Associate Client Partner
Sales Transformation
Adapting to Change: The Power of Dynamic Sales Processes
In a fast-evolving sales environment, organizations that embrace sales process automation stand to get ahead—especially if they start now.
How to Take Your Formal Sales Process a Step Further
Do you understand your customer?
If you’re running a sales organization worth its salt, we know you do.
And are you well-informed on the challenges your buyers are facing?
We bet you’re doing your best to keep up.
But is your sales organization equipped to keep up with these client changes—which we know are making the sales cycle longer, more complicated, and more transactional for most businesses?
That might be harder to answer.
The frustrating reality is that few modern sales organizations are set up to perfectly keep pace with the clients they serve. Different communication preferences, unclear sales processes, and rigid individual sales styles can make it tough to meet buyers where they are.
Your star rep’s trusty “two-week closing” blueprint may have worked for years, but it’s not much use when your customer pivots to a two-month decision window.
Here’s what you need to know about sales process automation—and what you can do now to reap the organizational and fiscal benefits of dynamic selling in the near future.
What Is a Dynamic Sales Process?
A dynamic sales process can help reduce the time needed to close deals in the current sales landscape.
“I think of it as a sales process that moves and evolves with the needs of your buyer,” explains Kimberly Bryant, an associate client partner at Korn Ferry.
Today, relatively few organizations are equipped to adapt their sales processes to changing client signals—at least, not quickly or seamlessly.
Some, for example, might tweak their processes every six months after reviewing some numbers related to buyer behavior. While this is better than not updating things at all, these updates tend to be clunky and reactive.
Technology is changing that—and fast. Dramatic advancements in the predictive analytic proficiency of artificial intelligence (AI), along with increased sales automation capabilities of customer relationship management (CRM) software are laying the groundwork for a new era. In this era, decisions about when and how sellers can flex to meet the market will be made constantly, automatically, and inconspicuously.
“You’re soon going to be able to have a guided practice in a way that you haven’t before,” says Bryant. “AI will be able to listen for signals that a buyer is starting to turn, or an opportunity is starting to grow cold, based on statistics and data.”
Salespeople will be able to handle a shift in customer mood or behavior proactively, and they’ll get data-driven intel about the best way to do this delivered right to their CRM dashboard. Bryant expects this degree of dynamic sales to be commonly used within the next two years.
Opportunity: Competitive Advantage
A dynamic process is fast becoming a sales best practice.
According to Korn Ferry’s 2024 Sales Maturity Survey, nearly one-third of top-performing sales teams leverage a dynamic sales process, compared to 18% of their peers. And best-in-class sales organizations update their sales processes nearly four times more often than others.
Benefits of Dynamic Sales
Dynamic sales processes hold a lot of promise for organizations—especially when powered by predictive and automated technology.
Dynamic selling:
- Is inherently client-centric because it puts the buyer needs ahead of seller habits
- Encourages more collaboration—both inside the sales organizations and with clients
- Equips salespeople to become more innovative in their problem-solving
“It allows you to think more in-depth about what’s needed in the marketplace to be successful,” says Bryant.
“Because you’ll understand your client better, you can truly collaborate with them to come up with a solution that’s meaningful for you both. It’s a more involved way of thinking about the sales process.”
Of course, this means that dynamic sales processes are great for business.
Opportunity: Better Sales Performance
Korn Ferry data shows that organizations with dynamic sales processes outpace those with a random or informal approach on virtually every sales metric:
- 7% higher revenue attainment
- 11% greater quota attainment
- 25% better win rates
- 26% less customer churn
Preparing for Dynamic Sales
If your organization is considering adopting a dynamic sales process, there are a few crucial things to do now.
1 Formalize Your Process
If you have not yet formalized the steps in the sales process at your organization—essentially, mapped out the sequence of activities you use to find and close business—doing so will greatly ease your ability to adopt a more dynamic flow.
“A formal sales process makes a massive difference compared to an informal one or none at all,” says Bryant. Note that a sales process is not the same as a sales methodology.
2 Standardize Client Examination
You need to know their preferences and pain points, but you also need to understand the external and internal factors that might influence what, when, and how they purchase. In the near future, AI and automation will do much of this heavy lifting, but instilling a learner’s mindset now will make a dynamic sales rollout far more successful.
“If you aren’t studying your customer, you’re missing a big puzzle piece,” Bryant says.
3 Prepare Your Sales Talent
The future of dynamic sales is data-driven and, to a degree, prescriptive, which might grate on salespeople who prefer to do things their way.
Bryant recommends assessing your team to identify which individuals might be resistant to change, developing professional development strategies to coach all reps through the transition, and enlisting some high-performing early adopters to drum up enthusiasm.
“This new process does involve a mindset shift,” explains Bryant. “When you start to understand what a successful salesperson looks like amid this shift, you can start to develop a blueprint.”
Opportunity: Sales Process Optimization
Korn Ferry’s 2024 Sales Maturity Survey found that sales teams that combine dynamic sales methodologies with comprehensive CRM use get four times more sales wins than organizations only using CRMs.
Sales Effectiveness
Breakthrough to immediate, predictable and sustainable sales effectiveness
Sales Processes Must Evolve
In a fast-changing sales environment, incorporating a dynamic sales process is not only smart business. It’s a competitive imperative.
“It will come down to how many deals your sellers could have won if they were following a guided process that made sense, versus deals they lost because they weren’t clear where the buyer was headed, or because they weren't reading the signals,” says Bryant.
“If you develop a robust sales process that can become dynamic, you can build the foundation for your sales organization to meet the changing dynamics of buyers.”
Find out how to fast-track sales transformation to help your sales team prepare for the future and secure more wins.
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