Why business owners should care about the steps
Textbooks describe five, six or seven steps, but the logic never changes: understand the customer first, make an offer second. For an owner, the model is also a diagnostic tool. When revenue drops, it is easy to blame advertising or competitors. Break the customer journey into steps and you can see exactly where people drop out.
A familiar picture in Tashkent: a company runs Instagram ads, messages arrive in direct and Telegram, the manager replies with a price list and waits. The customer writes that it is expensive and disappears. The ad did its job, the sale did not happen, and the budget was spent for nothing.
The seven steps in order
Use this as a starting point and adapt it to your business. The names matter less than every team member understanding each step the same way.
- Preparation. Know the range, stock and terms; in B2B, know the company and its history with you.
- Opening contact. Greet, introduce yourself, ask if it is a good moment to talk or type. No pressure, no small talk that drags on.
- Discovering needs. Open questions about the task, clarifying questions about details, a choice between speed and price. The most underrated step.
- Presentation. Not the whole catalogue, only what answers what the customer just told you.
- Handling objections. Too expensive, I will think about it, others are cheaper: each one signals missing information or trust.
- Closing. A direct proposal for the next step: place the order, book a specific day, choose delivery.
- Follow-up. Check the customer received the product or service and leave a reason to come back.
Where conversations usually break
The first common mistake is jumping straight to the presentation. A customer asks the price of a sofa or a course, the manager sends a catalogue and asks nothing. The seller does not know which room it is for, what the budget is, or when delivery is needed, so any offer misses.
The second is treating an objection as an argument. When someone says it is expensive, they rarely mean only the price. They may be comparing with a listing on OLX or Uzum, doubting the quality, or confused about instalments. Ask what is behind the words, answer that, then check whether the answer was enough.
The third is never asking for the sale. The conversation went well, everything was explained, yet nobody said, shall we confirm the order? The customer leaves to think and buys from whoever asked. If the buyer is not ready, agree on a specific next contact instead of a vague message us if you need anything.
How the steps change by business type
In a cafe or a clothing shop the whole cycle takes minutes and the steps almost merge. In Telegram it stretches out: the customer replies with long pauses and the manager must remember where the talk stopped. In B2B each step can be a separate call or meeting, with several people involved in the decision.
So do not memorise someone else's scheme. Write down your own: what happens at each step, which questions you ask, which phrases work.
How to find the weak step
You do not have to rebuild everything at once. Find the one step that fails more often than the others.
- Collect real conversations: chats and call recordings, with customers told about recording.
- Sort them by step and mark where each conversation stalled.
- Write questions and sample phrases for the weak step.
- Practise with the team on real situations, then review again.
Steps in your CRM and in your advertising
If every step is a separate status in your CRM, the owner sees where deals get stuck. Plenty of leads sitting at presentation and few payments means the problem is objections or closing, not traffic. Without that insight, raising the ad budget simply produces more lost customers.
Sales and marketing meet here too: the promise in the ad should match what the manager says during the presentation, otherwise the customer feels a bait and switch.
A model, not a script
A real customer may start with an objection or say at once what they need, and then extra questions only irritate. Holding back a ready buyer with unnecessary questions loses the sale as well. A good seller understands the logic of the steps and adapts to the person.
If you want to connect your sales process with advertising, CRM and analytics, the markdev team can help build a strategy for your business. Tell us about your task and we will discuss where to begin.
FAQ
How many steps does a sales process have?
There is no single number; sources use five to seven. What matters is that your steps are written down and every seller reads them the same way.
Which step matters most?
Usually discovering needs. It decides how accurate your presentation is and how easily objections get resolved.
Must I follow the steps strictly in order?
No. The model explains the logic, but customers may state their need immediately or raise doubts at the start. Adapt to the person.
How do I know at which step I lose customers?
Review real chats and calls by step and set up the steps as CRM statuses. The place where deals stall most often is your weak point.
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