Time is the enemy of every deal.
In my sales career, I always worked long-cycle deals that are typical of B2B tech sales. Still, I had some unusually, painfully long deals in which I finally won. There will be delays you just can’t control when dealing with complex solutions and multiple stakeholders. But in general, the longer the window from interest to decision, the more likely it is that you’ll lose the deal. Time can be a strategic stall from a customer used for leverage. Or, it can just be an otherwise pointless delay that let the client’s doubts creep in or a new competitor to emerge. Your job as a salesperson or managing a sales organization is to keep things moving forward.
The way you combat introducing extra time into the deal cycle is two-fold:
1. You need systems. There needs to be a default method for doing EVERYTHING. Outreach. Follow-up. Quoting. Sending info. Presenting. Of course, you CAN tailor your method if the situation calls for it. But the last position you want to be in is not knowing exactly what’s supposed to happen next, especially when the customer demonstrates willingness and desire to move forward. If the prospect is asking you for information, pricing, a demo, whatever–you will plant the seed of “yes” or “no” in your response. If you seem uncertain, your prospect will be uncertain. Uncertainty = risk. Risk = reason to say “no.”
2. You need to optimize every system to reduce friction. I always say that any system beats no system, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of inefficient systems that are killing deals. The same principle is in play. If the prospect or customer hits a bottleneck, he or she has time to reconsider things or have circumstances change. A bottleneck will never help you get to “yes;” it can only hurt. That’s why your sales process should be mapped to your buyer’s journey. As well, necessary but frustrating administrative red tape like legal reviews need to be streamlined, and everyone from marketing and sales must be using a unified messaging framework. Otherwise you’re introducing friction. Friction = slowdowns and time. Time = uncertainty. Uncertainty = risk. Risk = (You’ll remember this!) a reason to say “no.”
I can help your growth business align sales and marketing (It’s called smarketing!) to win the battle against TIME. That means more opportunities, closed faster, which brings you greater revenue at higher profit margins–the goal and result of effective sales enablement.
