Sales Process Diversity

I've been helping a small division of a very large company implement our CRM solution. It's been a unique experience as I've been playing two roles on the project - Technical Consultant and Functional Consultant. The best part about the Functional Consulting role is that you get to learn about the customer's business processes at an even greater depth and breadth than you typically do as a Technical Consultant.

This particular customer has a very unique sales process. They're selling products whose costs are heavily influenced by commodity metals prices and their sales cycle is quite long - typically 18+ months. It's been fascinating to see how those two factors have influenced the way that they sell their products.