When it comes to intellectual property (IP), many business leaders overlook the fact that how their organisation sells to customers is, indeed, vital IP.

More often than not, the sales function of a business is presided over by people who know what they’re doing to achieve sales, but the knowledge these team members have is very often contained only inside their heads.

What does this mean? It means the IP belongs to the individual, rather than the business.

So, what happens if these people leave the company before their knowledge can be extracted? Or when a new person is onboarded and is expected to make sales, but they can’t get easily get inside the heads of those with the knowledge to help them do that?

In order to avoid these scenarios, it’s paramount this sales IP is comprehensively captured and in a way that captures the nuances of the people who’ve spent so long perfecting the process. What that means is that your organisation needs a customised process, not a cookie cutter approach.

Our unique approach, which we’ve refined over many years, involves helping businesses map out the process already being used – from the first conversation with a potential client all the way through to closing the deal and maximising that client’s potential – and then place that into a framework.

We take your business’ positioning into account, make the process practical, develop it where necessary and add in some best practice sales strategies. We then review and refine it all and consider if any recruitment needs to take place to reach your organisational goals.

Once complete, you have a powerful business tool that other team members can embrace and follow to reach sales targets.

This tool is primarily used to:

• Help sales managers understand what various employees should be doing at different phases of the sales process. The tool assists your managers to better manage the people handling the process. It also helps uncover where improvements can be made and what learning gaps may exist.

• Get new employees up to speed faster. Having a tool is much more efficient than each onboarded staff member having to figure the process out over time by trial and error (mostly error).

Failing to safeguard your sales process IP can have devastating consequences for a business and there’s really no reason not to do it because the process of capturing your process doesn’t have to be overly complicated and doesn’t take as long as you might think.

At its core, this approach is about process improvement but, as we’ve seen time and again, improving business development is often forgotten as other processes within the company are given priority. However, if closing more deals at the price point you want is essential to your organisation’s growth, ensuring your sales IP is cemented in writing and honed for success is essential.