Frustrated by the length of your sales cycle? This post looks at one of the key reasons that salespeople struggle to close a sale. It also suggests four steps that the Sales Head needs to take to fix this.

1. how to
SHORTEN your
SALES CYCLE
One reason your sales
cycle is longer than it how to fix it
should be
www.jersonjames.com

2. (yet again)…
…your salesperson claims
that he has a good feeling
that now that hot
prospect he’s been …except that
pursuing will turn into a
paying customer…
he’s been
saying that for
a while now
about this prospect

3. and the game
of “surely now he will”
continues, while all the time
the customer is (or seems to
be)…
Stuck!
…stuck
in…

4. hell
*
…(what we like to call)
follow-up
* That eternity in the sales cycle
where you are stuck diligently
‘following-up’ with the promising
prospect, who equally diligently
replies that they ‘are interested,
but are still in the process of
making a final decision’… or,
something similar

5. consequently…

6. stretched
stretched
sales cycles
missed
sales targets

7. P.S. We won’t get started
with the missed
incentives and bonus…
oh, did we just? ;-)

8. why you get stuck in
follow-up hell

9. mistake
salespeople make
(one of the key reasons for being stuck in follow-up hell)

10. Salespeople fail to pay sufficient
attention to the
…confronting the customer in purchasing
your wonderful, innovative, sparkling, new
widget…
Roadblocks caused by
the required
CHANGE
(a change away from their current way of
working)

11. ‘Coz any change brings
with it, it’s own set of
COM
plex
it
IES
(and the assorted negative
emotions relative to these
complexities)

12. 1.
at the very thought of having to
tedium convince multiple
stakeholders
(each of whom would be seeking different
outcomes from the same purchase)
from having to deal with
the related politics

13. feeling
overwhelmed
(whether
perceived or
real)
by the very thought of the complications
involved in implementing
your wonderful solution/s

14. doubts concerning…
the price-value equation
your delivery capability
the quality of your widget
your post-sales support
other related reasons

15. fear • The loss of credibility
over the perceived • Having to endure the
cost of failure boss’s grilling
if your widget fails to • Opportunity loss
deliver the claimed
• The snide comments
results from the jealous rival

16. Etc.,

17. complications any surprise then
stakeholders that the
politics sale
quickly
your capability
descends
the fear of failure into
etc.,
follow-up
hell

18. How to get out of
follow-up hell

19. Here’s the short answer

20. advance the sale
stop.merely.following.up.

21. Here’s the same lesson, in detail

22. Actions,
you, Dear Sales
Head/ VP/ Director
have got to take
(before you get your field staff involved in
sorting out this mess)

23. Step 1

24. Identify the complete set of
CHALLENGES
process systems people budget other
that your customer might be faced with
(in purchasing and implementing your offering)

25. Step 2

26. Determine all possible
MITIGANTS,
WORKAROUNDS
to each of these…

27. Step 3

28. TEACH
your sales
force
About each How to How to To actually
of these unearth implement use this
challenges, these the knowledge
and how to challenges in workarounds
deal with their
each interactions
with the
prospect

29. Important:
TEACH
your sales
force
To stop, merely ‘following up’
(BTW, it’s high time that phrase - in the context
of sales, at least - was junked)

30. Step 4

31. The that you need to introduce as part
key step Sales Management Process
of your

32. During your sales the potential roadblocks (to
management purchase & implementation) that
meetings, they had identified for each
prospect
CHECK
with your sales force steps taken to mitigate these
as to:

33. Tick mark
the challenges identified
and mitigated by the
salesperson
for each prospect;
Check if any
unidentified challenge
(from your list) can
cause the sale to fall
through the cracks

34. If your salesperson
can’t enumerate the
challenges identified
(and dealt with)
then move this
case out of their
‘pipeline’
Get them to go back
to meeting the
customer to identify
& mitigate possible
challenges

35. How these help
(Assuming you had presented a great
value proposition that the client had
liked)

36. Once you help the prospect
identify and deal with potential
roadblocks to purchasing and
implementing your offering,
two things will happen

37. you’ll realize that the
prospect is Meaning, you can
not really interested safely abandon - and
one: in, or does not have avoid wasting any
the capacity further time with - this
prospect
to purchase your
product

38. By helping the prospect
overcome all probable
roadblocks or
challenges

39. complications
stakeholders
politics
your capability you escape
the fear of failure descending into
etc.,
follow-up
hell

40. Importantly,
you would have
hastened the
decision making
process…
(or, in other words)

41. you would have
shortened
the sales
CYCLE

42. Hope you found this lesson helpful.
Please leave your comments below. We’d like Justin in SD’S
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43. For more resources on sales effectiveness, please visit
www.jersonjames.com
Sales Advisory Sales Capability Creation
Mumbai, India
jerson@jersonjames.com