6 | Your Sales Process: What Happens Between “I’m Interested” and “I’m Ready to Buy”?

What happens after Marketing gets someone interested in your business—but before she decides to buy?That space is Sales.And in a small business, it can be surprisingly easy to have all the mechanics of getting clients—content, email, inquiry forms, sales calls, proposals, contracts and payments—without ever intentionally designing what happens to someone's interest once you've earned it.In this episode of Sustainable Foundations, we're looking at what Sales is actually responsible for and why it is different from Marketing.Because your Sales process isn't just a sales call or the moment someone says yes.It's what helps the right person move from:“I'm interested...”to:“I've decided.”And different people may need very different things to get there.A new email subscriber who is just beginning to understand her problem isn't in the same place as someone who inquired three months ago and said “not yet.”And neither is in the same place as a past client who already knows and trusts you—and now has another problem you can solve.So how has your business been designed to recognize those differences and help the right person take the right next step?That's where Sales gets much more interesting than closing.We're talking about nurture, follow-up, buyer readiness, segmentation, offer fit, past clients, your Sales pipeline, and how the information you collect can help you understand not only how people buy—but what may be happening elsewhere in the business.And we're asking one of the bigger Sustainable Foundations questions underneath all of it:What happens to the interest, trust, and relationships your business has already built?Because if every future sale depends on you continually going out and generating brand-new attention, your Sales engine may be more dependent on you than you realize.In this episode, we talk about:The difference between Marketing and Sales—and why doing both jobs yourself can make that distinction difficult to seeHow technology can give us the mechanics of getting clients without requiring us to intentionally design the Sales function underneath themWhy Sales can feel so icky and the difference between helping someone make a decision and trying to make the decision for herWhat my customer service and retention experience at GEICO taught me about curiosity, structure and recognizing a real needWhy different buyers may need different things from Sales depending on where they are in the buying journeyHow nurture and follow-up can help someone continue moving toward a decision without pressuring her to buy todayWhy a new subscriber, a qualified “not yet,” an active prospect and a past client shouldn't necessarily be treated the same wayHow segmentation can help you act on what you know about someone's relationship with the business—not simply organize contacts with tagsHow past clients and previous prospects may represent relationships worth continuing rather than people you constantly replace with brand-new leadsWhy your Sales pipeline should give you visibility into the buying journey, not just potential revenueHow patterns in Sales can reveal questions about your Marketing, messaging, offers and broader customer journeyWhat it means to build a Sales engine that isn't entirely dependent on your ability to continually generate today's attentionThe question to take with youInstead of asking only:How do I get more leads?Ask:What is my business doing with the interest we've already earned?Can someone who isn't ready today continue developing her understanding and trust?Do you know what happens to a qualified prospect who says “not yet”?Can you recognize when a past client has another problem you solve?Can you see enough of the buying journey to know what might need to happen next?Because intentional Sales isn't about pushing every person toward the same yes.It's about understanding how people actually buy from your business—and designing what happens next accordingly.Coming nextMarketing gets her here.Sales helps her decide.And once she decides to trust you with her money, the business has to fulfill the expectations Marketing and Sales helped create.Next, we're moving into Delivery—and looking at how the promise becomes the experience your client actually receives.New Here? Start With the Bonus SeriesIf you’re new to Sustainable Foundations and want the story behind how we got here, start with the bonus episode series. I share the businesses, moves, unexpected turns, and