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Tag: Sales Process Audit

What Top-Performing Sales Teams Do Differently With Their Process

Posted on by Hannah Sanders
top performing sales teams - air marketing - outsourced SDRs

What Top-Performing Sales Teams Do Differently With Their Process

By Shaun Weston, Head of Technology & Sales Optimisation at Air Marketing

Every business invests in training, tools, and targets. But the teams that genuinely outperform have something less visible yet far more powerful: an operational discipline around how they sell. It’s quiet, systematic, and often overlooked – but it’s the reason their numbers look the way they do.

Most sales functions believe they have a process, but what they actually have is a collection of habits, preferences, and inherited ways of working. Top-performing teams see it differently. They build a sales process with the same precision an operations team would bring to a factory line – something measurable, repeatable, and continuously improved, not something left to interpretation or personal style.

What the Best Teams Do Differently

1They define a single, clear sales process everyone actually follows

High-performing teams don’t let each salesperson “interpret” the process. They eliminate variability. There’s one process, one language, and one standard for qualification, progression, and forecasting. Consistency makes performance measurable – and therefore optimisable.

2They document every stage of the customer journey

Not in a dusty playbook. Not in someone’s head. The journey is clearly mapped, kept live, and updated as markets evolve. When information is accessible and current, new hires ramp faster and experienced reps operate with fewer assumptions.

3They use qualification frameworks rigorously

Whether it’s MEDDIC, SPICED, or a tailored model, top teams treat qualification as a discipline, not a box-tick. They don’t waste cycles on poor-fit opportunities. They allocate time where the probability of revenue is real.

4They build their sales process around how customers decide

Average teams design processes around internal preference. High-performing teams design around buyer reality. They understand decision journeys, risks, buying committees, budget cycles, and internal politics – and they align their process to it.

5They track pipeline health using leading indicators

Lagging metrics tell you what already happened. The best teams focus on early signals: activity quality, progression speed, conversion ratios, meeting show rates, and deal ageing. They fix issues before the quarter is lost.

6They measure stage-by-stage conversion rates

If you don’t know where deals stall, you can’t improve. Top teams treat the pipeline as an operational system. When a stage leaks, they interrogate the root cause – messaging, skill gaps, ICP mismatch, missing proof points – and they fix it.

7They coach weekly using real calls and real data

Not generic check-ins. Not motivational chatter. Practical coaching based on call reviews, objection analysis, and win/loss insights. The goal is behavioural change that compounds over time.

8They inspect CRM usage – and make it useful

A CRM only feels like a burden when it’s poorly designed. High-performing teams build workflows that genuinely help reps: automated tasks, clean views, and minimal friction. They inspect usage not to police reps, but to ensure data stays accurate enough for operational decisions.

9They align sales and marketing around messaging and handovers

When these functions drift, performance suffers. Top teams maintain tight alignment on ICP definition, campaign themes, qualification standards, lead handling, and feedback loops. Buyers encounter consistent messaging at every stage.

10They automate the repetitive work

Admin isn’t selling. The best teams automate scheduling, reminders, data entry, enrichment, qualification scoring, and follow-up tasks. The aim is straightforward – more selling time without more headcount.

11They refine their process continually

Sales improvement isn’t a quarterly initiative. It’s ongoing operational work. Top teams run short optimisation cycles, test new approaches, update documentation, retrain reps, and enhance workflows. Their process evolves with their market.

The real difference?

High-performing teams don’t assume the process works – they ensure it does. They operate with transparency, discipline, and continuous improvement. They build a revenue engine designed to scale.

Final thought

If your sales results feel inconsistent, the issue rarely sits with individuals. It sits with the process they’re operating inside. The teams that outperform aren’t just better at selling – they’re better at creating the conditions for selling to succeed.

If you’d like support assessing or strengthening your sales process, our team can help you map it, diagnose gaps, and build a more reliable engine for revenue growth.

Discover our sales consultancy offering

Over Half of Pipeline Loss Comes From This One Process Gap

Posted on by Hannah Sanders
Sales Process Assessment & Audit - Air Marketing, Sales Specialists in the UK

Sales leaders often assume pipeline loss comes down to objections, budget, competition, or shaky follow-up. Those factors play a role – but the data points somewhere far more fundamental.

