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    Are long sales cycles better?

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    According to Miller Heiman Institute’s 2015 Sales Best Practices Study, world-class sales teams report longer sales cycles. About 18% more world-class sales performers report longer sales cycles, compared to previous years. This can be surprising when we normally see shorter sales cycles as a sign of good sales performance.

    To speed up, slow down

    When you think about it, it makes sense – sometimes, to speed up, you need to slow down. Top performers are probably engaging with customers earlier, more proactively. They invest more time and discipline to qualify prospects before initiating sales opportunities. Once they engage, they spend more time and resources in understanding customers throughout their buying journeys.

    How smooth is your sales process?

    Hurry up and lose

    Trying to rush through the sales process without fully understanding your buyer, and without having influenced their thought process, will set you up for defeat. Sales teams that outperform their competition understand this.

    Asking more questions takes time

    "Trying to rush through the sales process will take you down a losing path."
    George Brontén

    In complex sales environments, we’re really talking about change management projects. In my experience, complex challenges require 10% decision-making and 90% inquiry. Unless you get all the right stakeholders involved early and get them to agree on their current problems and desired future state, change will not happen. This is hard work and takes time, but unless we do this properly, we run the risk of spending time and money reacting to symptoms.

    Change beliefs and drive new behaviors

    Our beliefs drive decisions; decisions drive behaviors and behaviors become routines. If the current belief is that we need to speed up our sales cycle, we need to question this assumption, introduce a new belief and encourage new behaviors.

    Start with a win-loss analysis

    Analyze your team’s last 10 or so deals and discuss them as a team. Can you find any actions taken that were attempts to speed up the deal? Did you miss opportunities to identify and engage with important stakeholders? Did you skip other important steps in your sales process? Make sure that you write down your learnings and revise your sales process to make sure that you don’t repeat the same mistake.

    Discipline is hard – use a process to get it right every time

    It’s not easy to always do the right thing and stick with a process. As human beings, we seem to be built for novelty and excitement and not for careful attention to detail. We know we should exercise regularly to live a long and healthy life, yet we find excuses not to. Most of us can’t even keep from snacking between meals. Discipline is something we have to work at.

    This is why it is so important to have a dynamic sales process that your team can use and improve daily, including key activities and milestones. With this in place, you will lower the risk of trying to speed things up before having done your homework and have your potential buyer in alignment. Also, make sure that your compensation plans don’t get in the way by encouraging shortcuts instead of careful sales planning and execution.

    (You can download the study here)

    Download this free Excel tool that helps you design a b2b sales process

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    George Brontén
    Published May 15, 2015
    By George Brontén

    George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.

    Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn