Have you recently been discouraged by the length of your current sales cycle?

Working to secure new customers with the current landscape of supply chain disruptions and labor shortages due to COVID-19 has left us with more challenges for your sales team. In an ideal sales cycle, an email or phone call would reach the appropriate contact within the company immediately and hopefully achieve a favorable response, and after a painless negotiation, the deal would be closed.

However, more recently we have been experiencing a different new sales scenario. Our ideal prospects today are typically overworked and short-staffed. Consequently, their time is limited and more valuable than ever before. So now, to procure a new sale, it is critical to go back to the most fundamental aspect of the sales process: “Knowing your Prospect.”

The first step is to make sure you can distinguish between a company that is a qualified prospect and one that is a casual buyer not expected to purchase in the foreseeable future. You should choose to invest most of your time engaging with a company that uses your product or service and is in immediate need of it.

Once the initial qualification step is taken your sales team needs to conduct careful research to know as much as possible about the company you are pursuing. Show your prospect you took the time to learn about their business, and their needs are how you start to build rapport.  Show them that by investing their time to meet or speak with you, they can truly benefit from a lasting and successful partnership!

Once you have moved that prospect to your client list, you need to nurture it to have a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship. Showing consistency is a crucial element to maintaining successful client relationships.  Keep proving that you can deliver true value to their business in the long run. Build trust, guarantee top quality, and provide personalized interactions at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

There are countless benefits by building a strong relationship with a client. Statistics show that well-established clients refer new clients more often and cost less to service. Therefore, you should direct your efforts on nurturing your client base and pursuing new qualified prospects.  This undoubtedly is time-consuming, but the results speak for themselves. 

By simply making a few adjustments in your sales process you can make a huge difference. What do you think? Will these changes be enough to improve your sales in this new environment? Do you need to reevaluate your company’s entire sales cycle?  DM us if you have any questions on this.