1 Simple Way To Reduce Your Sales Cycle
Every business has experienced deals that seem to go on and on.
What should have been a 'dead cert' to close in a few months ended up dragging on and on for months and months.
You know there are many reasons why this can happen such as changing personnel in the company, a change the economy, not identify a reason to move away from the status quo and the list goes on.
Do you want to know what the single biggest reason is?
It's your sales process of course.
Having a sales process that recognises all the reasons a deal could stall and then consciously designs in ways to preempt those happening is the single most valuable thing you can do to:
- reduce the time from engagement to close (sales cycle velocity)
- reduce the time and energy invested in progressing the deal
- increase cash flow
One of the key things businesses fail to do as a process is engage the most-wanted members of the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) at the earliest and then every opportunity.
You've been there, haven't you?
You've had the perfect meeting where you were sure you'd sign the deal only for the prospect to say something like:
"It looks good. I've got to involve the heads of departments EMEA and APAC in this. Send me the deck and I'll run it through with them and get back to you."
And then days, weeks, months go by.
Crickets...
Not because they don't want the outcome you provide.
Just because of logistics.
The following simple process (when systematized) can reduce sales cycles down to a third of what they are now and can virtually eliminate that time lag.
Here's 1 actionable way that you can implement today to get all the relevant decision-makers involved at the earliest and every opportunity.
- Identify the job roles or functions YOU want to be involved in the very earliest meetings - C Level, Country heads, Department heads etc
- Write a few short bullet points about why each individual should attend each meeting
- Write a few short bullet points as to why it benefits the prospective client to get everyone together at the earliest meeting.
- At the very earliest call/meeting use this EXACT script
"OK John, it looks like this is a fit. We've scheduled a call for next Tuesday at 2 pm to run through our [front end offer - roadmap/deep dive/workshop etc].
All our best clients find that at this stage they get the most value from that call when the [title of most wanted person 1], [title of most wanted person 2] and [title of most wanted person 3] are involved. What's the best way for us to get them at that meeting?
So a variation of this in practice might read:
"OK John, it looks like this is a fit. We've scheduled a call for next Tuesday at 2 pm to run through our new product launch road mapping session.
All our best clients find that at this stage they get the most value from that call when the Heads of Sales, Marketing and Customer Satisfaction of your US, EMEA and APAC regions are involved. What's the best way for us to get them at that meeting?
Let's dissect a few parts of this:
All our best clients: The prospective client wants the results you provide. They want the best results you provide. They don't want to be your worst client! This subtle wording indicates to them that if they say NO now they are immediately starting down the path of not getting the best results you can provide. Who on earth would want that?
they get the most value from the call: Again - it is all about them. I've seen people say this as "we get the most value from the call" - of course, you do! Don't change it. They don't give a sh*t about falling into your process UNLESS it makes sense for them. Especially if the ask is to get other people involved. Be prepared to articulate why they will get more value from those people being there - see bullet points above.
Named Job Titles: Very often people tell me they have implemented this script but made 1 vital mistake. Instead of saying the people they need at the meeting, they ask "who do you think we need at the meeting". Don't do this! You are the experts here. You recommend who you need at that meeting.
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