Why Are My Sales Cycles So Long? (March 2, 2023)
Founders - does it seem like customers are taking longer and longer to make decisions? Economic uncertainty can be one factor, but it’s not the whole story. Here are four dynamics that you can improve, entirely within your control:
- Unmet qualification criteria. Startups often forecast opportunities that lack budget ownership, prioritization, timing, metrics, decision criteria, etc. These sales cycles were never “real” in the first place. The remedy? Adopt a forecasting rubric (like MEDDPICC or something like it) that determines which opportunities are (or aren’t) viable. Engrain this common language into your sales process and your company culture. Proper qualification is a crucial element of revenue growth.
- Suggesting solutions too early. We regularly see Founders who want to jump into telling instead of selling. Their customer meetings begin with a demonstration of the platform they are so proud of building instead of sales discovery questions to understand a prospective customer’s needs truly. Those questions will help you match needs with solutions that quickly generate sales. If your solution has thirty bells and whistles, and your prospective customer needs five of them, wouldn’t you like to know which five?
- Focusing on features. Customers don’t care about the features you have built, regardless of how novel they might be. They care about the benefits those features can bring to them. This mindset applies to any type of solution for any kind of industry - figure out what your features do for them, specifically, and they will feel empowered to rally their coworkers for more consensus. The value a prospective customer assigns to those benefits is worth much more than feature innovation.
- Unmanaged sales cycles. Most Founders don’t have a background in sales, so they expect prospective customers to progress their evaluation cycle without much follow-up. Seasoned sales professionals know it should feel like a project where a path to final paperwork is laid out, and a mutual plan for completing each milestone is agreed upon. Sales cycles require planning, diligence, and prodding from a project manager (aka sales professional) to reach the finish line.
These are just four of many dynamics that can be diagnosed. Feel free to connect with either Simon or Sharla to learn more about keeping your sales cycles short and sweet.
