Quality assurance or QA describes a deliberate, proactive, and systematic effort on the part of organizations to make sure that their processes, services, and products align with established quality standards and specifications before they are then released to the public. For instance, at SeraPrime, a Life Sciences company with focus on Fetal Bovine Serum, QA might involve checking to confirm that every abattoir producing raw materials is annually certified, comply with global industry standards and free of disease-infested or does not have any form of biological defects to ensure product integrity.
Similarly, in software engineering, QA involves conducting various tests that test and confirm an application’s usability, performance, security, and functionality. The contemporary commercial space has been designed so that every customer interaction, lead, and call can significantly contribute to an organization’s revenue prospects. QA is instrumental to customer satisfaction and has consistently contributed to driving up sales.
Market experts have noted that quality assurance is key to achieving consistency in sales processes. For instance, an organization’s quality assurance policy or manual might lay down the best practices or approaches that its sales representatives should adopt when interacting with leads or customers. Having a QA policy or manual helps to maintain a consistent approach to sales processes. Sales professionals have pointed out that an organization with a consistent sales process will record 48 percent more sales compared to an organization that does not have a consistent sales process.
Further, QA is instrumental in facilitating positive customer experience. When a sales professional adopts standard industry practices in the sales process, they are likely to have positive interactions with customers. Also, if the good or service that the sales professional is pitching to the potential customer is void of any form of defect, it will facilitate a positive reaction on the part of the customer.
A combination of QA in the sales processes and the quality of goods and services forms unique experiences that the customer has about a business and what it stands for. If the quality of the sales process and product or service meets the customer’s expectations, there is a high likelihood that they will become loyal patrons of the business and even make recommendations to family and friends. When a business adopts a holistic QA program, it can improve and measure customer interaction. For instance, a QA program can help detect and fill sales gaps like effective communication, empathy, product functionality, and quality.
Quality assurance is also instrumental in helping organizations keep track of compliance and ethical standards. Having a well-documented QA policy or strategy ensures that every member of the team, including sales professionals, aligns with the ethical and legal standards in the way they engage and interact with potential leads. Compliance and ethical standards can also affect the quality of the good or service that is being put out for public consumption. For instance, regulatory bodies might establish quality standards that an organization must comply with before it releases its products or goods to the public. Adopting a functional QA procedure helps the organization monitor its compliance with these processes.
Finally, quality assurance helps an organization improve the performance of its sales team. For instance, a functional QA metric provides insight into the work of the best-performing sales professionals and highlights the techniques they adopt to get the job done. Further, QA helps the organization be attuned to areas where their sales teams can put in more effort and brush up their skills. Such areas might include product knowledge, communication and interpersonal skills, sales reporting, and objection handling.
