Sales Process

How To Define A Sales Process That Wins

Designing a stage-gated sales process that mirrors the buyer’s journey, not just the seller’s wishful thinking.

The Answer
Map the buyer’s actual journey, define 5-7 stages, write exit criteria as buyer commitments (not seller activities), enforce in the CRM, train every quarter, revise yearly.

Overview

A sales process is not a list of stages in your CRM. It’s a shared model of how customers actually buy.

Most sales processes fail because they describe what the rep is doing, not what the buyer is doing.

A good process replaces seller activity with buyer commitment.

Steps

  1. Map your buyer’s actual journey. Interview 5-10 recent buyers.
  2. Define 5-7 stages.
  3. Write exit criteria for each stage as buyer commitments, not seller activities.
  4. Pressure-test with your top 3 reps.
  5. Embed the process in the CRM with required fields and validation.
  6. Train every rep, every manager, every quarter.
  7. Review and revise annually.
Pro Tip
MEDDPICC, Force Management’s Command of the Message, and Sandler are useful scaffolds, but pick one and adapt it.
Watch Out
Don’t over-engineer the process for your most complex deals. Build for the median deal.

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About The Author

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Nate Broome
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Nate Broome
Founder
Nate Broome is known for building high-performing, operationally rigorous sales teams—and for the journey that shaped how he leads them. Starting as a top-performing individual contributor, Nate quickly learned that personal success doesn't scale. His transition into SDR leadership taught him how to coach, create structure, and drive consistency across a team. As a sales leader, he developed a deep appreciation for process, pipeline discipline, and cross-functional alignment. And at the executive level, he's learned that the real leverage comes from setting vision, building leaders, and creating systems that scale beyond any one person.
Along the way, Nate has been mentored by and learned from industry leaders like Manny Medina, Mark Kosoglow, Harish Mohan, and Anna Baird—shaping his perspective on what it takes to build modern, high-performing revenue organizations.
With leadership experience at companies backed by Sequoia, Accel, ICONIQ, Greylock Partners and other top tier firms, Nate has operated across every stage of growth—from early pipeline generation to enterprise-scale revenue operations. He's been described as "process-driven leader who knows how to get big things done" and "a visionary sales leader who always sees 2–3 steps ahead."
A University of Washington alum based in Seattle, Nate founded Tech Sales Coach to pay forward the insights and mentorship that shaped his career—equipping sales leaders at every stage with practical, field-tested coaching to build high-performing teams and evolve into impactful, scalable executives.
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