October 7th, 2003

My sales cycle is too long.

Prospects are taking too much time to come to a decision.

We're hearing these complaints a lot lately. With the recent uptick in the economy, companies expect their sales to pick up. For many, though, sales are still slow. And in reaction, sales management typically blames the problem on the lack of good marketing support, while marketing management is quick to point the finger at inadequate sales skills.

The truth is somewhere in between. Buyers are indeed still reluctant to make a commitment today, but they are buying. Buyers have more choices than ever and they have access to more information about their options. No wonder they have difficulty making up their minds!

But they are buying. And they're buying from the suppliers with the most compelling value proposition and the lowest perceived risk.

What should I do?

In an effort to "fix" their sales problem, typically many companies will stir up the sales organization - fire a few of the low performers, send out the upper management to visit some customers, get a pulse of what's going on, rally the troops.

This doesn't work anymore!

These are just shots in the dark, tactics that in the past worked to help boost sales.

It's not going to work this time around.

Successful companies are moving to a fundamentally new sales model. The individual sales rep delivers a well crafted value proposition and portrays a capable, competent company interested in partnering with their clients. Importantly, the successful sales rep focuses on the business issue at hand rather than the technical details of the solution. In turn the prospect develops the belief that the company offers the low risk choice.

This approach isn't new. What is new is that successful companies are constantly evaluating the efficacy of their message and tweaking it based on ongoing, systematic feedback from prospects that chose to go elsewhere. With this information, you can make timely adjustments to the the marketing message, the sales pitch, even the customers you're targeting.

What should I do now?

If your sales cycle is longer than you like, the first step is diagnostic - find out why the sales cycle is so long. Only your prospects can tell you this and an analysis of your "lost business opportunities" can provide the best answers.

Prospects that have sat through your sales pitches, turned you down, and have chosen another supplier (or perhaps chose to do nothing) can give you far more useful information than prospects that did choose you.

The feedback from these prospects, if gathered properly, can provide significant guidance to how you must change your selling and marketing practices to reduce the length of your typical selling process.

In one extreme case, through interviewing prospective customers, we determined that a company would never be able to sell their services into a particular market. In other cases we've identified the unique selling proposition that dramatically increased the company's competitiveness and reduced the length of the selling process.

So instead of complaining about the length of your sales process, do something about it!

Thanks for reading!