For sales teams of all sizes across the globe, having a long sales cycle is nothing new. This issue has been challenging businesses for a while, and companies are constantly looking to optimize their processes to achieve a shorter sales cycle, close faster, and close more.
As the length of a sales cycle increases, organizations are seeing the effects directly in the budget planning process, the cash flow rate, and the sales strategy. Moreover, studies show that the length of an average cycle for B2B sales has increased by 22% in the past 5 years. The truth is, the longer a sales cycle is, the more a company is at risk of losing prospects who might change their mind at any point.
So, is there a way—or more—to speed up a sales cycle?
This article explores 10 smart and proven ways to do it.
1. Consider automation
Sales representatives spend most of their time organizing or inputting data—processes that take up resources and valuable time. Fortunately, that’s where automation comes in. With automation tools, salespeople can remove tedious and repetitive tasks if not make them easier. This change will allow reps to spend more time working on high-value tasks.
Today, you can find numerous automation tools and platforms that will help you do research, analyze, and organize data. Once you find the right solution, you can enjoy the free time and start building deeper relationships with your customers. Plus, automating various tasks will help you improve your sales process and ensure your leads are not forgotten.
2. Solve your bottlenecks
It’s important to understand how long it takes for a prospect to go from one stage to the next in the sales process. This way, you will be able to identify any bottlenecks that may appear during the journey and act accordingly. If your contacts are stuck in the introduction stage, it might be helpful to improve your procedures for setting up a meeting and get deals moving faster.
You can also help them by providing tailored solutions and training sessions that would empower them to improve their performance.
3. A focus on the highest-performing channels
To determine which channels perform the best for your business and your team, you need to track them regularly and focus your attention on the ones that have the highest return. By doing this, you can streamline your processes and also experiment with new strategies.
Identify the best-performing channels and eliminate the ones that don’t drive any results.
4. Update your buyer persona
One of the proven ways to boost your sales cycle speed is by refining your buyer persona, especially if you created this persona in the early stages of your strategy.
Some tips to update your buyer persona are the following:
- Focus group studies to learn more about the pain points of your customers
- Analyzing your existing customer base
- Surveying prospective customers to understand their preferences and values
5. Know your prospects’ real pain points
One-size-fits-all approaches no longer work to attract customers and engage prospects. Moreover, this strategy is outdated and can bring more challenges and hurdles to your sales cycle. The good news is that you can prevent this from happening by actively listening to your prospects.
You should be able to hear your customers’ objections and identify their real pain points. So, ensure you ask the right questions and don’t jump to conclusions too quickly.
6. Personalize everything
In the past years, it has become increasingly harder for businesses to keep up with customers’ demands in terms of personalization. The audience is more likely to dismiss and avoid obvious marketing strategies, which makes it harder for you to speed up the sales process. But this can be solved by truly understanding your customers and their interests and creating the most personalized experience possible through new perspectives.
Gain your customers’ trust and provide them with value. Personalized marketing will get the job done. Create an approach that caters to your prospects’ behaviors using relatable language while promoting your company and representing your brand.
7. Always be transparent about the pricing information
Some businesses are tempted to hide pricing information, but it’s a practice that can drive problems. Moreover, being transparent about prices can help you attract only the leads that can afford your services or product. Even though a lot of sales representatives dread the idea and the moment they have to communicate with customers about the price of a product, you should encourage them to be straightforward from the beginning.
Don’t hesitate to let your customers know what the prices are and what to expect in return. Being transparent will also help you build more trust and loyalty with your prospects and, most importantly, you’ll avoid the unpleasant surprise of a customer changing their mind at the last moment.
8. Check your CRM and eliminate cold contacts
Keeping your customer relationship management tool updated is crucial for maintaining the effectiveness of your communication. It will also make your sales process more productive and efficient. So, try to keep an eye on the cold contacts and ensure you communicate with customers who want to know more about your products and services.
Allocate enough time and resources to clean your contact list. Train your team to eliminate contacts who have unsubscribed and segment your lists better.
9. Use social proof and customer testimonials
The opinions and testimonials of existing or prior customers hold a lot of weight when it comes to building trust and loyalty with your future customers. This is mostly reflected in the fact that the majority of purchase decisions are based on recommendations from other customers. So, you must know how to use social proof in your favor and win the confidence of prospective customers.
How do you do that? There are several ways, including reaching out to a new customer through mutual contacts or inviting them to an event where they can meet other customers. When they know they are not alone, your sales cycle is on the right track.
It’s also essential to keep your testimonial page updated and add new customers and stories regularly.
10. Encourage your marketing and sales teams to work together
It is not uncommon for organizations to have separate marketing and sales teams that operate independently. However, both teams often suffer and, as a result, the business might suffer.
The dangers of sales and marketing misalignment include demotivation—when their goals and vision aren’t aligned—more tension arises between the teams, and consequently, possible issues in the quality of content.
Luckily, you can align sales and marketing by empowering your teams to achieve a common goal—inducing them to support each other.
Long story short…
You don’t have to go too far to find the perfect recipe to boost the speed of your sales cycle. Instead, use simple tips and strategies to help your business grow successfully.
Improving your sales cycle is an effort worth considering and deserves all your attention. And if you find it hard to start, try organizing your steps into smaller phases—to find challenges, problems, and ways you could optimize.
