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SubscribeDoes watching your leads go through to sales feel like a long-drawn battle?
A prolonged sales cycle isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a giant hole that drains your resources and hampers your ROI. Plus, when deals take forever to close, it stops on your cash flow projections. Your reinvestment plans take the hit, limiting your profit and growth.
And, while your sales team is stuck in endless negotiations, you miss out on some good opportunities. Moreover, all that back-and-forth affects your customer relationships and could even dent your rep in the market.
So, to ensure it doesn’t happen with your business, explore eight expert tips for shortening the B2B sales cycle.
TL;DR
| > In business, the sales cycle involves several stages that a prospect goes through before making a purchase. Every business wants this process to be short. If too much time is spent on warm leads, they can turn cold. Plus, if closing a lead takes a long time, it can hurt a company’s productivity and revenue. > So, how can you shorten your sales cycle? You can streamline lead qualification, use automation and CRM software, and personalize outreach. You can also seek assistance with platforms like JustCall, which can help automate call logging and CRM integration. |
What is the sales cycle?
A sales cycle is the step-by-step process a sales team follows to convert a prospect into a customer, i.e., make a sale. It can be broken down into the following stages:
- Identifying potential leads
- Nurturing those leads
- Making the sales pitch or presentation
- Tackling objections
- Negotiating terms
- Closing the deal
You can calculate the length of your sales cycle by tracking the time it takes the lead to move from prospecting to closing. While there is no standard industry-prescribed time, a Marketing Charts study showed that 74.6% of B2B deals took at least four months to close.
Common reasons behind a prolonged sales cycle
Drawn-out sales cycles are the bane of B2Bs. The longer it takes to shorten sales cycles, the more it impacts your sales team’s productivity and lowers your win rates. Here are a few common causes why you might be struggling with long sales cycles:
- Complex sales processes: It can prolong the sales cycle if your sales process involves several decision-makers or lengthy approval processes. More hoops to jump through mean more time spent trying to seal the deal.
- Lack of clear qualification criteria: Are your sales reps chasing leads that turn out to be dead ends? Most businesses don’t have clear lead qualification criteria, so they spend too much time on leads with no conversion potential. That unnecessarily drains resources slowing everything down.
- Poor lead nurturing: Leads are like plants — they need sufficient attention to grow. If you fail to provide your leads with timely information, they will stagnate in your sales pipeline. This can stunt your sales cycle.
- Lack of urgency: Prospects are not in a rush to sign on the dotted line without a sense of urgency. It’s up to you to communicate the value proposition effectively and get them moving.
- Insufficient sales training: Inexperienced sales reps can drag the sales cycle. Without consistent training, such as relevant product knowledge or understanding of predictive lead scoring, you would not be able to meet sales targets.
- Inconsistent follow-up: Inconsistent follow-up, like not dropping voice mail reminders or scheduling a callback after two weeks or more, can result in your prospects forgetting about you. Your sales cycle might never reach its completion. You need a structured follow-up process and automation tools to help you stay on their minds and keep the conversation going.
Read more: How to simplify customer interactions with a single tool
8 strategies to shorten your sales cycle
“Sell more in less time” is the key to hitting your sales quota and closing deals faster. But how precisely can you boost your sales velocity? Hang on as we reveal the top tips to shorten your sales cycle.
1.Streamline lead qualification
67% of lost sales are due to sales reps following unqualified leads. Chasing prospects without buyer intent or decision-making powers means blocking your sales pipeline.
Qualify prospects early on by implementing appropriate lead qualification frameworks like BANT, MEDDIC, CHAMP, etc.
Here’s how you can zero in on the most promising prospects:
- Check if your product/service is within their budget.
- Speak to the decision-making authority.
- Learn if the lead at all needs your product/service.
- Ask for the probable time they can make the purchase.
Use automated lead scoring techniques to hit the hottest prospects first. This will save you time on dead ends and allow you to close more deals with the right customers.
The process of lead scoring can be a bit tricky. If you are confused about how to get started with lead scoring, explore more with JustCall.
