Tips and suggestions that can be implemented, right now, for a measurable difference.
April 14, 2021
By Rachel Smith
There are a lot of articles out there about how to shorten your sales cycle. Many of them share helpful and clever ideas, but often they are ideas for your entire company, or actions you can start planning now but that will take some time. Chances are, if you’re Googling “how to shorten my sales cycle,” you want something you can do right away that will have an immediate impact.
A list of sales-cycle shorteners I recently read suggested making sure prospects could sign contracts from any device. Is this a good idea? Of course. Is this something you as a sales professional can do right now? Probably not. It would likely involve changes being made by your IT people and possibly your legal team. It’s not an action you can take right now on your own.
At Maestro Group, we are all about useful tips and suggestions that can be implemented right away and that can make measurable differences. If that’s the kind of sales-cycle-shortening list you’re interested in, then read on.
The biggest risk we have in sales is not having enough information. This lack of information is responsible for a lot of the pitfalls that sales people encounter throughout the sales process. That’s the reason we share the DRIVE information-gathering framework. It provides a blueprint for building a relationship with your prospect, one in which you have the information you need to move toward a sale.
We’ve been blogging about DRIVE for the past several months, and while we won’t be done until the end of next month, there are some key components and strategies that are part of DRIVE that can help you right now.
No matter what kind of information you’re after, it’s best to get it through asking open-ended questions. Why? Because the more information we have, the better off we are, and open-ended questions yield the most information.
Instead of asking, “Are you happy with the software you’re using?” try, “What do you like about your current software?” Instead of “Are you making this purchasing decision?” try, “Who besides you and your department is involved in the decision-making process?” Your goal in asking questions is to uncover every pain point, objection, and possible bump in the road. Asking open-ended questions and actively listening to your prospect’s responses is the best way to do that.
A sure way to make your sales cycle longer is by not having a clear understanding of your prospect’s decision-making process. You might have several calls and meetings and think you’re on your way to a sale only to discover there are three other people that need to be involved. Now you have to start all over with them included.
Having a thorough understanding of your prospect’s buying process as soon as possible can save you a lot of time. We all like to hear that someone likes our product or service, but don’t let your “happy ears” keep you from discovering that you need other people on board in order to actually have a deal.
We’ve written before about how it’s helpful to reframe objections as opportunities. While it might seem easier to avoid objections, this doesn’t make them go away. Instead, it just means that they come up further along the funnel and have the potential to derail all of your hard work.
It’s always best to address objections as soon and as often as possible. This will help you build trust with your prospect as well as prevent your deal from coming to a screeching halt later on.
The importance of addressing objections right away is one reason we suggest asking your prospect what they like about their current solution first instead of what they don’t like. If your product does everything they value about their current solution, you can assure them of such. If it doesn’t, find out which of these missing features are deal breakers.
Not only is DRIVE a great information-gathering framework—it also provides a good format for recapping information. After meeting with a prospect, send an email sharing what you heard their needs are, who needs to be involved in the next meeting, when they want to have a solution in place, etc. This will give them a chance to clarify anything right away so that you don’t move forward with any false assumptions.
Recapping your meeting in this way also shows them that you truly listened to what they had to say. You understand their pain points and can help them solve their specific problem. Finally, if there was a key decision-maker missing from your initial meeting, this email can give that person a good overview of what they missed.
It pays to be the first to respond. According to the Harvard Business Review, organizations that respond within an hour are seven times more likely to qualify a lead.
The farther along you are in your relationship with a prospect, the less likely it becomes that they are considering a lot of your competitors. Early on in the process, however, being the first to respond to a call or email could be what makes you stand out from the competition.
It also helps to think about what your prospect’s day looks like. If you’re communicating with a C-suite decision maker, chances are she schedules set times to look at emails and is booked with meetings the rest of the day. If she emails you and you can reply right away while she is still at her desk, not only will she be impressed, but you’ve also cut down on the time between communications, thus shortening your overall process.
The worst thing that can happen to your sale is that it stops moving completely. A deal in motion stays in motion, while a deal at rest is likely dead. It’s up to you to make sure your deal keeps moving forward.
Plan a cadence for reaching out to your prospect, and stick to it. Don’t let more than a few days go by between touches. A touch could be a call, an email, or reaching out on social media. You want to keep your prospect engaged without being a nuisance to them. Remember that gifting can be a great way to reach out to a prospect as well. Something as simple as sending an article you think would be of interest can keep the momentum going.
A sale can’t be your only way of measuring your success with a prospect. That would be like a doctor waiting to see if their patient gets better without ever monitoring vital signs along the way. Micro conversions are a good way to check the pulse of your sale as it progresses.
Micro conversions, as the name suggests, can be quite small. Something as simple as responding to an email or scheduling a meeting can be a micro conversion you choose to keep tabs on. These would be positive micro conversions that tell you your deal is healthy and on the move.
A lack of a response, or someone leaving your meeting early (even though you did a time check at the beginning and they didn’t say anything) would be examples of negative micro conversions. These are important to track and address as they are symptoms of an ailing deal that’s slowing down.
Like objections, negative micro conversions need to be addressed head-on. Be bold. “I noticed you left before our call was over. I wanted to make sure everything was okay. What questions do you have about the information that I shared?” Even if it turns out that this prospect is no longer interested, it’s better to get to a definite “no” and move on than to nurse a slow maybe.
This last strategy is so simple, but over the span of a sale can save so much time. When you propose a meeting, provide three time windows that your prospect can choose from. It makes it much easier for them, and you’ll avoid all of the back and forth that normally goes into picking a time. Choosing times that are coming up soon—in the next 24–48 hours—provides another nudge to put the sales process into higher gear.
It seems so easy, right? And it is. But avoiding the half-day of back and forth to schedule a meeting for every prospect and for every meeting adds up to a lot of time shaved off of your sales process. Plus, as with all of the tips mentioned here, you don’t need any other departments or specific software to put it in motion.
Do you want to learn more immediately actionable sales strategies? Contact mastery@maestrogroup.co to schedule a workshop!
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