Welcome to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the sales team at BuildUp Bookings. This document outlines the procedures and best practices that ensure the effective handling of leads, maintenance of our CRM platform (Pipedrive), and the overall efficiency of our sales activities.
Our goal is to provide a clear and consistent framework for managing sales processes, executing daily, weekly, and monthly sales activities, and maintaining CRM hygiene. By adhering to these guidelines, we aim to enhance our lead management, improve data accuracy, and ensure that our sales operations run smoothly.
This SOP is divided into three main sections:
- Sales Process: This section details the steps to be taken when handling incoming leads, from initial verification to follow-up actions, ensuring that each lead is managed efficiently and effectively.
- Sales Activity: Here, we outline the routine tasks that need to be performed daily, weekly, and monthly to keep our sales pipeline active and organized. These activities are designed to maintain the smooth operation of Pipedrive and support the overall sales process.
- CRM Hygiene: This section covers best practices for maintaining the cleanliness and accuracy of our CRM data. It includes guidelines for handling spam, updating data fields, and managing multiple contacts within an organization.
By following these procedures, our sales team can provide a high level of service to our clients, ensure that our CRM data remains accurate and up-to-date, and ultimately drive the success of BuildUp Bookings.
For general Pipedrive knowledge, it’s best to watch this overview video from Paul M.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Sales Team #
Overview #
This SOP is designed to streamline the sales processes, activities, and CRM hygiene practices for BuildUp Bookings. It ensures consistency, efficiency, and accuracy in handling leads and maintaining our CRM platform, Pipedrive.
Before getting started, it’s much easier to enter data into Pipedrive with the Google Chrome / Gmail extension (install here).
1. Sales Process #
Handling Incoming Leads #
Step 1: Confirm Legitimacy
- Action: Verify if the lead is legitimate.
- Note: Delete any obvious spam from Pipedrive. Please do not enter the deal into any other staged (e.g: closed) as this impacts measuring what percentage of leads we’re closing. Deleting the deal is the best way to keep our data clean.
Step 2: Complete Custom Fields
Once you confirm it’s a legitimate lead, complete all of the key information on the deal card.
- Deal Source: Determine where the lead heard about us. Typically filled out during the first call.
- Website: Enter the lead’s domain name. If no website, it’s OK to leave this blank.
- Target Market(s): List the city and state for each market where the client has inventory. If there are more than 1 area(s) on the website, please list all areas separately.
- PMS System: Review the lead’s website to identify their PMS platform. Typically you can find this info in the footer of the website or by looking at the URL of each image on the property detail page. You can also review the owners portal login page which often is hosted by the PMS platform on their domain name.
- Number of Active Listings: Perform an undated search and note the number of active listings. Some websites do not allow undated searches, so you can also check the sitemap (domain.com/sitemap.xml most often) and or count the listings on their website manually.
- Interested in Digital Marketing Services: Often determined during the initial call or from the contact form.
- Interested in Website Services: Often determined during the initial call or from the contact form.
- Website CMS: Review the website to identify the CMS platform used.
Scenario 1: Call Booked on ‘Thank You’ Page
- Action 1: Confirm the meeting if it’s more than 72 hours away via phone and a personalized email.
- Action 2: Customize the email with relevant information or connections.
Scenario 2: Call Not Booked on ‘Thank You’ Page
- Action 1: Email the lead to offer a call.
- Action 2: Reach out via phone.
- Action 3: Connect on LinkedIn.
- Action 4: Visit the lead’s website and call any listed phone numbers to ask for the point of contact.
- Follow-Up Process:
- After 2 days without a booked call, send email reminders every 72 hours for 10 days (total of 4 follow-ups).
- If no response after 3 emails, send the “Magic Email”: “Since I have not heard from you on this, I have to assume your priorities have changed. We’ll go ahead and close your open file in our CRM platform. If we can help you down the road, let us know!”
- After the final email (10+ days of no response), mark the deal as Lost in Pipedrive with the reason “Did not follow up.”
Step 3: Naming Convention For Deals
- Name Deals: Use the naming convention:
Name Of Contact//Name Of Business // Services Interested In - Example:
Conrad O'Connell //Conrad's Cool Cabin Rentals // Digital Marketing // Website
Example of deal with the naming convention in place: the name of the signee / possible main point of contact to close the deal is Wyatt, whose company is Stewart Mountain Lodging and they are interested in marketing.
2. Sales Activity / Pipedrive Outputs Expected #
Daily Tasks #
- Review New Leads (As Often As Possible): Process new leads and complete the data enrichment (the fields above) and meeting booking process.
- Update Leads: Update all worked leads at the end of the day and adjust their deal stage as needed.
- Remove Spam: Delete any clear spam deals that were auto created based on the contact form.
- Complete Product Summary: Based on your knowledge of the lead’s interests. It is easy to adjust the product summary if your assumption is wrong, but quickly judging each deal based on the revenue potential will help prioritize efforts.
- For example: Single property hosts are likely all “Course” only customers, so tagging them as Course will help contextualize the value of working that deal in Pipedrive. If it turns out later they’re willing to invest into a website or a digital marketing package, it’s straightforward to adjust the Product Summary on the deal card.
Weekly Tasks #
- Next Action Item (NAI): Ensure every deal has a defined NAI. Typically this is a follow up email to check on next steps (e.g: booking the next call, gaining access to Google Analytics, completing an audit, ect) or it could be a regular follow up if a lead is going cold (connecting via phone to make a plan for next steps).
- Internal NAIs (e.g., research information, prepare a proposal).
- External NAIs (e.g., waiting for the client to provide information).
- The ‘yellow flag’ on each deal indicates that zero tasks are assigned -> the goal is to have zero (or as close to zero as possible) yellow flags as next action items.
- Product Accuracy: Confirm all products are correctly added based on the scope of work or proposal. Adjust the base retainer if needed.
Monthly Tasks #
- Report Review: Run a report to review all deal activities and include it in the final weekly report of the month for team review in Basecamp.
- Complete Your Quota: Measure your closed deals each month and measure against your quota of 2 deals per month closed (new business, upsells, ect).
3. CRM Hygiene #
Best Practices #
- Spam Management: Delete spam quickly to avoid confusion.
- Data Accuracy: Regularly review (monthly or quarterly is a good cadence) and update data fields as they can change over time (e.g., a client switching from Hostfully to Guesty).
- Data Cleanliness: Ensure data is clean and tidy to support accurate reporting and sales efforts.
- Multiple Contacts: Add all relevant contacts (e.g., CEO, Marketing Manager, Lead Reservationist) to Pipedrive and associate them with the organization.
This SOP ensures that our sales processes are efficient, our activities are organized, and our CRM remains clean and functional. Consistent adherence to these procedures will improve our lead management and overall sales effectiveness.
