Long sales cycles or longer than expected sales cycles are one of the many causes of companies not hitting their sales quotas, and profit quotas.

It will also determine whether they capture their market share within a specific time period.

Three sure fire ways to shorten your sales cycle close more sales and profits and improve your selling systems.

1-Make sure you are dealing with the decision maker and/or understand the decision making process for that prospect. These selling skill concepts will help you avoid dealing with someone that is just gathering information for someone else. Dealing with the information gatherer and not from the decision maker will make your sales cycle longer than it needs to be.

2-Find out if the service or product the prospect is inquiring about is something they need and not just something they are thinking about. This will help you eliminate the tire kickers and the researchers that may not really want or need your product or service. You can always keep these prospects in your sales pipeline as a potential sale for the future.

3-Ask the prospect when they actually see themselves needing or using the product or service. This will give you the drop dead date and also help eliminate the tire kickers.

When I moved to my home fifteen years ago I noticed some brush that had been beaten down by a herd of deer. Over the years the beaten brush became a trail and has actually became a rut in the ground about ten inches wide and five inches deep.

Each day the deer travel the same path and end up in the valley below where they graze. One would say they travel in a rut but end up where they want to be and are happy with the result.

If you have not hit your quota to date and feel like you are in a rut,

You may want to consider evaluating the following.

                Do you feel you are in a rut because you are not happy with the way you are going about running your business but are happy with the result?

                                                                                 Or,

                Do you feel you are in a rut because you are not happy with your results and do not know what changes to make or know what to do about it?

If you are not happy with your results and are happy with your process I strongly suggest you look at your sales process anyway. There is a direct correlation between the process and the outcome. Or put in a more metaphysical context. “The Laws of Cause & Effect” is at play. The sales process is the cause and the outcome is the effect. 

I welcome your response.

If you are not hitting your sales quota the problem you are experiencing, while it appears now is not really happening now. The problem started some time ago, you are just experiencing the effect now. To begin to get this situation under control you need to look at many aspects of your sales processes, systems and strategies.

Sales is a scientific process and not a “If I through enough against the wall something will stick”. For the sake of space and time I will touch on a few of the items you need to look at.

1.      Look at the quantity and the quality of the pipeline. Are there enough real opportunities, if closed would make up for what you did not close so far and carry you into 2012?           

2.      You must determine the length of your sales cycle. You sales cycle is critical in hitting your quota. For example, if you have a 90 sales cycle, anything you start working on in October until the end of the year will not close this year.

3.      Your close ratio is critical in hitting your quota. By way of example, if you have $100,000 of potential business in the pipeline and have a 50 % close ratio you will close only $50,000. If part of that $50,000 is part of a 90 day sales cycle the problem becomes even more serious.

4.      Let’s look at you ideal prospect model. How well do the prospects in your pipeline match up to the ideal model?

5.      How much data are you collecting from your sales people? When you look at your data base manager are you seeing notations like, “Called Bob, left message” or Bob told me to get back to him in two weeks, or they are not ready yet.Was your sales person so excited to be able to quote on a piece of business that it is now labeled HOT and there isn’t a shred of evidence to validate the claim of HOT?

 6.      If you are not hitting the sales number you hoped for, it is not the economy. Don’t let anyone try to convince you of that. If you have competitors that are winning business and there is a gap between available business and what you are winning you haven’t figured out how to win the business away from your competitors.

7.      If you are not hitting your quota and do not address the real issues you will have the same experience in 2012.

For addition help call me at 908-472-3848  for a complimentary Pipeline Analysis Session. No hidden fees,no committment on your part,no mumbo jumbo.