What's a Sales Process?
A sales process is the repeatable sequence of steps your team takes to turn a lead into a customer. It's how you make selling teachable, predictable, and measurable. A team without a defined sales process produces inconsistent results; deals close because individual reps figure out what works, not because the team has a system.
What a sales process gives you
Productivity. Reps know what to do at each stage without inventing the next step. Time spent figuring out "what do I do now" drops to zero.
Faster onboarding. New reps follow the same path veterans do. Ramp time shortens because the steps are written down rather than absorbed by osmosis.
Forecasting. A stable process produces stable conversion rates between stages. Once you have a few quarters of data, you can predict revenue from the number of leads entering the top of the funnel.
Refinement. With metrics on each stage, you can identify bottlenecks and fix them. Without a defined process, you're guessing about where deals go wrong.
The components of a sales process
Most sales processes share a similar shape, though the specifics vary between B2B and B2C motions and by industry, deal size, and buyer type. The common components below apply to both, with notes where B2C differs:
Lead generation. Getting people who might buy into your top-of-funnel. Outbound prospecting, inbound forms, content downloads, referrals, partnerships.
Prospecting. Initial outreach - cold calls, cold email, social touches. The first attempt to engage and qualify. See Designing a cold outbound cadence for the outbound motion and Inbound lead response best practices for the inbound motion.
Qualification. Confirming the lead is a real fit. Budget, authority, need, timeline (BANT) is the common starting framework. B2B teams sometimes use more structured alternatives like MEDDIC for complex enterprise deals; B2C teams typically focus on intent confirmation and ability-to-pay assessments. Decide whether to invest more rep time.
Discovery. Understanding the prospect's problem in depth. Multi-call or single-call depending on motion and deal size.
Proposal / Demo. Showing how your product solves the problem. May include a custom proposal, pricing, scope, or product demo.
Negotiation & Close. Working through objections, finalizing terms, getting a signed agreement. May involve legal, procurement, or security review for larger deals.
Retention. Post-close: onboarding, expansion, renewal. The sales rep usually hands off to Customer Success.
Not every team uses all seven components. SMB and product-led companies often skip the formal proposal stage; enterprise teams add stages for legal review or executive approval.
Designing yours
Four questions to anchor your process design:
What's your motion? Inbound-led (leads come to you), outbound-led (you go to them), product-led (signup → activation → sales-assisted upgrade), or transactional B2C (high-volume, often single-call close)? The motion determines which stages you need and how heavy each one is.
What's your typical sales cycle length? A 30-day cycle for a $5K ACV product needs a shorter process than a 120-day cycle for a $100K enterprise deal.
What's your average deal size? Larger deals justify longer, more deliberate stages. Smaller deals need a process that moves fast or you'll spend more on closing than the deal is worth.
Who's your buyer? Single decision-maker versus multi-stakeholder committee changes how many stages you need and what each one covers.
Tracking your process in Close
Close maps the components above to specific features:
Lead Statuses track where a Lead is in the prospecting and qualification phase (for example: New, Contacted, Qualified, Disqualified).
Opportunity Statuses track where a deal is in the discovery-through-close phase (for example: Discovery, Demo Completed, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, Closed Won, Closed Lost). For tactical guidance on designing your opportunity stages, see Designing your sales pipeline.
Workflows automate the cadence of touches at each stage. See Creating a multi-channel sales workflow in Close.
Smart Views surface the right leads or opportunities for each rep at each step of the process.
Reports (Activity Overview, Opportunity Funnels, Call Reports) measure how the process is performing and where it's bottlenecked.
Refining your process over time
A sales process isn't static. Here are three signals that yours needs revisiting:
Conversion rates between stages drop. If qualified leads stop converting to demos, the qualification criteria may need tightening.
Deal cycle length grows. If deals take longer than they used to, look for stage-specific bottlenecks in the Opportunity Funnels Report.
Rep feedback consistently flags the same issue. When multiple reps complain about the same handoff or step, the process probably needs adjustment.
Revisit your process at least quarterly. Look at what's working, what's not, and what your highest-performing reps do that the process doesn't formally require.