Stop spinning your wheels on lousy prospects!
Slow kills deals.
Every seller knows (and loves) the feeling of a textbook sales process that goes from identify to closed-won, quickly. The benefits of moving prospects to customers quickly through the pipeline expose several key leading indicators of the health of your sales team and sales process.
Why Deals Close Quickly — or Don't
1. Immediate need is identified, and the solution fits the need.
2. Resources will be allocated to meet that need.
3. You are talking to the people that can say yes.
4. You have covered your bases with the people who can say no and not yes.
5. You have clearly, consistently, and quickly followed up with the prospect on outstanding items and requests.
6. You are the epitome of responsiveness and accessibility.
7. You know who to connect with internally to remove red tape; you understand your process.
8. During the sales process, you have removed barriers and common objections, including timing, price, execution, and process.
9. You are organized and deliberate.
10. You have established trust and credibility with your buyer.
Knowing the reasons deals close quickly, you can craft your sales process to create an environment that checks the boxes and maintains sales integrity.
How to Speed Up The Sales Process
1. Ensure early that your prospect is the right fit, has the dollar potential, that you have access to the key decision-maker, and there is the desire to solve for the solution you are offering.
2. Educate throughout the sales process. At every stage of the sales process, ask questions and educate your prospect.
3. Own the process and take control of it. Don’t leave a meeting without a commitment for the next step. Don’t leave your process in the hands of the prospect.
4. Communicate internally and externally, often.
5. Stay organized, and it will help you to be easy to work with, that at times can be the one tipping point to winning business. If your sales process is clunky or disjointed, it reflects the organization.
6. If the process slows down, or you sense it slowing down, address it immediately.
7. Ensure potential objections such as price, timeline, and terms are discussed early in the sales process. Many deals have been lost and time wasted because the buyer had no idea of the cost until the last slide in the last meeting.
A no-surprise proposal is the best way to close deals, so clarifying specific things during the process can eliminate the surprises to the prospect. And when you have no surprises, you'll end up closing your deal faster!
*Editor's Note: This blog was originally written in 2013 and has since been updated.