Research shows that in 54.5% of deals*, there is a misalignment between buyer and seller on the core problem that needs solving.

Not poor product knowledge. Not bad proposals. Not inadequate closing technique. The real damage starts in the very first meaningful conversation.

The consequence? When you miss the real problem in discovery, everything downstream becomes harder: qualification, proposal, negotiation, forecasting, and renewal.

Misalignment begins earlier than you think

When sellers and buyers aren’t aligned on the problem, everything downstream loses precision:

  • Qualification becomes subjective and driven by “gut feel” rather than clear criteria.
  • Messaging becomes generic, because the real commercial pain isn’t fully understood.
  • Proposals miss the true decision drivers, so deals slow down or stall.
  • Forecasting becomes skewed, and a high percentage of deals drift into “no decision”.

This isn’t a skills issue. It’s a process issue.

Why this process gap exists

In our work with sales teams, we see three common causes.

1. Discovery isn’t clearly defined in the process

Teams assume discovery is happening because calls are happening. But without a shared structure, the quality varies wildly.

2. Reps mistake rapport for qualification

Conversations feel “good”, so opportunities get progressed — despite vague commercial impact or urgency.

3. Leaders mirror their top performer – and assume everyone else does too

The rest of the team rarely replicates the same discipline, resulting in inconsistency disguised as pipeline.

This is why your pipeline feels unpredictable

If early-stage conversations lack clarity, later-stage accuracy becomes impossible.

  • Your pipeline looks full, but a significant percentage isn’t genuinely qualified.
  • Forecasts lean towards optimism because deals appear more progressed than they are.
  • Deals seem to “drop out” suddenly when they were never truly aligned in the first place.

A structured review separates a pipeline that looks healthy from one that truly converts.

Fixing the process gap that loses half your deals

A proper assessment of your sales process reveals where discovery is breaking down. A robust review should examine:

  • Whether discovery is consistent across the team — not just your highest performers.
  • Whether you uncover the real business problem, not surface-level needs.
  • Whether progression criteria create clarity — or add noise.
  • Whether your qualification model helps or hinders prioritisation.
  • Where real behaviours differ from your documented process — and why.

When teams fix this one structural gap, conversion lifts across the entire funnel — not through new tools but because every deal starts with clarity.

*Source: Corporate Visions – Reality Gap Study indicating that in 54.5% of deals, buyers and sellers are misaligned on the core problem to be solved.

If you’re seeing stalled deals, inconsistent forecasting, or a pipeline that looks busy but doesn’t convert, this is the most likely root cause.

Our Sales Process Assessment & Audit helps reveal the gaps your team can’t see internally – including exactly where discovery is falling short and what needs to change.

Reveal the gaps in my sales process

Is Now the Right Time to Review Your Sales Process?

Posted on by Hannah Sanders

Sales teams are under pressure to deliver predictable revenue. Yet in many organisations, results still hinge on individuals rather than systems. If momentum is carrying you further than method, it may be time to assess whether your sales process is built for the market you sell to today.


Here are ten triggers to help you self-qualify whether a sales process review should be on your agenda.

  1. Deals are taking longer to close

    Sales cycles are stretching out even though your opportunity mix hasn’t changed. That often points to unclear qualification, poor deal control or weak next-step management – all process issues.

  2. Forecasts feel more like guesswork than strategy

    If you’re relying on gut feel or last-minute spreadsheet updates, your pipeline data isn’t giving reliable visibility. A clear, consistent process drives forecasting accuracy and decision-making confidence.

  3. Your new hires take too long to ramp up

    When success depends on individual experience rather than a repeatable framework, onboarding becomes slow and inconsistent. A well-defined structure helps new reps perform faster and more predictably.

  4. Sales and marketing aren’t telling the same story

    If outbound says one thing, your website says another, and content doesn’t match either, prospects get confused and conversion suffers. Misalignment is usually a process gap, not a comms problem.

  5. Your CRM is full of noise

    Duplicates, deals with no next step, or opportunities marked “open” for months are classic red flags. When reps stop trusting the data, the system stops being useful – and leadership loses visibility.

