How To Ensure A Successful Sales Process With A Job Aid
The sales process can be a daunting task, especially for new sales reps or if your sales process is complex. A successful sales process requires careful planning and execution in order to generate the desired results.
Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to ensure a successful sales process, one of which is by providing your sales team with job aids. The use of job aids can help improve the performance of your sales team, and can also help to boost the customer experience.
What Are Job Aids?
A job aid is a tool that provides step-by-step instructions or information that helps people complete a work task. Job aids can be in the form of a written document, an online resource, or even a physical object, such as a poster or notecard.
For instance, a sales representative can use a job aid when on the phone with potential customers that lists all of the questions that they need to ask to obtain the requisite information. A job aid could also provide various instructions to the sales rep based on what the customer’s needs or questions are.
Ways Job Aids Can Improve The Sales Process
Job aids help make it easier for sales personnel to do their job in an efficient and effective manner, thereby helping you to improve the customer experience and close more sales. With that in mind, the following are a few specific ways in which job aids can help to improve your sales process:
Serve As A Reference
One of the primary benefits of a job aid is that it can serve as a reference tool. Job aids can be used to quickly look up information or tasks that need to be completed. This is especially helpful for sales reps who are new to the company or who are less experienced.
By having a job aid available, employees can easily refer to it whenever they need to ensure they are completing their tasks correctly. Providing job aids as a reference will also help you gain better control of standards and procedures within your company.
Job aids that are used as a reference can help save a substantial amount of time since sales reps won’t get confused searching for information or ask for help as often. They also help to reduce the number of errors by providing clear and concise instructions.
Not only can reducing errors help improve the customer experience, but doing so can also save time as well since less time will be wasted attempting to identify and address any errors that were made.
Solve A Problem
Another way that job aids can improve your sales process is by solving a problem. For example, if there is a list of common issues that customers have, a job aid can be created that provides solutions to those problems.
This way, when a customer calls with an issue, the sales rep can simply refer to the job aid and find the appropriate solution. By having solutions readily available, you can help to ensure that problems are resolved quickly and efficiently.
Solving problems can also help to improve the customer experience since they will be getting the help that they need in a timely manner. In addition, using job aids helps make your employee’s job easier, which will result in less employee stress.
Faster To Adapt To Change
Job aids can also help a company adapt to change more quickly. For example, if a new product is launched, a job aid can be created that provides instructions on how to sell it (such as information about how the product should be used or what it’s made from).
This way, employees will have all of the information that they need right at their fingertips and won’t need to go through extensive training in order to learn about the new product.
Faster adaptation to change is important since it can help to ensure that your employees are always up-to-date on the latest products and procedures. This, in turn, will help to improve the quality of your sales process and the customer experience. Not to mention that it means you won’t have to invest as much in employee training or retraining, which can save you both time and money.
A Guide To Creating Job Aids
As outlined above, job aids can be very beneficial to not just your sales team, but to your customers as well. However, the success of your job aids will depend on how well they are created. The following is a brief guide to help you create effective job aids:
Collect Information About The Task
The first step is to collect information about the task you want to create a job aid for. This can include what needs to be done, in what order, and any specific instructions that need to be followed. Be as detailed as possible so that your job aid is comprehensive and covers everything that needs to be helpful.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can ask your employees for input. They likely have a good understanding of the task at hand and can provide helpful insight into what needs to be included in the job aid.
Choose The Most Appropriate Form To Use
Once you have all of the information that you need, the next step is to choose the most appropriate form to use. There are a wide variety of options to choose from. However, the best option will depend on the task at hand and what will be the most effective for your employees.
It’s also crucial that your job aids are easy to read and scan so that employees can quickly find the information that they need. Providing a 30-page document for a sales rep to use while on the phone with a customer isn’t going to help them at all. In fact, it will probably only confuse them or affect their ability to engage with the customer in a timely manner.
With that in mind, the following are a few different types of job aids that can be very useful to your sales process:
- Checklists: A checklist is a simple, yet effective, way to ensure that all of the steps in a task are completed (especially if those steps don’t have to be completed in a specific order). This can be very helpful for sales reps who are working with customers and need to make sure that they cover everything.
- Procedures And Process Maps: If a task is more complex, you may want to consider creating a procedure or process map. Doing so will provide employees with a step-by-step guide that they can follow. This is especially helpful if the task needs to be completed in a certain order.
- Flow Charts: A flow chart can be used to visualize a process. This can be helpful for employees who need to see how all of the steps fit together.
- Forms: If a task requires the completion of a form, it can be helpful to include an example of the completed form in the job aid. This way, employees will know exactly what information needs to be collected and how it should be formatted.
- Online Help: If your sales process is done online, you may want to consider creating an online help file. This can be a great resource for employees who need assistance with using the system. You can also provide online help to customers so that they can find solutions to common problems (or answers to common questions) without having to contact a sales rep.
- Quality Check: A quality check job aid is a type of checklist that is used to ensure that a product or service meets the necessary standards. This can be helpful for sales reps who are selling products to customers.
Selling More With Job Aids
Job aids can be a very helpful tool in your sales process. They can help to ensure that tasks are completed properly and can provide employees with the information they need to be successful. By taking the time to create quality job aids, you can help your sales team to be more effective and efficient, which can lead to more sales and more satisfied customers.
