DotOne teamWhat is a sales process?
A sales process is a defined sequence of steps, from finding a potential buyer to closing the order and keeping the customer. It describes what your team does at each step and what has to be true before a deal moves on.
The sales process is what your team does. The sales pipeline is where you see the result: each open deal sitting at one of the stages the process defines.
What is a sales lead?
A sales lead is a person or company that might buy from you: someone who filled in your website form, called, visited your stall at a trade show or was referred by a dealer.
- Lead: a contact who may have a need. Nothing is confirmed yet.
- Qualified lead: you have confirmed a real need, budget, decision-maker and timeline.
- Opportunity or deal: a qualified lead you are actively working to close, with an estimated value.
The 7 steps of the sales process
- Prospecting. Find potential buyers: inbound enquiries, dealer referrals, trade directories, exhibitions and outbound calling.
- Qualifying. Check fit before you invest time. A simple test: is there a need, a budget, a decision-maker you can reach, and a timeline?
- Needs discovery. Understand the application, volumes, specifications, current supplier and what is wrong with it.
- Proposal and quotation. Send a quotation that answers the needs you found, with clear specs, prices, taxes, delivery and payment terms. Samples or trials often belong here.
- Handling objections. Price, delivery time, minimum order quantity, switching risk. Answer with facts: test reports, references, delivery records.
- Closing. Agree final terms and receive the purchase order.
- Delivery and follow-up. Deliver on the promise, collect payment, and follow up for repeat orders and referrals. In B2B, the first order is often the smallest one.
Inbound vs outbound sales
| Inbound | Outbound | |
|---|---|---|
| Who starts | The buyer contacts you | You contact the buyer |
| Sources | Website, search, IndiaMART, WhatsApp, referrals | Cold calls, email, field visits, exhibitions |
| Lead quality | Usually warmer, already has a need | Colder, needs more qualifying |
| Control | Less control over volume | You choose exactly whom to target |
| Best for | Steady flow of small and mid-sized buyers | Large target accounts and new regions |
Most manufacturers need both: inbound for a steady flow of enquiries, outbound to open the large accounts that will not find you on their own. To compare channels, work out what each new customer costs you: see our guide to customer acquisition and CAC.
Consultative selling
Consultative selling means selling by understanding and solving the buyer's problem, instead of pushing a product. The salesperson acts like an advisor: asks questions, recommends what fits, and is honest when something does not fit.
It suits B2B and industrial sales especially well, where buyers care about specs, consistency and delivery, and where one customer can buy for years. In practice it means:
- Asking about the application and the cost of the current problem before talking about price.
- Recommending the right grade or specification, even when it is not the most expensive one.
- Bringing in your production or quality team when the question is technical.
- Writing down what you learned, so the next conversation starts where the last one ended.
What is sales automation?
Sales automation means using software to do the repetitive parts of the sales process, so salespeople spend their time selling. Typical examples:
- Capturing leads from the website and other sources straight into the CRM, without manual entry.
- Assigning new leads to the right salesperson by region or product.
- Follow-up reminders and scheduled emails or messages, so no lead goes quiet.
- Building quotations from item and price data, with discount approvals routed automatically.
- Converting a won deal into a sales order and invoice without re-typing it.
DotOne CRM brings leads from the website, WhatsApp, calls, distributors and field sales into one pipeline, with follow-up reminders and quotation approvals. Won deals move into sales orders and invoicing without re-entry.