Sales Workflow
💡TL;DR
Design workflows backward from the shortest path to a conversation. SMBs should standardize five elements: (1) lead routing, (2) first touch under 5 minutes, (3) 3-5 follow-up touches, (4) qualification checks, (5) mutual action plans. Automate to reduce variance. Keep branching minimal and resume cadences when a signal fires, enabling repeatability even with a small team.
Definition
The sequence of steps a sales team follows from lead to close, including routing, outreach, qualification, demo, proposal, legal, and follow-up. A clear workflow defines owners, SLAs, and branching paths for key signals.
🏢What This Means for SMB Teams
Ad-hoc selling does not scale. Standard steps plus automation create repeatability.
📋Practical Example
A 34-person residential solar installer ($20M revenue) rebuilt its sales workflow. Before: lead-to-demo time averaged 3.5 days, 29% of opportunities stalled after proposal, and close rate was 17%. After defining owners, SLAs, and auto-branching cadences, lead-to-demo fell to 1.2 days, proposal stalls dropped to 12%, and close rate rose to 23%, adding $1.1M in quarterly booked projects.
🔧Implementation Steps
- 1
Map the ideal path from lead to close with owners and SLAs at each stage.
- 2
Create hybrid cadences: fixed backbone plus signal-based branches (pricing revisit, reply).
- 3
Standardize qualification checklist and embed it in the first call script.
- 4
Auto-create mutual action plans post-demo and track stage dwell in dashboards.
- 5
Run weekly variance review: compare actual vs. designed path and patch bottlenecks.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
How detailed should workflows be for a small team?
Keep 6-8 core steps and only 2-3 signal branches. Over-design slows reps; refine monthly based on stall data rather than adding branches upfront.
How do we enforce SLAs without micromanaging?
Use automated timers and alerts, review breaches weekly, and coach patterns not individuals. Celebrate SLA wins publicly to build positive pressure.
⚡How Optifai Uses This
Optifai executes signal-triggered branching workflows and routes tasks to the Action Feed.
📚References
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Related Terms
Action Orchestration
Coordinating automated actions across channels and roles so buyers receive the right touch, on the right channel, at the right time, without duplication.
Sales CRM
A CRM tuned for sales workflows—lead routing, sequences, pipeline tracking, forecasts—with tight email/calendar integration, task automation, SLA monitoring, and auto-logging. It prioritizes speed-to-lead, clean ownership, and reducing manual entry so reps spend time selling, not typing. Routing and stage rules are kept simple so adoption stays high.
CRM Integration
Connecting CRM with email, calendar, marketing automation, billing, support, and data warehouses to sync data and trigger workflows. Good integrations are bi-directional, event-driven, and resilient to failures with retries and alerts.
AI-Powered Outreach
Automated outbound and follow-up communications generated and personalized by AI across email, SMS, and social channels.
Experience Revenue Action in Practice
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