Longer sales process. With no plan, you tend to leave meetings without the information you need. As a result, you don’t know what the next meeting should cover (or when it will be). And that leads to the sales process dragging out longer than it should.

Fewer opportunities and referrals. Prospects like to be guided through the sales process just like customers prefer to be guided through an implementation. If your questions miss the mark or you don’t know the next steps, then it’s unlikely prospects will move forward with you. And they certainly won’t refer you to others.

Less executive access. When you appear disorganized, you’ll come across as unprofessional. And when that’s the perception, there’s little chance midlevel managers will grant you access to executive decision makers.

Incorrect recommendations. If you don’t carefully plan your questions, you may not uncover a prospect’s full story—and that often leads to solution recommendations that miss the mark, which isn’t exactly a recipe for sales success.

More negotiation, more dickering, more discounts. A planned approach to your sales process helps you ask the right questions and quickly deliver a proposal that matches the prospect’s needs and perceived value. When you wing it, proposals tend to miss the mark and fierce negotiations ensue.

Higher cost of sale and lower profit margin. As the sales process drags on, it typically translates to more meetings, more proposals, more time and fewer sales. Collectively, those factors dramatically impact profitability.

Lower win rates. When you lack key information about prospects, access to decision makers and any sort of process to nurture customers through the funnel, you’ll close fewer deals. It’s that simple.