Will You Add? - How to Shorten Your Sales Cycle?

Looked at another way, if we both got $2,500 every time we got to Long Beach, and another $2,500 every time we got back to Toronto, Barry would collect $187,500 in a 225 day work year; while I would only collect $102,272 in the same period. Wow, not what you'd call chump change!

We see a similar phenomenon with many of the sales people we work with, some close a sale in 16 weeks, while the lady in the next stall closes the same type of deal in 12 weeks. What ever other skills and abilities may be at play, it is clear that with a shorter cycle, she will sell more, earn more, and probably last longer in her position than Mr. 16 Weeks.

Shortening your sales cycle is one of the easiest and most efficient ways for an organization to increase sales and simultaneously reduce the cost of sales. This in itself is not news or a revelation, most Sales VP's I work clearly state that they want to help their people reduce the sales cycle, but many are just not sure how to do that, some lack the conviction, but as always, some just do it intuitively and can't seem to sustain it over time.

To begin with, many sales people just don't know how long their sales cycle is, we ask and we hear things like "depends" (sometime it fits), "it changes" (it always seems longer during Daylight Savings Time), and the all time favorite, "well you know it's different in our business". Well it's not really.

Underlying this is the fact that many reps and organizations do not know what their sale looks like, they have not deconstructing their sale, identified the basic building blocks to identify and truly understand what it should look like and when efficiencies can be had. One facet of this process is covered in "Working Backwards From Your Goals"

While there are a number of ways to affect the length of the sales cycle, by far the easiest to implement with the highest rate of return, no technology required, is to always secure a next step with your prospects. Sounds simple enough, but for some reason, it is hard to get reps and managers to adopt.

Session after session, we implore sales people to always conclude meeting with a clear and mutually agreed on next step that commits both you and the buyer to not only a specific time and action. More often than not however, this either does not happen at all, or only partially.

Reps tell us "my step is a call next Tuesday"

We ask when?

"In the morning"

What time?

"Around 10:00"

Did she agree to that time?

"Yes she said Tuesday morning would be fine" Memorable Marketing with USB Flash Drives: 4 Ways You Can Promote Your Business
In recent years, portable USB flash drives have become increasingly popular for transporting and transferring computer files. These flash drives, also known as thumb drives, pen drives, USB fob or jump drives are available in a wide variety of styles and memory capacities. With this recent popularity of flash memory devices, competitive pricing has made these handy units very affordable.One of the best 21st century marketing and promotional items that businesses and organizations have discovered is custom logo flash drives. These reusable flash drives are a perfect way to market or promote your company, business or organization with a logo printed directly on the flash drive.Wholesale flash drive suppliers that specialize in large quantity USB flash drive orders are offering this unique service as part of a bulk order to companies or organizations wanting to take advanBeach, and another $2,500 every time we got back to Toronto, Barry would collect $187,500 in a 225 day work year; while I would only collect $102,272 in the same period. Wow, not what you'd call chump change!

We see a similar phenomenon with many of the sales people we work with, some close a sale in 16 weeks, while the lady in the next stall closes the same type of deal in 12 weeks. What ever other skills and abilities may be at play, it is clear that with a shorter cycle, she will sell more, earn more, and probably last longer in her position than Mr. 16 Weeks.

Shortening your sales cycle is one of the easiest and most efficient ways for an organization to increase sales and simultaneously reduce the cost of sales. This in itself is not news or a revelation, most Sales VP's I work clearly state that they want to help their people reduce the sales cycle, but many are just not sure how to do that, some lack the conviction, but as always, some just do it intuitively and can't seem to sustain it over time.

To begin with, many sales people just don't know how long their sales cycle is, we ask and we hear things like "depends" (sometime it fits), "it changes" (it always seems longer during Daylight Savings Time), and the all time favorite, "well you know it's different in our business". Well it's not really.

Underlying this is the fact that many reps and organizations do not know what their sale looks like, they have not deconstructing their sale, identified the basic building blocks to identify and truly understand what it should look like and when efficiencies can be had. One facet of this process is covered in "Working Backwards From Your Goals"

While there are a number of ways to affect the length of the sales cycle, by far the easiest to implement with the highest rate of return, no technology required, is to always secure a next step with your prospects. Sounds simple enough, but for some reason, it is hard to get reps and managers to adopt.

Session after session, we implore sales people to always conclude meeting with a clear and mutually agreed on next step that commits both you and the buyer to not only a specific time and action. More often than not however, this either does not happen at all, or only partially.

Reps tell us "my step is a call next Tuesday"

We ask when?

"In the morning"

What time?

"Around 10:00"

Did she agree to that time?

"Yes she said Tuesday morning would be fine" 5 Tips for Frustrated Marketers
A common complaint I hear from small business owners is that they spend a lot of time and money creating their marketing materials, and they send them out to prospects, but they never get any response.Whether you're sending out an email, a brochure or a post card, it's frustrating when your response rate is next to nothing.What you must realize is that marketing and sales is a process. And just sending out your marketing materials one time usually isn't enough.This may be hard to hear, but your business and what you have to say about it just aren't as important to your prospects as they are to you.Add to that the fact that people are very busy, and the result is, you need to reach them more than once with your marketing.So what's a frustrated marketer to do? Here are 5 tips:1) Create a marketing system that builds in plenty of frequency.2) NEVER stake ays for an organization to increase sales and simultaneously reduce the cost of sales. This in itself is not news or a revelation, most Sales VP's I work clearly state that they want to help their people reduce the sales cycle, but many are just not sure how to do that, some lack the conviction, but as always, some just do it intuitively and can't seem to sustain it over time.

