Optimize Sales Processes with Path in Salesforce
Learning Objectives
- Describe the impact of onboarding sales reps on your company’s reps and managers.
- Gather details about the sales process from experts at your company.
- Create a functional sales path for your sales reps.
Get Sales Reps to Adopt Your Company’s Sales Processes
Onboarding sales reps quickly can be a challenge, because every company has its own sales process.
Take, for example, the emerging solar energy systems provider Ursa Major Solar. They have a few sales reps who can sell like the dickens. But the company is growing, and as great as they are, the existing sales team needs help. So they hired two new reps, Erin and Lance, who have decent selling experience already.
Even though Erin and Lance know how to sell well, they’re not familiar with sales processes at Ursa Major.
That’s where Maria, the Salesforce admin, comes in. Maria learned that Salesforce includes a feature that helps reps adopt her company’s sales processes. It’s called Sales Path, and it’s available for working leads and opportunities.
Understand Path's Benefits
Who benefits from Path? | How? |
---|---|
Sales reps | Reps learn the steps necessary to keep the sales process moving along. And reps can eliminate any steps that aren’t a part of the sales processes at their company. The reps at Ursa Major like Path because it helps them focus on what matters most to qualify leads and win deals. |
Sales managers | Managers keep their reps aligned with the sales processes unique to their company. Sales paths help managers identify star performers and the ones who need a bit more guidance. |
What Makes Up a Path in Salesforce
- Key fields that reps complete before moving to the next stage in the sales process
- Best practices
- Words of encouragement to keep your reps pumped
- Links to relevant Chatter posts
- Policy reminders
- Even potential gotchas
Plan Path with Sales Management
Maria has lots on her plate. In addition to administering sales features, she administers service and collaboration features in Salesforce. So she’s the first to admit that she doesn’t know everything about her company’s sales processes. To work smart, she pulls in the experts—sales management.
She knows the sales manager, Lincoln, who’s down the hall. On a Friday afternoon, Maria tracks down Lincoln, just as he’s about to stream some smooth jazz. Maria tells him about Path and how it can help his sales team adopt their sales process and close more deals. Lincoln’s eager to help.
- New - Not Contacted
- Working - Contacted
- Nurturing - Contacted
- Closed - Converted
- Closed - Not Converted
Step in the sales process | Leads for solar energy system sales | Leads for solar system service plans |
---|---|---|
New - Not Contacted |
Fields
|
Fields
|
Working - Contacted |
Fields
|
Fields
|
Nurturing - Contacted |
(Doesn’t apply to solar energy system sales.) | Confirm that your lead’s solar energy system:
|
Closed - Converted |
Guidance for Success Awesome! After you mark this lead Qualified, follow prompts to convert the lead to a contact. And don’t forget to create an opportunity when prompted. |
Guidance for Success Good work! After you mark this lead Qualified, follow prompts to convert the lead to a contact. And don’t forget to create an opportunity when prompted. Also:
|
Closed - Not Converted |
Guidance for Success If your lead doesn’t have the interest or the authority to purchase a solar energy system, mark the lead Unqualified. Don’t waste time on unqualified leads.
|
Guidance for Success If your lead doesn’t have the interest or the authority to purchase a solar energy service plan, mark the lead Unqualified. Don’t waste time on unqualified leads.
|
Without Lincoln’s input about their sales processes, Maria would’ve missed important details—details that guide sales reps toward greater success with working leads and closing deals. The two of them together, though, make for a great partnership. Lincoln’s the one with the sales expertise, and Maria’s the one who can implement Path.
After you explain to your sales operations manager how Path enforces your company’s sales processes, get guidance from that manager about your company’s unique processes.
With your sales operations manager, determine and customize the stages that appear for your reps. Add fields that are relevant to your company’s sales processes, and include guidance for success. In your guidance, you include details about company policies, tips for establishing positive selling relationships, and links to relevant feeds.
See Sales Progress with Path
Maria set up one of the paths that she and Lincoln planned. And now those new sales reps, Erin and Lance, see a visual representation of the stages necessary to qualify their leads.
Using the lead workspace, Erin and Lance see their path front and center. The path appears with the stages and guidance you and your sales operations manager provided. Reps mark each stage complete when they’re ready to move on to the next. The beauty is that reps focus on only the fields that matter most to your sales managers. That way, reps stay focused on what matters most to qualify leads and win deals.
Let’s review how Maria set up a path for leads.
Set Up a Path in Salesforce
- From Salesforce Setup, Maria enters Path in the Quick Find box, then selects Path Settings.
- She enables Path.
- Maria then clicks New Path.
- In the Path Name field, Maria enters the name of the path. This one’s for solar energy system sales. It’s good that she thought of a name that makes sense to her, because she’s the one managing paths.
When Maria tabs to the next field, API Reference Name populates automatically, and includes underscores instead of spaces. She skips over that field.
- For Object, Maria selects Lead.
- For Record Type, she selects the one specific to her solar energy system sales. Then she clicks Next.
- Maria chooses a picklist that contains the stages she wants in her path.
- For each stage, Maria adds the key fields unique to that stage. Then, she adds guidance for success. Remember the notes that Maria took during her meeting with Lincoln? Here’s where Maria includes best practices, tips for effective communication, and whatnot.
- After she’s done with all the stages, Maria clicks Next, then activates her path. Finally, she selects Finish. Maria can go back to the path later and refine it so that it’s tight.
Resources
- Salesforce Help: Guide Users with Path
- Salesforce Help: Considerations and Guidelines for Creating Paths