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What Is a Sales Process? How to Write One Anyone Can Run
If Only You Can Sell It, Your Sales Stop When You Do. Write the Steps Down, and Hand Them Over.
"Nobody sells it like I do." That feels like a strength until you get sick, take a week off, or simply run out of hours. A written sales process lists the steps of a sale in order so anyone you train can take the call, quote, close, and follow up the way you would. Here is how to build one from the steps you already use.
Last Updated: 11/02/2026 · Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
The Short Answer
What Is a Sales Process?
Textbook Definition
A sales process is a documented, repeatable sequence of steps that moves a prospective customer from first inquiry to completed sale and follow-up, with clear ownership of each step.
In Plain English
It is your way of selling, written down in order, so other people can do it too. A good sales process says what happens at each step, who can do it, and where the forms or sheets live, so the business keeps selling when the owner is not in the room.
Why It Matters
Why Does Selling Stall When the Owner Steps Away?
Many successful owners are the best salesperson in the business, and for a while that works. Every customer gets the owner's full attention. But growth stops at the edge of the owner's day. Nobody else can answer a quote request at four in the morning, and every inquiry waits in line behind the one person who knows how it goes.
That is the owner as bottleneck. A written sales process fixes it by turning what is in one head into steps on paper, with one name owning each customer so nothing falls through the cracks. It does not replace the owner. It frees the owner for the work only they can do.
Signs you have this problem:
- Every customer inquiry goes through you, no matter how small.
- Your team can do the work but has never quoted or closed a sale.
- Sales slow down or stop whenever you are sick or away.
- Your quotes, questions, and follow-ups live in your memory, not on paper.
- You are the only name on every open deal.
- You are working longer hours as sales grow, not fewer.
What It Looks Like
What It Looks Like When Every Sale Runs Through One Owner
From the Fabled Forest · Chapter 20
Fast Frankie runs a pizza business with two trucks and a wall of clothespins tracking every booking. Forty-one of them, every Saturday until spring, and every pin marked with an F. Frankie takes every call, writes every quote, closes every deal, and follows up in two-minute gaps. On the first cold morning of the year, Marco, who runs the kitchen, finds him asleep sitting up in truck two, a bitten slice still in his paw, after eleven straight hours of selling.
The winter market committee is coming back at two for an answer, and Marco knows the job and the price but has never once quoted a customer. Doctor Owl tells Frankie that selling alone is not a process, it is a bottleneck. Marco and the owl spend the morning borrowing what already works around the forest: a card of questions, a number-first quote sheet, a two-option close, a one-page agreement, a column for asking again, a did-it-arrive card, and a one-line extra offer. Marco writes them into eight steps, each with who can do it and where the sheet lives, and adds one rule: whoever puts up the pin owns the next step.
At two o'clock Marco runs the sale himself while Frankie sits silent on the tailboard. Marco asks what the event is for, gives the number first, offers two options that fit, and the committee picks both. He reads the agreement aloud, both sign, he sets a follow-up date, tucks in the delivery card, and offers a free dessert pizza the first night. She says yes. For the first time, the pin on the wall carries an M instead of an F.
Frankie's story is Chapter 20 of Sales for Small Businesses, Book 5 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series.
The Talon Way: Count Only the Closes
Make closes the only number. Count them, report them, and pay on them.
The total climbs every week, and everyone can see it.
Hundreds of closes, a line of returns stretching across the square, and no record anywhere of which customers actually stayed.
The Fix
How to Write a Sales Process in 4 Steps
No consultant binder and no software. Just the steps you already take, written so someone else can take them too.
List the steps you use today, in order.
Describe how a sale actually happens today, from first call to follow-up. Do not write the perfect version first. Marco's eight steps were mostly borrowed from things already working. This is the same idea as standard work in operations, applied to selling.
Name who can do each step and where its sheet lives.
Beside every step, list the people trained to run it and the place its form is kept: the question card, the quote sheet, the agreement. The goal is anyone trained can run it, not just you.
Put one name on every customer.
Whoever takes the inquiry owns its next step until the sale is done or closed out. Mark it on the board, the card, or the record. A shared list on your sales pipeline makes ownership easy to see.
Let someone else run it while you stay quiet.
Watch one full sale from start to finish and do not jump in. Take notes afterward, not during. Then fix the sheet, not the person. Review open sales together every week, the same habit covered in sales management.
Dr. Paul's Insight
The mistake Dr. Paul sees most is keeping the whole method in one person's head. It costs the business every day that person is sick, away, or simply worn out. A written process also makes results easier to check, because you can see which step a sale stalled at. If your business has outgrown the owner doing everything, a fractional COO can help you write and hand off the steps.
Sample: Marco's Eight-Step Sales Process
Here is the kind of sheet Marco wrote for the pizza trucks, rewritten as a template. Each step has who can run it and where its sheet lives.
| 1. Take the call | Anyone on the team. Put up a pin and initial it. That person owns the next step. |
| 2. Ask the questions | What is it, when, where, ready to book if the price works? Card on the hook by the window. |
| 3. Quote, number first | Quote sheet in the blue folder. |
| 4. Offer two that fit | Ask which suits them, then stop talking. |
| 5. Still deciding | Write the day you will check back on the pin and in the ledger. |
| 6. Yes | One-page agreement, signed, a copy for each side. Red folder. |
| 7. After delivery | Card asking whether everything arrived well. |
| 8. One more thing | One short offer that fits, free the first time. |
Illustration from the book. Who can run each step: Marco, Opal, or Dex. Swap in your own steps, your own people, and where your forms are kept.
Watch
Watch: Putting Your Plan and Operations on Paper
Two videos from Dr. Paul: an example marketing plan built on his Organize-Plan-Grow strategy, and a short tip on the operations section of a business plan. Both show how writing the steps down turns know-how into something a team can run.
What's in a Marketing Plan. Example Marketing Plan from Dr. Paul's Organize-Plan-Grow Strategy
Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA. (8:15)
Business Plan Writer's Tip #36 for Fresno, CA.: Business Plan Operations Section
Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA. (2:22)
From the Book
Read a Passage From Chapter 20
Chapter 20 · Sales Process
Asleep in Truck Two: A Fox’s Playbook
She went. The frost on the cobbles took her footprints. And Marco stood behind the hatch for a moment with the pen in his paw, looking at the page, with his keys on his belt and his heart going quietly and fast.
On the tailboard, Frankie swallowed the slice.
“Marco,” he said, very softly, “that was good.”
“You didn’t say anything,” said Marco.
“I know,” said Frankie. “I think that’s why.”
Read what happens on the square that same afternoon in Sales for Small Businesses, Book 5 of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series.
Get the Book on Amazon →FAQ
Sales Process Questions Owners Ask
What should a small business sales process include?
Is a sales process the same as a sales script?
How do I hand off selling if I am the best salesperson?
How often should I update my sales process?
Keep Going
Related Foundations
A sales process ties all twenty foundations together: the mindset, the quote, the close, and the follow-through. These pages are good places to revisit. New to a term on this page? Every one is in the sales glossary.
What Is Sales Management?
Hire, train, and pay for sales that stay sold.
What Is a Sales Pipeline?
Write every possible sale down by how far along it is.
What Is Discovery in Sales?
The questions to ask before you pitch anything.
How to Write a Sales Quote
Put what they get and what it costs on one page.
Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business consultant and author of Dr. Paul's Fabled Forest Business School Series. Want help writing a sales process your team can run without you? See growth plan and consulting options.
This page is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, financial, or other professional advice. Dollar figures are illustrations. The Fabled Forest and its characters are fictional. For decisions about your own business, consult a qualified professional.