To begin with, many sales people just don't know how long their sales cycle is, we ask and we hear things like "depends" (sometime it fits), "it changes" (it always seems longer during Daylight Savings Time), and the all time favorite, "well you know it's different in our business". Well it's not really.

Underlying this is the fact that many reps and organizations do not know what their sale looks like, they have not deconstructing their sale, identified the basic building blocks to identify and truly understand what it should look like and when efficiencies can be had. One facet of this process is covered in "Working Backwards From Your Goals"

While there are a number of ways to affect the length of the sales cycle, by far the easiest to implement with the highest rate of return, no technology required, is to always secure a next step with your prospects. Sounds simple enough, but for some reason, it is hard to get reps and managers to adopt.

Session after session, we implore sales people to always conclude meeting with a clear and mutually agreed on next step that commits both you and the buyer to not only a specific time and action. More often than not however, this either does not happen at all, or only partially.

Reps tell us "my step is a call next Tuesday"

We ask when?

"In the morning"

What time?

"Around 10:00"

Did she agree to that time?

"Yes she said Tuesday morning would be fine" Professional Copywriting Techniques: Influencing Others Through Words
Copywriting is a manner of promoting products, services, ideas or even personalities to the public through the use of words. A good copy has a textual style and content that can effectively sway people's opinions about the object that the copy is intended for. You might not realize the fact that professional copywriting has been around for a long time influencing how society thinks and affecting human lives in more ways than one.For business entities, professional copywriting is indispensable because it is the cornerstone of brand building. Remember that unforgettable tagline your telephone company has printed right under its logo? It is a good bet that those words are a product of some professional copywriter's imagination. Copywriting also provides for effective presentations and information sharing within industries.Over the Internet, well-arranged words are the only means that peoplin our business". Well it's not really.

Underlying this is the fact that many reps and organizations do not know what their sale looks like, they have not deconstructing their sale, identified the basic building blocks to identify and truly understand what it should look like and when efficiencies can be had. One facet of this process is covered in "Working Backwards From Your Goals"

While there are a number of ways to affect the length of the sales cycle, by far the easiest to implement with the highest rate of return, no technology required, is to always secure a next step with your prospects. Sounds simple enough, but for some reason, it is hard to get reps and managers to adopt.

Session after session, we implore sales people to always conclude meeting with a clear and mutually agreed on next step that commits both you and the buyer to not only a specific time and action. More often than not however, this either does not happen at all, or only partially.

Reps tell us "my step is a call next Tuesday"

We ask when?

"In the morning"

What time?

"Around 10:00"

Did she agree to that time?

"Yes she said Tuesday morning would be fine" Five New Job Habits to Avoid
At my last part time job, I discovered quickly that not only was I expected to do my work, but also that of the coworker from the shift before me. It wasn't written into my contract, nor was it ever actually expressed in this fashion, but it was something that infuriated me as it persisted. It started with little things; being asked to "finish" mopping that had never even started, bring supplies up from downstairs that she knew where to find and had not shown me, organizing and other upkeep efforts that, while either of us could handle them, would have been nice to have finished, or at least started, before her shift ended. In the daily log book she would complain of trials and tribulations with materials and customers, even on slow days, and would leave even simple tasks undone. While her external demeanor was sweet and perhaps so much as ineffectual, her attitude was ultimately one of the factoason, it is hard to get reps and managers to adopt.

Session after session, we implore sales people to always conclude meeting with a clear and mutually agreed on next step that commits both you and the buyer to not only a specific time and action. More often than not however, this either does not happen at all, or only partially.

Reps tell us "my step is a call next Tuesday"

We ask when?

"In the morning"

What time?

"Around 10:00"

Did she agree to that time?

"Yes she said Tuesday morning would be fine"

So she agreed to 10:00?

"Well Tuesday morning"

So if we looked in her calendar, there would be a scheduled call with your name and related actions?

"I guess, ya!"

What does she think the call is about and what does she have to do to get value out of the call?

"I said that I would follow up to find out ......; and arrange a follow up"

What does she have to do to be prepared for the meeting

AND ON IT GOES.

The above is typical of discussions we have with reps. They either do not pre-plan their desired outcome for a meeting, or get a tangible indication of interest by the prospect.

"In selling, a "Next Step" is tangible evidence that someone is working with you - playing ball with you. It's not a "gut feeling" that the person is interested in playing ball with you, but proof of that interest."

Next steps can take different forms, could be a face to face meeting, a call, or an action taken. But what they have in common, is that they commit the prospect to meeting with you to proactively move the process forward. They should involve some commitment on the part of the prospect; after all they should have some skin in the game as well. This could be as simple as forwarding production schedules, current tariffs, plans that may help you understand their requirements; or a conference call with their technical team; a copy of their financial statements, etc.

The key is that it be more than just the willingness to meet with you; other than their time, what commitment are they making? You on the other hand are going to go back, engage resources in your company, invest your time to come up with something to present to the prospect, all without testing the commitment level of the other party.

In most instances, a next step does not always have to be quantum leaps, just remember that even a small movement forward gets you that much closer to close. But if you don't secure a next step, have you advanced at all?

Another common occurrence is meetings ending with the prospect saying "great, I am glad we had a chance to meet, I really like what I heard, I want to bring my team up to speed so call me next week, and we can discuss things further." Worse the rep says "I'll call you next week". Even with straight and honest intentions, you usually end up playing phone tag, and when you finally connect you end up setting up a meeting a week or two out. You can easily save a few week

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