages. Even if your call is unanswered, or the prospect did not show up, make a note of it. Use the Follow-up table for tracking those activities. This will help us create good quality reports and create a better plan.
Follow Up With AE: When the DC is accepted and the demo is done, technically the job of an SDR is done. Then it becomes an AE’s responsibility. But practically that might not be true. Let’s admit the fact that AEs have a lot on their plate. Attending DCs, reviewing requirement docs, setting up demo instances, doing the demo, finding workarounds, sending out proposals, negotiations, etc. Even if they set up hard-dated telecons, there is a chance that some things may fall off. So as an SDR, you should be keeping an eagle eye on those opportunities that are passed by you and make sure their latest status is updated. Check comment on the latest update and next action, if it’s not there, just ping AE personally. If something is not moving for say 2-3 weeks, an SDR should take that opportunity back and see where it went off. As a salesperson, we take a lot of follow-ups with our prospects, why not do that internally with your AE as well? We rise as a team and fall as a team. If your SAL does not close, it’s ultimately the loss of the entire team.
Make Conscious Efforts: Everything that you have just read is useless if you don’t take actions actively. Most of the things that are written here are very basic, there is no rocket science. We probably knew it all. But just realizing that you are missing on those points is not enough, just realizing that there is a problem is not enough. If you know that your rate of speech is high, try to make conscious efforts to slow it down and see the results.
Stay Motivated: As a salesperson, sometimes we will have off days, off weeks or even off months. It’s okay, there are times when things just won’t work out no matter what you do. But if you are having an off month, you might wanna get to the root of it and understand where it’s going off. Is there something that you are doing wrong, are you missing out on something, or some external factor that’s not really in your control (like COVID). It has happened in the past that a good looking pipeline with 5-6 opportunities were wiped out within just a span of a week. It’s really demotivating. That’s why it's really important to have a large enough pipeline so that if something goes wrong, you have enough back up to meet your target.
Always Be Learning: Know that there is always an area of improvement, nobody is perfect. Learning should never stop. Read more books, attend those training sessions, make your own pitch, work on your email skills, build a strong network on LinkedIn. Or at least, keep coming back to this Inside Sales doc, you’ll learn something new every time.

Execution Plan

Your job is to isolate the challenges your personas face on a day to day basis. But, make sure you don’t get pigeon-holed here, rather, try and establish a relationship with other key contacts within the account at the top level.

It's very important to customize your messaging based on persona to better connect and progress your conversation. A front-line manager would only think tactically to solve a problem at hand, but, a C-level executive will be a strategist and would look at the bigger picture. E.X. How would they improve operational efficiency this year?

Back to Basics

There is a critical need for alignment between Sales consultants and Inside Sales function that feeds the daily pipeline. The foundation to this alignment lies in a clearly defined account based selling strategy, a proven qualification process for accounts passed to next steps, and an organized, well-documented and an efficient lead hand-off process.

Use the steps in this guide to develop a sales pipeline full of quality sales appointments with well-qualified prospective buyers that show up to each meeting during your sales cycle.

Standardised Qualification To SAL

Before setting up an appointment with yourself or Sales Managers, the standardized sales process MUST be followed and adopted by every team member. At this stage, you must understand what a qualified account consists of and how it should be passed from one team to another should be crystal clear. During on-boarding and training, we’ll discuss asking open-ended questions around BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, timeline).

Caveat: Even if you have spoken to an “Authority” and established “Needs”, you can invite in your sales manager for a deep-dive demo with a wider audience at account level for further qualification by a SM. Once a BANT is established, it’d be considered SAL/Opportunity . For that to happen, you must convince your champion at the account to invite their key stakeholders for the demo with SM.

Reaching Out: Sequence Of Steps

In this 18/10 cadence, there are 10 touch points composed of phone calls, Emails and social touches steps over the course of 18 days. These steps are designed to increase the recall value from the prospects who haven’t responded to your multiple people. 80% of sales reps give up on 2nd or 3rd follow ups, which results in poor qualified leads and sales performance.

Here is the sequence of steps to follow to ensure everyone of you’re executing the process correctly:

Day 1

Step 1: Call (Open/New Lead within 5 mins)

Step 2: Email -1 (Use Template) Customise as per 10:80:10 rule

Step 3: Set Descriptive Follow Up task in CRM 2 days out for the 2nd follow up if No Answer

Day 4

Step 1: The 2nd follow up to the same set of leads you touched earlier

Step 2: 2nd follow up email to the same set of leads you touched earlier

Step 3: Set Descriptive Follow Up task in CRM 2 days out for the 3rd follow up if No Answer

Day 8

Step 1: The 3rd follow up to the same set of leads you touched earlier

Step 2: 3rd follow up email to the same set of leads you touched earlier

Step 3: Send LinkedIn connection request with personalised message (Don’t push for a meeting)

Step 4: Set Descriptive Follow Up task in CRM 3 days out for the 4th follow up if No Answer

Day 12

Step 1: 4th follow up email to the same set of leads you touched earlier

Step 2: After a few hours gap call them

Step 3: Set Descriptive Follow Up task in CRM 5 days out for the 5th follow up if No Answer

Day 18

Step 1: 5th follow up email - Last for real. Break up Email

Step 2: Call in the 2nd half or after a few hours gap

Step 3: Set Descriptive Follow Up task in CRM 30 days out to check again