3 Tips to Shorten the Sales Cycle

3 Tips to Shorten the Sales Cycle and Boost Your Performance

Over my many years as a sales trainer to the Fortune 500 I have found that one issue in particular plagues virtually every salesperson’s career.  I hear countless tales, from veterans and rookies alike, of the “deal that gets stuck.”  If you’re an entrepreneur handling your own sales, I’m pretty sure you’ve also suffered at the hands of those indecisive customers who jeopardize your bottom line by stretching the selling cycle to unbearable lengths.

Wait a minute! Did I just hear you blame a sales obstacle on a customer? Repeat after me: There is no such thing as a bad customer. There are only bad salespeople. Before you can really apply any of the tips I am about to describe you must embrace the fact that, to get to the next level in your career, you have to focus on the one thing you can always change: your own behavior.

That said, here’s the very first step you must take to improve your productivity and close more deals, faster:

Get to power!

There is nothing that will shorten the selling cycle more effectively than getting to the right level early on in the sale cycle. I find it mind boggling how much time sales pros spend courting lower level people who are not the real decision makers and who waste our time with requests that almost never lead to a sale.

The main reason why people will start at a lower level is a lack of self-confidence. One of the best ways to overcome your insecurities is to make sure the first call you make is to an A-level executive’s office. Here’s why: By reaching, say, the CEO’s office, you will have an opportunity to find out exactly who is responsible for what in that organization. Specifically, who is directly responsible for fixing the problem that your solution addresses.

At that point, you can ask to be transferred to the appropriate contact and actually claim you were referred by the CEO’s office. Not only will you have saved yourself a great deal of time you might have otherwise spent jumping through hoops for lower level people, but now you also hold the referral trump card. And what’s more: if the deal gets stuck, you can always contact a higher ranking person than the one you were dealing with because the sales cycle started at power!

The second step you must take in order to boost your productivity and shorten the sales cycle is:

Uncover the customer’s pain

One of the most important lessons that I try to impart on my students in both my corporate training engagements and LIVE seminars is that people buy emotionally and justify logically. Therefore, one of the most important parts of our jobs as salespeople is to find out exactly what is at stake for the customer if he does not do something about the problem that your solution can fix. Find out how much the issue is costing him, personally.

As sales pros, we have a tendency to get on the phone and skip straight to questions like: “ Have you had a chance to look over my proposal? How does my deal work?” You better believe me when I tell you that will not help you close the deal. Instead, try “Mr. Customer, let me ask you a question. I was driving into work this morning and was wondering: Why do you want to do the deal with us? You mentioned you wanted to fix this issue in Q1. What happens if you don’t?” By asking these questions you are essentially setting the stage for them to sell YOU more than you are selling them.

How so? By making them very aware of the consequences that dragging out a decision will have not only on their company but also on their careers and their day-to-day lives at work. How much more paperwork will they have to deal with if the problem persists? How many more meetings will take place that fail to put a stop to the issue? Once you have forged a connection between the customer and your solution, then you will be ready to help them sell it logically.

The third step you must take in order to boost your productivity and shorten the sales cycle is:

Find out exactly how much your time is worth

To some, this may seem obvious but you would not believe how many hours salespeople spend on the job doing things that have absolutely nothing to do with selling. Recent studies have indicated that the average sales rep gets measly 4 to 6 hours a week of face time with his customers. If you don’t believe me try asking yourself how many hours you spent filing expense reports, creating spreadsheets and tracking the pipeline in the past week. If that number is enough to make you gasp, try dividing a year’s income by 1,780 (that’s roughly how many working hours there are in a year). Now you have a pretty good idea of how much it costs you, personally, not to turn more time into opportunity.

Having been a sales rep myself, I am aware that the “busy work” comes with the territory. And as much as you wish you didn’t have to deal with it, there’s a spreadsheet waiting for you at the end of every day. To fix this problem, you must do two things: First, learn to work smarter. You must constantly improve your processes so that tasks will not take longer to complete than necessary. Secondly, stop working for free. You must ensure that the face time you manage to secure with your customer is quality time and that you are not jumping through a lot of hoops for nothing. Always make sure the next step is in sight before you get cracking on that proposal. Try: “Mr. Customer, my biggest fear is that you are asking me to do all this work for you and then I’ll get back to you and nothing else will happen.” Express to them that you would love having their business but, first and foremost, they must commit to getting their problem fixed. You may find it difficult to say this to a client, but once you convey to them that you are trying to make the best use of not only your time but also theirs, most of them will appreciate rather than resent you.

Good luck and good selling!

5 Rules of Successful Cold Calling

5 Rules of Successful Cold Calling

Cold calling is, without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges faced by salespeople. In my years as a sales coaching partner to the Fortune 500, I have heard countless tales of otherwise smart executives who had yet to master this technique. They struggled twice as much as their peers just to meet quota and had totally lost passion for the game. Having spent my share of time in the trenches, I feel their pain. And that’s why I make sure to address cold calling in all my classes, whether they be corporate training engagements or my LIVE seminar series, which are open to the general public.

Now, the important thing to keep in mind about cold calling is it can be fun. As a matter of fact, it SHOULD be fun! All it takes is the right skills. Once you start getting great results you will find yourself be pumped up again. And success breeds success. So keep that in mind as we go over some guidelines that will help get you back on track.

The first rule of successful cold calling is:

Know thy prospect

Before you even reach for the phone you must do your homework. Establish the top five accounts in your territory and learn as much as you can about those companies. Who are their CEOs? What are they currently struggling with and how can your solution help them overcome it? Never underestimate the power of Google News. Make sure you read everything that’s been recently printed about a company you are looking to prospect. Check out the “investor relations” section of their website. Read their press releases. Look up the management team and make sure you find out as much as possible about the decision makers. Never lose sight of the fact that, in order to move the deal forward, you will need to get to power.

The second rule of successful cold calling is:

Don’t sound like a salesperson

There is nothing that turns off prospects more than a sales pitch. Trust me on this. So instead, try saying you would like to ask them a couple of questions. Explain that if they feel you are a fit, you can move forward and, if not, that they have your permission to say no.

That way you won’t waste their time, or yours for that matter.

The third rule of successful cold calling is:

Have a concise message

Do you know exactly what you are going to say if you get the right person on the phone? And by right I mean the decision maker or, at least, someone high up enough on the corporate ladder to refer you down to the appropriate decision maker. Before you dial you must craft a concise message that explains what the call is about. Then follow with a relevant question that can yield a good lead. Most likely, the person you have reached is having some issues with the current provider of the solution you are selling. Or better yet – for you, that is—they might not even be aware that there is a solution out there to the problem they are facing. Try asking: “On a scale of one to ten, how happy are you with___?” You may already have some idea of what their pains are but always keep an open mind. Your perceptions may not accurately reflect the customer’s reality.

The fourth rule of successful cold calling is:

Location, location, location

Do not underestimate the importance of your surroundings when you dial for money.  Most people are really self-conscious about cold calling in front of other people. There’s a strong peer pressure component to that feeling, along with a very understandable fear of screwing up. Make sure you make your call from a room private enough so that you can be confident – not arrogant – and so that if you make a mistake, no one will know about it but you. That does not mean you should be sloppy or careless, but that mistakes are a part of the process. And unless you are allowed to make them, you will never learn what behaviors you need to change to become a better salesperson.

The fifth and final rule of successful cold calling is:

Be organized!

I hate to sound like your Mom, but the truth is a cluttered workspace makes for a cluttered mind.  When cold calling, you need to be able to think on your feet. You can’t do that when you have a desk full of stuff distracting you from your conversation. All you will need is a piece of paper, a pen and your phone.