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Prospecting
Identify and contact companies that match the ICP. Goal: a booked first meeting.
Exit
Meeting booked with a relevant decision-maker.
Sales process
A clear sales process makes complex deals predictable.
A sales process is not a CRM pipeline. It's the shared definition of how you sell, with exit criteria that actually keep sellers honest about where a deal really is.
What is a sales process
Stages, criteria and a shared language.
A sales process is the defined sequence of stages a deal moves through, from first contact to signed contract. Each stage has a clear goal, explicit exit criteria and a set of activities that move the deal forward.
In complex B2B sales, the process is what separates a team that delivers quarter after quarter from a team that relies on individual gut feel. The process is not bureaucracy, it's the company's commercial memory.
Six stages
The framework we use.
A solid starting point for most complex B2B sales. Tune activities and criteria to segment and product.
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Qualification
Need, budget, decision process, timeline. Goal: decide whether the deal is real.
Exit
BANT/MEDDIC criteria confirmed, or deal disqualified.
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Proposal
Proposal, demo and business case matching what we've learned. Goal: win preference.
Exit
Customer confirms the proposal hits the core need.
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Negotiation
Price, terms, legal and procurement. Goal: preserve value while reaching agreement.
Exit
Aligned term sheet or signed letter of intent.
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Win
Signed contract and clean handover to delivery. Goal: a strong start to the customer journey.
Exit
Signed contract and handover to onboarding.
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Loss
Lost deals are handled deliberately: loss reason, learning and follow-up for a future revisit.
Exit
Documented loss reason and a plan for nurture or archive.
Exit criteria
The most common mistake, and how to avoid it.
Most pipelines lie because deals get pushed forward without the stage criteria actually being met. Write exit criteria as binary questions, yes or no, not 'sort of'.
01
Every exit criterion must be answerable yes/no by two people independently.
02
The sales manager owns the exit criteria, not the seller. That's the core job in pipeline review.
03
When a deal doesn't meet the criteria: don't move the stage, move the missing activity.
How to get started
From today's chaos to an operational process.
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Map today's process
How does the team actually sell today? Interview three sellers and review the last 10 won deals.
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Define stages and criteria
Write down 5–6 stages with clear exit criteria. Keep it simple, one page.
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Build in CRM and CONNECT Hub
Mirror the process in the pipeline. Activities, templates and documents per stage.
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Roll out and defend
Train the team, use the process in pipeline review, and update it every quarter.
Why it matters
A shared process removes luck dependency.
01
New sellers become productive faster when the process is written down and built into the tools.
02
Forecast becomes accurate because the stages actually mean something, not just a color in the CRM.
03
Coaching becomes concrete: the manager can point to which stage and which criterion is unmet.
FAQ
Questions we get often.
What is a sales process?
The defined sequence of stages a deal moves through, with clear exit criteria and activities between each stage.
How many stages should I have?
5–7 stages is the sweet spot for complex B2B sales. Fewer becomes too coarse, more becomes bureaucracy.
What's the difference between sales process and buyer journey?
The sales process is what the seller does. The buyer journey is what the customer does. A good process mirrors the buyer journey, it doesn't fight it.
How does this connect to CONNECT Hub?
CONNECT Hub has a library of structured content and tools for every stage, and digital rooms that make those resources easy to use. The process becomes alive, not a PDF in a drawer.
Ready to turn process into competitive advantage?