2.Use sales automation
Sales reps spend only two hours a day selling and an hour on manual tasks. Writing emails, researching prospects, and updating the lead database waste precious time for your sales teams.
With effective sales automation software, your SDRs can ditch the manual grunt. From automated SMS and email follow-ups to updating the sales calendar, your agents can focus on what’s most important — nurturing leads and driving sales.
3.Implement CRM software
Juggling a dozen leads while trying to track every conversation and follow-up is exhausting. That’s where CRM software swoops in to save the day.
It automatically updates lead information, organizes contacts, tracks interactions, and streamlines sales pipelines — all in one place. It can shorten a sales cycle by almost 14%.
By staying organized and spotting trends, you can make quick adjustments to move leads through the pipeline faster. CRM software makes cross-selling, upselling, and tracking sales cycles seamless.
| Note: Keep your CRM clean. Weed out dead leads and keep the database updated at all times. |
4.Personalize sales outreach
A cookie-cutter sales pitch will end up in your prospect’s spam folder or, worse — blocklist. Personalize your tone, provide solutions to the pain points, and make them feel heard and understood.
Use these time-tested practices to warm your prospect:
- Address them by their first name in SMS-es and emails to avoid sounding like a mass pitch.
- Revert to past interactions to guide future interactions.
- Speak directly to the prospect’s pain point and aspirations.
- Share customer win stories to create a feeling of solidarity.
5.Create urgency
Doesn’t a good deal feel sweeter when offered for a limited period? That’s the role of urgency in sales — and it’s an age-old proven strategy when it comes to shortening sales cycles.
Excite prospects with limited-period discounts, offers, and incentives. It will nudge your prospects to make decisions faster, cutting down on back-and-forth and speeding up the sales process.
6.Conquer objections
Objections are a part and parcel of the sales process. You cannot live with them; you cannot live without them. The best way to turn these roadblocks into stepping stones towards a closed deal is to understand their root.
So when you hear “It’s too expensive,” or “I’m not sure if it’s the right fit for us.”, ask: “What’s your budget?” or “Where are you struggling?”
By addressing their concerns head-on and offering solutions, you’re showing them that you’re not just there to sell — you’re there to help.
Empathizing and building trust can make all the difference in closing the deal.
7.Implement smooth scheduling
Scheduling woes can make your head spin. From juggling calendars and sending endless emails back and forth to finding a time that works for everyone — it’s a mad rush.
By automating scheduling processes and reminders, you can streamline the entire process and ensure that meetings stay on track. No more double bookings or missed appointments — just smooth sailing from start to finish. Run your sales cycle like clockwork!
| Are you losing your sanity and sales over messed-up schedules? Leave it to JustCall’s appointment scheduler. |
8.Plan and prepare for your meetings
No one likes sitting in meetings that seem to go nowhere. In sales processes, snoozefests like these would drive your prospect’s attention away.
Before you even step foot into that sales pitch, take a minute to set clear objectives and agendas. Understand what you want to accomplish in the meeting. It can be getting buy-in from key stakeholders, addressing objections, or moving the deal forward to the next stage.
Next, give your prospects a clear idea of the deal and what it has in store for them.
Planning and preparing isn’t just about boosting productivity; it’s about shortening the sales cycle.
Accelerate your sales cycle with JustCall
Here’s the bottom line: the shorter your sales cycle, the less likely you are to lose deals and the higher your chance of hitting your sales target. JustCall helps you do just that and more.
With features like automated call logging, intelligent lead scoring, and seamless integration with CRM systems, JustCall enables sales teams to reach out to prospects more efficiently and effectively.
JustCall also prioritizes hot leads and adds them to your lead list. As your agents connect with warm prospects, they can also see all the prospect details on screen and can personalize their approach.
Plus, JustCall AI uses moment analytics to understand customer sentiment and notify agents if there is a dip in customer interest. This specific feature, combined with real-time analytics, can help agents better navigate customer interaction and develop stronger pitches.
Try JustCall for 14 days free and get first-hand experience of a shortened sales cycle.
