Losing deals because they have gone dead due to lost momentum can make anyone angry. But a bigger issue for a lot of organizations is not doing everything in their ability to accelerate the sales cycle so that they can start booking revenue more quickly.
As we head into the new year, now is as good of a time as any to push to accelerate your sales ASAP.
Don’t leave any meeting without a clearly defined next step:
Maybe the biggest drag on deal speed in my time has been not leaving a meeting with a clearly defined next step.
What do I mean by a defined next step?
You’ve scheduled your next meeting.
You’ve defined deliverables with timelines for the next step.
You’ve concluded that there isn’t a need for a next meeting.
You’ve reached conclusion on the fact that you need a proposal.
Whatever your sales cycle looks like, you should know what your next steps look like and make sure that you come to an agreement on them before you end the meeting.
This is a concept that Anthony Iannarino talks about with a lot of elegance in his book, The Lost Art of Closing.
Create value from the very first moment:
Alan Weiss talks a lot about delivering value from the initial conversation to the point that the prospect asks themselves, “If this person is giving me so much value in an initial meeting, how much value will I get when I’m paying?”
One of the best ways I’ve discovered to accelerate my sales cycle has been to lead constantly with insight.
The Challenger Sale talks a lot about this idea of leading with insight, having something to offer in exchange for time.
This is a good idea to keep in mind because you often gain insights from your conversation and your learning that can help color the decision making process for your prospects.
One mistake a lot of us can easily make is to believe that our prospects know exactly what they want, need, or is happening in the market. The second mistake is that our insights aren’t that value.
Both of these are wrong.
If you lead with insights and ideas from the start, you will start to learn that ASAP.
Make sure you sell with emotion:
A lot of times B2B sellers believe that their buyers are totally rational animals.
Spoiler alert: They aren’t!
We all make decisions based on emotion, not on logic.
You can use emotion to accelerate your sales process as well.
Fear can drive a buying decision.
Anticipation can drive a buying decision.
The need to keep up will help make a buying decision.
Use emotions! They are helpful.
This isn’t a comprehensive list by any stretch. But go ahead and try them out. I think they will help.