If you want to unlock the true potential of your sales time, then you should audit the sales process regularly. Just knowing how to audit sales isn’t enough; devising ways to escape through the loopholes is also crucial. You should know if the sales audit process that you are using is actually made for your business model or not.

Have you tried every possible method to elevate your sales, and nothing worked for you? Do you find it challenging to recognize the top ways to plan and forecast sales? 

If yes, you are certainly not alone in the boat. 

Businesses often forget that sales planning and forecasting go hand-in-hand. If you don’t have a sales strategy, it becomes really hard for sales reps to set goals and hit targets timely when they don’t value the power of spoken words. In addition, making a business case for business activities and expenses also becomes really hard. 

Most businesses aim to generate at least two dollars against every dollar spent. A return to spending ratio of 2:1 might seems ideal for the majority of businesses, you can get even more, and the secret lies in your sales process. 

Sales Revenue is the Headache of the Sales Team, Right? A Big Fat NO. 

The ability of your sales team to pitch leads, follow up with them, qualify them, and close the deal will not only drive revenue for your business but also solidify your reputation in the market. As a result, your organization can justify the amount spend on events, paid ads, and campaigns based on the number of leads and customers the expense will attract. 

For example, suppose the marketing team has estimated that investing in a podcast sponsorship will generate roughly 150 leads. In that case, the sales team will have to perform historically to convert those leads into customers. 

Let’s suppose the marketing team directs 50% of the leads to the phone calls and successfully closes around 25% of deals. It means the organization will get 18 new customers. The next step is to predict more accurately whether those customers will bring enough revenue to the organization to cover the advertisement and other costs. It can be done by considering the business model that the firm is using. However, you need to do a sales audit to get this information. 

So, what does sales audit mean?

Generally speaking, audits are a powerful tool to assess the performance of your team. It is also a great way to determine the pitfalls where you can improve to realize the revenue goals. Though a sales audit might sound like a complex process at first, it is quite straightforward. Each component of the sales cycle is analyzed to know what is working and what’s not. It also identifies the holes, gaps, and bottlenecks that hinder the process of closing deals. 

It won’t be wrong to say that a sales audit is an in-depth analysis of historical sales and marketing data to scrutinize the sales funnel completely. As sales audit is more of quantitative audit work, a lot of organizations opt to combine it with qualitative (win/loss call) audits.

You should bear in mind that both sales and marketing teams both should be involved in the process of sales audit. 

How Does Sales Audit Work?

A sales audit works as a positive critique to improve the operational processes, organization structure, and sales & marketing strategies to achieve the set goals. While deciding how to audit sales, leaders get to chose to either have internal personnel to do the audits or outsource the task to an expert agency. 

The findings of sales audit are used as the basis of making future decisions on policies, product education, and sales funnel 

Before jumping into how to audit sales, let’s have a look at internal and external factors that sales audit assess. 

External Factors

External factors that affect the performance of a sales team should be taken into account while doing the sales audit. The potential of sales staff to achieve set goals while combating the ever-changing demand of the product or service serves as the major deciding factor. 

Sales audits also determine how well the sales team has handled the downturns in the business cycle. 

Internal Factors

If you want to get optimal results, you shouldn’t limit the inquiries to the sales staff only. It is better to examine how the internal environment of the company can hinder or boost sales efforts. Communication channels, company culture, and leadership styles are some eminent contributing factors. An ingenious auditor will ask executives, sales managers, and sales reps about their techniques to develop and implement sales strategies. 

How to Audit Sales? The 6 Steps Process 

Your business model will work as the basis for your sales audit process. If you are wondering how to audit sales, here are a few components that every sales audit plan should have. 

• Assess the sales process

You must have built a funnel or process as a road map to attract leads and convert them into customers. You should identify the cracks from where your customers are falling. This is where you can spot the gaps with the help of prospects to lead, lead to qualified lead, qualified lead to close percentages. 

• Evaluate existing tools

Every sales team needs some tools to move visitors through the pipeline to convert into the lead. The most critical tool here is CRM, as it allows the sales team to manage the information related to leads, track their progress, and view analytics in one place.

• Analyze the sales resources 

More often, people think of content only as a part of the marketing process. However, you should know that content plays an important role in helping visitors leap to convert into customers. You can use things like webinars, case studies, product demonstrations, and comparisons to educate prospects and help them decide about the purchase.

• Ascertain the quality of leads

When you are looking at gaps in the sales funnel, be sure of determining the quality of leads. You should analyze if the prospects are being redirected from the marketing team even before maturing them. This is where the marketing cycle needs some adjustments. 

• Analyze your reporting method

Every business makes some reports by using the data in hand to measure the success periodically. Most of the sales coaches or managers overlook this step while learning about how to audit sales. 

You should assess if the reporting method is serving the sales team well or do you need to clean up the data to get a clear picture of the current situation. Try to judge if the sales team needs proper training about CRM or anything else that hinders success. 

• Assess sales team’s collaboration

Marketing and sales teams have to work together to get optimal results. The sales team especially needs to have a close relationship with accounts and marketing managers. In short, you should look for ways to create harmony and synergy across teams and departments. 

The Verdict

If you want to position your venture for growth and success, you should conduct a sales audit more often. No sales audit can take place in isolation. Therefore, you should sit down with your teams, talk about the sales results, and think of the ways to make them better. It is important to evaluate each component of the sales process to determine the roadblocks to meet the revenue goals.