Many of you have expressed your frustration at the large number of promised orders that never seem to close.
long sales Cycles not only delay the return on investment, but also increase uncertainty about whether the sale will go through.
Remember, closure tea dirty it is simply the opening of the serious relationship.
How do you ensure a faster sales cycle with shorter lead times?
While I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, here are a few suggestions that can help you reduce your level of frustration and increase your closing rates.
I keep this very basic for this article.
1.Mmake sure you and your sales prospects are calling the RIGHT PEOPLE.
If not, all the sincere promises and guarantees made by the lower level end users are not worth a penny. Those promises will only serve to demoralize you and your sales prospects. Be realistic. If you and your sales leads aren’t talking to the right guy, forget about it.
two.Turn existing leads into safe prospects by helping them JUSTIFY their purchase decisions.
Never make the mistake of assuming your buyers are experts at justifications and will go to any lengths to back you up. They are not skilled at creating the correct justifications and their purchase request is made with little or no justification. If the Decision Maker, your Boss does not understand or appreciate the value of the purchase request, how can he make a logical decision to approve it? Unfortunately, most applicants aren’t used to justifying themselves and will do a pretty poor job. Plus, people don’t want to hear a NO. Once the decision maker rejects an ill-justified offer, he doesn’t expect it to come back with another request. It may be too late.
Without a clear rationale for using the budget, most decision makers will put off a decision indefinitely.
No one is in a better position to justify the product or Solution you want to sell than YOU.
After each sales call, it is good practice for the sales manager to ensure that the sales leads have managed and the end user has agreed to all potential benefits.
DO NOT LEAVE THIS CRITICAL STEP TO SALES LEADERS OR YOUR DISTRIBUTOR REPRESENTATIVES. MOST HAVE PROBABLY HAD LITTLE HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE CREATING THEM IN THE PAST OR PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW WHERE TO START. YOU LEARN FASTER.
Calculate potential savings and other buyer values using a simple template or justification worksheet.
Share this with the Buyer and, if necessary, with the Decision Maker. Have the end user agree to these facts and ensure this worksheet is attached to the purchase requisition. This accomplishes many things. First, it ensures that the current purchase contact is better equipped to justify the purchase. Second, it ensures that a more complete justification message is conveyed to the decision maker. Third, you train your sales leads on how to justify the product or solution being sold.
Most importantly, your Customer or Buyer contact must be portrayed by you as a Champion. This is possible only if you help him with Justification. You need to make sure that HE is leading the idea and not you. You must be seen in the eyes of your Organization as a proactive Employee who only has the Benefits of the Organization in mind. .There must be a WIN WIN RESULT for both.
3. Personal Follow-up to verify the status of the Account.
Never call the user to follow up. You must cultivate the habit of meeting the user armed with the benefit cost sheet and more. Use the justification sheet as a discussion point during these follow-up meetings.
Be prepared to meet with more users and decision makers to reassure and convince decision makers
4. The absolute best way to reduce the stress associated with a particular back order is to have as many as possible in your sales pipeline. IT’S ALL ABOUT NUMBERS.
It is important to have a healthy and qualified pipeline, where at least 70% of the pipeline has a strong probability of closure.
How do you get more pipeline activity? The simple answer is at least 3-4 calls/4 days a week. This is the only way to produce a bulging pipe. If you average 20 qualified and justified sales calls in a month, I can guarantee you’ll never have to worry about a slum.
We need to remember closure tea dirty it is simply the opening of the serious relationship.
Using these simple basic techniques, we can ensure a faster sales cycle with shorter lead times.