Building a Sales Process Map

and why does it feel like it's always the first project we do?

Sales leaders often walk in with a mandate… "fix what's broken." For many, that starts with the sales process. But too often, that impulse leads to unnecessary reinvention, not strategic improvement. I’ll dive into what I often joke about as the first thing a sales leader will want to fix when they come in. I joke around because it happens so often, but they’re often not wrong. Making changes to the sales process will help the business.

But if done incorrectly it becomes an exercise in cosmetically changing the stage names in your CRM. In my own professional opinion, Revenue Operations and Sales Enablement can be the strategic linchpins in getting it right.

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How Often Do Sales Leaders Change the Sales Process?

More than you’d think.

In my experience, sales leaders attempt to make changes to the sales process within their first 90 days. The intent is usually to “clean up,” “align to methodology,” or “mirror what worked at their last company.” But these changes often happen before they’ve had enough context on the actual customer journey or internal constraints (like CRM configuration or enablement bandwidth).

Sales leaders often feel pressure to demonstrate value quickly. This is evident with their short tenures of 18 months, and according to Sam Jacobs, CEO of Pavilion, that tenure is now shrinking to 16 months. That’s a mountain of pressure. As a result, they may:

• Implement new sales stages, qualification criteria, or reporting requirements

• Adjust CRM workflows and pipeline management practices

• Introduce new training or enablement programs

However, there is a risk these changes are frequently made before the leader has a full understanding of the actual customer journey or internal operational constraints, such as 1/ the current CRM system’s configuration and limitations, 2/ the sales team's enablement bandwidth and capacity for change, and 3/ existing cross-functional dependencies with marketing, product, or customer success teams.

Making early changes without sufficient context can lead to quite a few issues:

• Disruption in sales team performance and morale

• Misalignment with how customers actually buy

• Increased administrative burden or confusion due to CRM or process misfits

Why Do Leaders Want to Change the Process?

Aside from having had success at your last company with this playbook, here are some legitimate drivers:

• Underperformance: Lagging win rates, low conversion between stages, or long cycle times trigger re-evaluation.

• Misalignment: Marketing, sales, and CS aren't speaking the same language or working from the same definitions.

• Methodology Mandate: New leadership wants to apply MEDDIC, Challenger, or another framework because there is a severe lack of deal inspection

• Forecast Inaccuracy: Poor stage hygiene and rep subjectivity kill forecast reliability.

• Tech Stack or Territory Changes: Moving from SMB to Enterprise motion or launching new products demands new motion. Your current playbook just won’t work with the new market you’re going after

Often, it's a mix of all five.

How Do You Know You're Bringing in the Right Sales Process?

A good sales process is customer-aligned, rep-friendly, and analytics-ready process. Here are a few questions to consider:

• Does this reflect the buyer’s journey, not just our internal steps?

• Are the stages clear and actionable for reps?

• Can this process be measured effectively in CRM?

• Does it align to the GTM strategy (inbound vs outbound, PLG vs sales-led)?

• Can we build enablement and systems around this without months of rework?

A simple but powerful test: Run 3-5 real deals through the new process map. If it feels like a natural fit, you’re on the right track. If it’s more "wishful thinking," iterate.

Here’s a video of me walking through a Sales Process Map. It’s a tool I like to create alongside the bowtie funnel.

How Can RevOps and Enablement Support the Transition?

This is where I give a shout out to all Revenue Operations (MOPs, SOPs, CSOPs, etc.) and enablement folks out there. We can help bring these big bold ideas to life.

• Map the current state using CRM data, deal reviews, and sales rep feedback.

• Validate where drop-offs happen and tie them to process gaps or misaligned definitions.

• Co-design the future state with Sales, Enablement, and Product Marketing.

• Rebuild the CRM (stage logic, validation rules, automation) to support the new process.

• Create dashboards that tell the story of where deals are succeeding and stalling.

Enablement can:

• Train reps on the “why” behind each stage

• Develop content and talk tracks aligned to each step

• Align deal reviews and coaching to the updated process

If you don’t know where to start. I highly recommend drafting these processes down on paper. Before you do anything in Salesforce make sure that your process has buy-in with your stakeholders. Then you have the processes built out in your sandbox. Demo it and work on that change management!

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From the archive

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What If You Don’t Have RevOps or Enablement to Support This?

You’re not stuck, but it ain’t going to be easy. Here are some real-world alternatives:

• Leverage Revenue Leaders: Ask your frontline managers to crowdsource deal breakdowns and manually map patterns.

• Hire Fractional Experts: A part-time RevOps consultant can help design and deploy a process map in 4–6 weeks.

• Use Templates (like the one we linked): Start with a framework — then adapt based on your pipeline shape and cycle length.

• Lean into your CRM Admin: They may not be strategists, but they can help bring structure to chaos when given clear instructions.

If you’re in the middle of a process transformation give me a shout. Good luck out there!

The template you saw on the screen available for paid members.