The End of the Never-ending Sales Cycle

Need-Urgency-Money

Often, sales people are adept at confirming need and money within a sales opportunity, but struggle with urgency… Recently, two different corporate clients shared very similar experiences about their prospective customer situations. Both clients were engaged with prospects who were demonstrating a great deal of interest in their products and services and had the resources to make a purchase. While the interest seemed high and the feedback was positive, the prospects weren’t making a final decision. The sales cycle just kept going on and on and on…

Critical Events

When I asked about the critical events in the sales cycle, both clients responded with the usual answers I hear initially from participants in my sales training classes. They suggested the critical events in their sales were things like… the date of their next meeting scheduled with the customer, the date their proposals were due, the date the customer said they would make a decision, and the end of their quarter to achieve their bonuses. The best sales professional I work with are very aware of the “real” critical events in their sales opportunities that make a difference. The critical events I’m suggesting are the ones that are critically important to your customers. These are the critical events that your customer’s really care about. These events are usually independent of anything you are doing. Some examples might be:  the launch of your prospect’s new product, a trade show where the prospect is exhibiting or presenting, your prospect’s board meeting, your prospect’s end or beginning of their fiscal year, an important anniversary date for your prospect, or the launch of your prospect’s new advertising campaign.

Examples

The best sale professionals uncover critical events in their customer’s world that they can tie their sale too or they create a critical event that their customer believes in that they can tie their sale too. For example, one client who builds and maintains websites started asking their prospects when their anniversary date of their business occurs and suggested that date as a date to launch and advertise the redesign of their website. Another example from a company that provides web analytics was to identify any major advertising campaigns where it would be even more important to ensure the accurate tracking of people to their customer’s sites. By tying the sale of their products and services to the customers’ critical events, they increased their success rate shortened the average sales cycle.

What critical events are important in your sales?

Negotiating for What You Want

What you don’t negotiate can cost you.

You’ll never know what you can get unless you negotiate for it. The following story is a reminder to me that “negotiation” is a skill that has to be learned, developed, and thoughtfully put into action to work.

Do you ever wonder how much you are paying for your airline seat compared to what the person paid for the seat next to yours? How about what the person at your athletic club is paying to use the same equipment as you each month? And finally, how about the office space next to your office? Well, one of my career development clients just learned the hard way. She was paying $1300/month for a one person interior space with no windows. She was told that the one person office across the hall with the beautiful windows with the forest view was $1800/month. When she asked if their was any room to negotiate, the response was “no.”  A few months go by and she starts to talk with person who ended up leasing the window space across the hall and learned that he was paying $1300/month. After she got over her frustration that she was paying the same as him without the window…, she asked how he got that rate? He replied he asked the management firm to match another (less desirable) space across town or he would walk. He used the “competition” tactic like a pro and it worked!

How do you negotiate for what you want?