Summary of the sales Engagement process and key skills required.

Alex Henneberg

January 2025

The SPEAR sales framework has been designed to help SMES and Startups address challenges such as:

• How to get more, higher quality, leads
• Identifying and pursuing the right opportunities
• Losing deals you could/should have won
• Long sales cycle times, with you giving ever-greater concessions to win a deal
• How to present your proposition so your prospect thinks it’s as great as you do
• Wasting time chasing the wrong opportunities; being ghosted.
• Building a scalable sales process.

SPEAR is a blueprint for a successful sales function, as summarised in Diagram 1 below:

The SPEAR framework comprises five core elements (Strategy, Plan, Engagement, Accelerators and Orchestration).  

The “SPAR” enablers (Strategy, Planning, Accelerators and Orchestration) are described in a separate blog (“Summary of the SPEAR Sales Enablers”).  They are principally the responsibility of sales and business management.

This blog deals with the six stages of the sales engagement process and their associated skills.  These are principally the responsibility of the salesperson to learn and manage.

Core Skill 1: Planning

This refers to the tactical planning of the day-to-day engagement with prospects and customers.  There are typically 4 levels of planning undertaken by a salesperson, derived from the Strategy and Sales Plan created by management and described.

1. Market or Territory Plan – Identifying the best prospects for you to pursue within a particular industry or market sector.
2. Account Plan – A plan for developing a particular account or opportunity that you have identified.
3. Deal or Sale plan.  The strategy and activities required to pursue and win a particular sale.
4. Call/Meeting/email etc – the most granular level of preparation, to ensure you and your customer gains value from each contact and that there is a plan to progress the opportunity in some way.

Core Skill 2: Generating Leads

Generating high-quality leads is a skill that requires creativity, consistency and the ability to speak directly to your audience’s pain points.  Necessary skills and capabilities to help generate leads include:

• Developing outbound strategies (eg cold calls and emails, LinkedIn outreach) and refining your inbound strategies (lead magnet content, social media, etc.).
• Leveraging networking and relationship-building as a way to generate organic referrals.
• Implementing tools for lead generation like CRMs and automated systems that can help you scale.

A solid lead generation strategy will help build a well-managed pipeline of potential opportunities and provides the foundation for the rest of the sales process.

Core Skill 3: Qualifying and Discovery

The process of qualifying prospects is often overlooked by Startups and SMEs, yet is a key step in ensuring you're not wasting time on leads that aren't a good fit.  

Zig Ziglar said “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”

The objective of this part of the sales process is to remove those obstacles, create ways they can be overcome, or agree to stop pursuing that opportunity.

Coaching sessions during this important stage can help by providing guidance and insight on:

• Making effective discovery calls – helping validate that you ask the right questions to understand your prospect’s needs, pain points, and decision-making process.
• Using frameworks like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) or MEDDIC to qualify prospects based on specific criteria.
• Maximising your limited resources by focusing on those deals that fit your ideal customer profile and where you can answer yes to the following key questions:
  • Will it happen?
  • Can we win?
  • How much do we want to win?

By getting better at qualifying, you’ll spend more time nurturing relationships with high-potential clients and avoid the frustration of chasing unqualified leads.

Core Skill 4: Presenting Proposals

A proposal is your opportunity to showcase how your product or service will solve your prospect’s specific problems. The key to an effective proposal presentation is making it about the customer, not about you.

SPEAR coaching sessions help Startups and SMEs:

• Present with a customer-centric approach, where the proposal addresses the client’s needs, goals, and pain points.
• Keep proposals concise and clear, focusing on outcomes rather than features.
• Tailor each proposal to highlight the unique value their solution brings, rather than a generic one-size-fits-all pitch.

A well-crafted proposal positions you as a trusted advisor, which makes it easier to move toward the next stage: negotiation and closing.

Core Skill 5: Negotiation and Close

Negotiation is often the most daunting part of the sales process. But with the right skills, it doesn’t need to be adversarial. Instead, it's about finding a mutually beneficial agreement where both parties feel valued, understood and satisfied.

In SPEAR coaching, we focus on:

• Building rapport to reduce tension and create a collaborative atmosphere.
• Recognizing buying signals and knowing when to pivot the conversation toward closing.
• Handling objections confidently and offering flexible solutions without compromising on value.
• Introducing effective negotiation skills such as mirroring, anchoring and your BATNA.
• Using effective closing techniques. The SPEAR approach advocates techniques described by James Muir in his book “The Perfect Close” and by Black Swan Ltd.

With the right skills, you’ll feel more confident and competent when the time comes to close the deal and move the relationship forward.

Core Skill 6: Delivering and Growing Customer Accounts

The sale doesn’t end when the contract is signed; this is a key time for Startups in particular, pivoting to deliver a smooth onboarding process and the agreed benefits expected by the customer. Customer satisfaction sets the stage for long-term growth - happy clients are your best source of repeat business and referrals.

The SPEAR workshops provide techniques and advice for:

• Delivering an exceptional customer experience that fosters loyalty and trust.
• Regularly checking in with customers to identify opportunities for upsells or cross-sells.
• Tracking customer success metrics to ensure they’re getting the most out of your product or service.
• Turning your existing clients into advocates, who can help generate referrals and new business.

By mastering the art of account management, you can not only retain clients but turn them into long-term partners who are happy to expand their relationship with you.

The Bottom Line: Why This Matters

For founders, SMEs, and anyone new to sales, SPEAR offers a holistic approach to implementing a successful sales function.  Four enabling functions (Strategy, Planning, Accelerators and Orchestration) and management of the six sales stages using the capabilities summarised in this blog.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of sales, you’ll have a clear, repeatable framework that takes you consistently and confidently from cold lead to long-term client.

With the right attitude, you’ll develop the resilience and confidence to overcome obstacles. With the right skills, you’ll know exactly what to do at each stage of the sales process to move deals forward. And with the right support, you’ll have the guidance and resources to keep improving and growing your sales success.

Sales isn’t magic—it’s a process that can be learned, honed, and perfected. If you’d like to hear more about how the SPEAR framework could be applied to your business to help you win more sales, please contact me via alex@spear-sales.com or the website www.spear-sales.com.

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