I wish I had a nickel for every time an owner or president told me their sales cycle keeps getting longer and longer, and they have no clue as to why it is happening. I then ask them to switch roles and describe for me how they would go about buying their product/service. What I usually hear is a process that rivals the battle plans for D-Day. They have begun to mirror how their prospects buy from them.
If you accept “think it over’s” and “I just need one more fact” from your prospects and customers, journey back to the last major purchase you made either personally or for your company. Did you seek out three or more quotes, have spreadsheets with pivot tables, engage multiple vendors/suppliers, agonize over the decision, delay the decision to get more facts, require multiple demos or put the decision off because it just didn’t seem right? Did you answer “yes” to all or some of these questions? When you hear these things from your prospects, do you just accept that this is the way it has to be?
When you are interviewing for a salesperson, ask them on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being they want to come to work for you today), “How do you feel about coming to work for our company?” The way they answer the question is critical. If they evade the answer and don’t give a number, they are mirroring how they sell. This salesperson is “buying” a job and is being evasive on making a decision. This is exactly what they will accept when in front of your prospects and customers. The result is a long sales cycle and a pipeline caulked full of opportunities that will not close.
Think about your buy cycle, your company’s sales cycle, and how your sales team sells. Is there a correlation or is it just coincidence? From a physiological foundation, you sell like you buy. Our job as managers and leaders is to challenge ourselves to be more decisive in how we buy, to set the proper example for our team members and be critical of the stalls our salespeople accept from prospects. This will not be easy.
Dave Harman is an associate with Sandler Training. He has over 30 years’ experience in sales and sales management with Fortune 500 companies as well as small, family-owned organizations. He has held positions from sales to senior management with companies such as Conoco/Vista, Amresco and Ohio Awning, and owns his own business. He earned his MBA with a concentration in Marketing from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. You can reach him at [email protected] or (888) 448-2030.
