The 5 Steps To a Better Sales Process
Sales isn’t just about persuasion, pitches, or personalities. It’s about process - the sales process.
Most businesses focus on improving production, operations, and finance through tried-and-tested systems. But sales? That’s often left to chance.
At Lean4Sales, we believe it’s time to change that. We take a sales process perspective - one that helps you simplify complexity, align your team, and better serve your customers. The Sales Phase Approach is a flexible, proven framework that brings structure to your sales and marketing activities.
Whether you’re just starting out or scaling a successful business, the approach helps you:
Improve your sales results
Reduce selling costs
Manage sales risks
Align your sales and marketing approach
Strengthen your B2B sales approach with clear, actionable steps
Why Sales Phases, Not Roles?
Most organisations are structured around roles - sales, marketing, customer service and operations - but these departments often operate in silos. This disconnect leads to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and confusion for customers.
The Sales Phase Approach is different. It breaks your sales process into five distinct sales pipeline stages, each focused on actions, not job titles. This lets you:
Align sales and marketing around shared outcomes
Pinpoint where prospects drop out of the sales funnel
Improve handovers between teams
Identify process bottlenecks and fix them fast
Create a more aligned and efficient customer journey
The 5 Sales Phases (Sales Process Steps)
The Sales Phase Approach breaks the sales journey into five interconnected phases, and these are the key sales process steps you’ll embody using our approach:
- Plan - Set the foundations by mapping your sales process, defining your goals, and aligning with how your customers buy.
- Find - Generate new leads and identify right-fit prospects.
- Win - Convert qualified leads into loyal customers through a structured, aligned sales process.
- Deliver - Ensure smooth delivery and excellent customer service that meets expectations and encourages repeat business.
- Keep - Build long-term relationships, encourage repeat purchases, and turn customers into brand advocates.
Each phase builds on the last and helps you establish a repeatable, scalable B2B sales approach that’s rooted in performance, not personality.
Not Just Another Sales Methodology
This isn’t a rigid script or theoretical framework. It’s a living, breathing system that works in the real world. The Sales Phase Approach draws from proven sales methodologies - including Lean, Six Sigma, TOC and TriZ - but makes them usable and understandable for busy business owners and sales teams.
We help you:
Define what success looks like in each phase
Map your current process to identify gaps
Align your activities with how your customers buy
Improve flow and reduce waste
Control performance using simple metrics and checklists
The Modern Sales and Marketing Approach
Today’s customers are more informed, more empowered, and more selective than ever before. That means your sales and marketing approach needs to be tightly aligned - working together, not in isolation.
The Sales Phase Approach helps you:
Sync marketing messages with real customer needs
Build a connected journey from awareness to advocacy
Use data and feedback to improve conversion and retention
Understand what’s working at every stage of the funnel
This unified, process-driven approach is what separates growing businesses from those that struggle to scale.
Built for Sales Teams and Solo Founders Alike
Whether you’re a sales director managing a growing team or a solopreneur juggling multiple hats, this approach adapts to your reality. It helps you ask critical questions like:
Where am I losing leads in my sales pipeline stages?
Which phase am I strongest in - and which needs work?
What does “good” look like at each step of the sales process?
How do I make this scalable without losing the personal touch?
Next Steps
You’re about to explore each of the five sales phases in more detail - starting with Plan. In each phase, you’ll find guidance, tools, and simple exercises to help you:
Define your goals
Measure what matters
Analyse what’s holding you back
Improve flow and efficiency
Control outcomes with confidence
With just a few simple tools and a commitment to thinking in phases, you can dramatically improve your customer experience and your bottom line.
This is more than a sales method - it’s a mindset shift!
By the end, you’ll have a streamlined, end-to-end sales system built to grow with you.