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Managing the longer sales cycle
Chris Lytle, CSP, Author of The Accidental Salesperson
Is it just me, or does it seem to you like your life is speeding up
while your customers are slowing down? So, why are sales cycles
getting longer? It's primarily because the more complex the product or
service you're selling is, the more stakeholders and influencers and
even opposers will get involved in the buying process. Plus, when a
company purchases your complex solution, the purchase impacts more
people and departments in the client's organization.
Think of it this way, you're not simply selling a product or service. You are selling the potential client on making a change. Robert Potter writes, "There are predictable stages that companies go through in order to change. As a salesperson, you need to be aware of these. Companies decide to change in three stages:
Stage 1: Awareness and assessment (Motivation). At this stage the insight they have is this: There's a good reason to abandon our current way of doing things.
Stage 2: Solutions search (Vision). The insight the company has: There is a much better way of doing things.
Stage 3: Evaluation and choice (Path to resolution). Insight: There is a safe and reliable way to get there.
As a salesperson, you have to build the case that the old way needs to be abandoned. You need to ask them why they want to look at changing. Then you can move to your solution. See, if they are not committed to change, they'll never buy your solution.
Good questions to ask potential customers as they're considering a change include the following:
-- Who will be affected the most by this change?
-- Why are you even considering the change?
-- Who will be the most vocal in opposing this solution?
-- Who can sabotage or undercut this initiative?
-- What happens if you do nothing?
-- When will you decide on whether or not you're even going to make a change?
-- Is there a champion for this?
-- Whom does he or she have to sell internally?
-- What are their likely objections?
-- Who's going to sell the solution to the other stakeholders?
-- How are you selling it to the stakeholders?
-- Where are you going to need help?
Sales cycles are longer in a complex sale because you are selling change and not just products or services. The change affects more people in the company than the decision makers, and the decision makers often have to sell the others on their decision so there's buy-in for change. You need to ask questions about the change and not simply about the problem.
This news arrived on: 09/12/2007
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Posted Comments:
06-17-2009 17:20
Chris Lytle wrote:
Managing the longer sales cycle
This a great story because I just did a word assignment for Managing Human Resources class at Colorado Technical University on Motivation for the Sales Team for a ficticious company where the Sales Team was having no sales and were not motivated by the base salary and the bonusses!
Thank you very much, Ramon Aguilar
Thank you very much, Ramon Aguilar
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