---
tags: Week 1, H2, M2
---
# Introduction to sales process

## What is a sales process?
As we explained before, the sales process is a clearly defined sequence of activities a sales team does to take a potential customer from a lead to a customer (or from an early stage of awareness to a closed sale).

This process is (or should be) fully aligned with the respective buyer journey for the product or service that is being sold.

**There is no standardized sales process for everyone.** Each product and buyer journey is different, therefore each sales process is specific to each company. Some use a 5-step process, others 7 or more.

However, in essence, they all follow the same logic and sequence:

::: info
**General steps in the sales process**
 
1. Marketing nurtures leads or sales generates them (lead generation),
2. followed by an in-depth discovery phase (qualification),
3. leading into showcasing your product/service (demo stage),
4. followed by sharing a proposal (maybe needing to handle customer objections),
5. hopefully leading into closing (after that, Customer Success takes over for onboarding).
:::

Since it's best taught using images, see below two (similar) examples of a 7 step Sales process.


 
## The sales process and the Hyrise Program

The Hyrise program is fully aligned with the structure of a sales process, so it's important you get familiar with the concept.

In fact, during the next few weeks, you will cover each step of a typical sales process sequentially:

::: info
- Week 2: Prospecting I - Setting up for success
- Week 3: Prospecting II - Cold Calls & Emails
- Week 4: Prospecting III - Social Selling
- Week 5: Prospecting IV - Cadencing
- Week 6: Master the Discovery Call
- Week 7: Run successful Demo's
- Week 7: Closing the deal
:::

Don't worry, throughout our course, at the beginning of each module, we will always tell you at which point of the sales process you're currently in.

Let's explore the concept of a sales process one final time in the following video to ensure we're 100% familiar with it 👇
 
::: warning
*p.s. Do not be confused by the "PO" abbreviation Michael uses in the video below. PO stands for "purchase order" and is the official and approved order notice by companies once they decide to purchase*
:::

{%youtube _Vn87bvG0eU %}

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