Turning prospects into paying customers is the goal of any sales organization. Companies that perform complex sales invest significant time, money, and human and system resources to attract, impress, and ultimately earn the business of each new customer so optimization of this process is critical to profit margins. Business process management (BPM) software provides organizations with a vehicle to improve complex sales processes and manage the prospect-to-customer lifecycle more effectively.

Something is missing from the complex sales process
The traditional complex sales process consists of three high-level stages – prospecting, on boarding, and fulfillment. The sales team engages prospects and builds relationships. Sales support and contracting teams help the sales team establish value, generate quotes, and create contracts that bring the prospect into the fold as a customer. Operations fulfills the new customer’s product and service requirements. These teams typically use specific, siloed technologies to accomplish their tasks.

Well-defined technology solutions exist for the prospecting and fulfillment stages of the prospect-tocustomer process. However, many organizations that practice complex sales struggle with the onboarding stage. On-boarding processes are by definition complex and fluid and require collaboration between multiple people and systems. For example, suppose a business equipment and services salesperson builds a relationship with a prospect, resulting in the prospect asking for a quote for 20 copiers, 15 color laser printers, and associated installation and set-up services.