What Is A Sales Audit? Here’s Why You Need One

A good sales process doesn’t always mean constant sales success. It’s inevitable that companies, management teams, and employees alike will need to pivot from time to time as circumstances change and their business goals evolve. No matter the change, transforming your business processes can be a difficult and overwhelming feat to take on alone. Products may need to be redeveloped, certain processes may need to be sunset, or employees may need to be upskilled to face new challenges. 

Setting your sales team up for success is undoubtedly a multi-step process, but one key element involves an audit of your current processes. When conducted by a third party, a sales audit can help you better evaluate your current sales processes by giving you an objective perspective on its effectiveness - and determine what your team needs to meet their revenue goals. Here’s everything you need to know about a sales audit, and how you can get started. 

What Is a Sales Audit? 

What is a sales audit? A sales audit is a powerful way to evaluate your team’s work and discover specific, tangible ways to improve your sales processes. The audit will dig through all your company’s sales processes and investigate the challenges you face in your own market. 

When conducting an audit, it’s essential to go over every process and element that makes up your sales cycle -- leaving no stone unturned. Here are some questions to consider when conducting a sales audit: 

• What is working right now?
• What’s keeping your team from closing deals? 
• Is there anything you are doing to turn away prospects?
  

Why Should Your Company Conduct a Sales Audit?

As we’ve said before, a good sales process might not necessarily mean success for your team. Process may have worked in the past -- but it might not work anymore, whether you recognize it or not. 

Here’s the reality of working in sales: customers’ needs change, sales compensation plans become outdated, and products may evolve beyond a salesperson’s experience or knowledge base. 

The result? Companies get stuck, and growth slows. 

As a CEO, board member, investor, or manager, there’s one way to address this issue head-on: a sales audit. To continue growing and developing your business, it’s critical to constantly evaluate your team’s effectiveness, just as you would with your tech stack or your financials. Reviewing your sales team will help evaluate your working processes, where you can improve, and what changes need to be made. 

When we help with your sales audit, we dig into what you have tried so far, where you might have missed the mark, and where you might have been too slow to capitalize on an opportunity. Those symptoms can involve a whole host of things, from off-the-mark pitching to an errant pricing model. We’re here to help you identify and uncover the issue - and get you on the right track. 

How to Conduct a Sales Audit 

Your sales audit will be unique to you, your business, and your needs -- but no matter what, your sales audit includes a few key elements:

• Evaluate your sales processes: Take a look at your sales roadmap. What path do you want your leads to take, from prospect to customer? Does your current process leave any gaps where customers might fall through or stall?

• Review and analyze existing tools: When it comes to sales, tools can be a big help - and sales teams need a few key tools to be successful in moving prospects through the pipeline to customers. One of the most important tools? A CRM that lets you manage leads, track progress, and more. 

• Review existing sales resources: Content may be part of the marketing process, but it also ties back to help with sales. Case studies, articles, webinars, and more help educate your potential clients - and understand your business better. 

• Determine the quality of your leads: Not all leads are created equal. In fact, you may not want to pursue some leads for your business. During your audit, consider evaluating the quality of your leads and look at what marketing and sales teams need to make sure a lead is qualified. 

• Look at current reporting: Data is everything! The more data your sales team has, the more accurate they will be - and the more successful! Does your team have the right tools for analytics? 

• Evaluate sales synergy: Your sales team isn’t acting alone. During your audit, consider examining how the sales team interacts with other parts of the company, like account managers, marketers, and company leadership. 

How Fador Global Can Help

Does a sales audit still sound a bit overwhelming? It can be tough to put it all together, on top of daily projects and responsibilities. We can help you establish a consistent and repeatable sales process, accurately defining the selling culture while maximizing performance. Revamp your company’s sales team by contacting us.