  6. You’re hearing “no decision” more than “no thanks”

    Quiet prospects often signal a process that doesn’t guide clear next steps or reinforce urgency. Strong processes create momentum; weak ones stall it.

  7. Top performers succeed despite the process

    If results come from individual brilliance, not team-wide consistency, your system isn’t doing enough of the heavy lifting. A strong process should elevate everyone.

  8. You’ve added more tools… but things haven’t got faster

    When your stack feels more like a to-do list than a time-saver, tech and process are misaligned. Tools add value when they serve the system – not when they replace it.

  9. You can’t easily explain what “good” looks like

    If definitions of success vary between reps or managers, your process isn’t clear enough to drive consistent performance or meaningful coaching.

  10. You’re relying on experience, not evidence

    If decisions about pipeline, messaging or performance still lean on “what’s always worked”, your process hasn’t evolved with your market. Modern buyers expect modern systems.

Where to start

Reviewing your sales process doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means identifying what works, where friction lives, and how to create clarity and control across every stage of the buyer journey.

That’s exactly what our Sales Consultancy delivers – auditing your current approach, aligning people, process and technology, and building a framework that improves forecasting, performance management and pipeline visibility.

Explore our sales consultancy services

5 Common Gaps Exposed: Sales Process Audit Insights

Posted on by Hannah Sanders

Behind every underperforming sales team, there’s usually a broken process. Without structure and clarity, even the best teams struggle to build momentum and scale.

When done properly, a sales process audit reveals the hidden gaps holding back sales performance. From the hundreds of sales process audits we’ve delivered, five clear gaps appear time and time again:

1. Sales Conversations That Lack Structure

Too many salespeople are left to ‘freestyle’ their conversations, particularly in discovery calls. Without structure, messaging drifts, qualification suffers, and deals stall later in the process because the groundwork was never properly laid.

In every sales process audit, we assess how your team runs their conversations: the questions they ask, how they position value, and how well those conversations align with modern buying journeys.

2. No One’s Quite Sure What the Official Process Is

If your process isn’t clearly defined and documented, it doesn’t really exist. All too often, we find sales process documentation is outdated, inconsistent, or simply ignored. That leaves reps interpreting stages differently, pipeline reviews becoming subjective, and deals moving at uneven speeds.

A sales process audit digs into whether your documented process truly reflects what’s happening in real sales conversations – and, importantly, whether your team actually follows it.

3. Collateral That Doesn’t Close Deals

Outdated decks. Generic case studies. Content that speaks more to you than to your buyers. We see it all the time. Even worse, reps often don’t know what resources they have, or they’re forced to create materials on the fly.

We evaluate the quality, accessibility, and effectiveness of your sales collateral. The right tools should equip your team to have more impactful conversations – not hold them back.

4. Data That Can’t Be Trusted

If you can’t trust your data, you can’t forecast, coach, or scale effectively. We frequently uncover reporting issues: pipeline stages that don’t reflect reality, fields left incomplete, or inconsistent logging that makes conversion rates impossible to track accurately.

We dig into whether your data reflects true pipeline health, where deals are being lost, and which behaviours are driving wins. Without reliable data, decision-making is just guesswork.

5. Tech That Slows You Down

Sales technology should be an accelerator – but more often than not, it becomes a drag. We regularly find stacks bloated with overlapping platforms, poor integration, and underused features. The result? Reps spend more time managing systems than selling.

A sales process audit evaluates your stack from top to bottom: adoption, automation, and efficiency. The goal is to streamline and optimise – so tech becomes a genuine enabler of sales success.

Conclusion

If any of these gaps sound familiar, you’re not alone – most organisations experience at least one (if not all five). The difference lies in identifying them early and putting in place the structures, tools, and processes to fix them.

Sales Process Assessment & Audit Artwork Featuring Shaun Weston at Air Marketing

Ready to uncover the gaps in your sales process?

At Air, we specialise in helping businesses optimise sales performance through our Sales Process Audit.

This detailed assessment highlights strengths, uncovers gaps, and identifies opportunities for improvement – helping you increase conversion rates, shorten sales cycles, and drive sustainable growth.

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