0:01:03 Ben Wright: Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered sales teams. This morning I got off one of the best phone calls I’ve ever had with one of my customers. And whilst there was lots of fantastic results, positive progress and celebrations that we went through, there’s one quote that really stayed with me. And I’m going to read this because it is essentially verbatim to what my customer said. And it went something along the lines of signing them on the spot more regularly than we’re not.
0:01:33 Ben Wright: And what he meant by that is that his team who deal in significant size deals, we’re not talking about one or two or 5,000 average size deals, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. He’s now having a team signing deals on the spot with their customers and I thought, wow, what a difference that has made to the speed of his sales cycle. Previously had a great business, but it was going through some difficult and challenging periods, I think in their revenue generation journey. And for me, being able to turn that around from a period where they were struggling to bring good quality deals in the door to ones where they’re now able to sign serious multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars of deals on the spot during customer presentations.
0:02:20 Ben Wright: Just says to me how impactful the work that we’ve done with that team has been. So that customer, if they’re listening, I’m not gonna name them. They know who they are. And I say the biggest congratulations that I can possibly send your way because you had to make some really hard calls to do it. But also there were some nice and easy changes that we were able to make along the journey as well. So today we’re gonna do a really short and punchy podcast. It’s the first of this type that I’ve Done.
0:02:46 Ben Wright: It’s gonna be shorter than normal, but we’re gonna have a look at the top five ways that I see sales cycles shortening. Before we do that, let’s just think for a moment around why we would want to shorten a sales cycle. There’s a few reasons in this. For me, the first one is the really obvious one is that the faster we get a deal in the door, the quicker our revenue is recognized and then of course, the faster we can move on to more customers and more deals. Right. So a faster sales cycle means faster recognition of revenue. It also means that we’re devoting less salespeople time to each deal, which means that they have more time to spend on other deals.
0:03:23 Ben Wright: So it’s not so much a speed of revenue piece, but it’s a capacity piece, whereby if our team are closing deals 25% faster, they’re able to handle 25% more deals across the year, which if they’re closing 20% of those very modest number, then they’re closing 4, 5% more deals. Right? 20% of 25% being 5%. Right. So just the sheer throughput or capacity growth that comes from closing more deals quickly is a really nice benefit. And the third one for me is I think that it really results in engaged customers where we can have a shortened sales cycle. We can bring them into the journey far more quickly than we would over elongated sales processes. And with that for me generally comes energy, excitement, and often the ability to then go and roll out that product or that service or whatever you’re offering as a business with that same level of energy and speed.
0:04:18 Ben Wright: So for me, that often actually results in not just greater engagement, but a stronger long term relationship. So I think there’s a fair bit of merit for me in speeding up the sales cycle. Of course, I caution that if we’re moving too fast through a sales cycle, we can actually risk leaving people behind. So there’s certainly a balance, particularly when we have a product or service that needs some explaining or some conditioning or some time to really understand it.
0:04:45 Ben Wright: So new technology, products, something that’s new to a business or to a person, or something that has an inbuilt level of complexity, like buying a house, for example, or if you’re a business taking on significance amounts of new machinery. Right. These type of things sometimes do need the processes to unfold, but where we can shorten those cycles, wow, what a terrific impact it can have to both our customers and our businesses.
0:05:10 Ben Wright: So today I’d like to have a look at the five the most compelling ways that I’ve seen businesses over the last 25 years speed up their sales cycles. And I will say that these five ways of speeding up the sales cycles are particularly relevant now. Whilst there are patterns over the 25 years or so that I’ve been in sales, there are also some that are appearing as more relevant now than they were say, you know, in the early 2000s or in the 2010-2020 period, or even, even in that period immediately post Covid.
0:05:40 Ben Wright: I think we’re changing as a sales market and we’re shifting back into more business as usual. So we’re again seeing a slight shifting of the sands as to how sales teams are effectively operating. But for me, good sales leaders out there, we know that things are constantly changing. So being able to be agile enough to adapt to those are really important. So let’s have a look at these five and at the end I’ll talk through how this customer has managed to have more deals being signed on the spot than not. And in fact, I think the other thing that he said is we are struggling to keep up with sales at the moment. So I was like, wow, two comments in a row that are just the champagne type of problems that you like as a sales or a business leader.
0:06:18 Ben Wright: So number one, and some of these are going to be really obvious, but I think it’s really important to challenge yourself if you’re doing this as a sales or business leader, if you’re not just talking about it, but if you’re actually leaning into the practical things you need to do to make these happen. So number one is they’re really clear that they are targeting their right customers. So they’re not out there with a spray and pray type of lead generation strategy.
0:06:42 Ben Wright: They’re not accepting inbound leads who don’t meet their target profile, but they’re simply saying, right, we know who our ideal customers are and we’re going to spend our time with them ahead of anyone else. Couple of things this does is one is it allows the sales teams to focus more intently on their ideal customers without being diluted by those who aren’t necessarily going to do business with you anyway. Number two is that by allowing your team to focus predominantly on the right type of customers for your business, you’re actually copy pasting more and more and more, right? You’re having to step less outside of your zone of heavy momentum by dealing with customers who perhaps don’t meet your business exactly as you need.
0:07:25 Ben Wright: And number three is for me is it’s not just Speeding up the sales cycle, but it’s also increasing your close rates. Right. If we know that our customer is based in a certain location with a certain number of employees, has a certain business revenue, a typical type of problem, and we can target them exactly where they are at when they need us, then we’re going to speed up that sales cycle because they’re more engaged.
0:07:47 Ben Wright: Yes, very straightforward as one of my top five. But for me, practically speaking, the majority of businesses that we’re working with are not doing this when we start working with them. They are not resisting that temptation to go and chase customers who aren’t potentially ideal for them. And essentially they’re having deals come in that are very low likelihood of closing. So that’s number one. Number two is they’re getting really clear in their first meetings with customers.
0:08:17 Ben Wright: So whether you’re in a residential space and it’s when you’re on the phone, in a commercial space, when you’re face to face, or at an institutional level, when you’re meeting larger groups of people, perhaps of people, perhaps they’re getting really, really clear on what success looks like for this project. So what are the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 things that we need to tick off to make sure that this deal goes ahead?
0:08:40 Ben Wright: A terrific example I’ll give you is, and I love using machinery, for example, because it’s very easy to talk about. But if we know that a customer is looking for a piece of machinery that’s going to have a payback of three years, that’s going to come with a service and maintenance agreement for X period of time and X cost is going to be able to be charged or refueled in a certain way, has a guaranteed uptime level with it and, and can be delivered in a certain amount of time. If we can sit with our customer and be very clear that that’s where we need to get to for success to work, then we are far more likely to speed up that sales cycle. And for me, it’s all about reducing the roadblocks that come in front of us that can potentially stop the deal progressing.
0:09:21 Ben Wright: I. E. If a service and maintenance program is really important for a customer and we are not aware of that before we put forward our quote and the customer says, hey, I’m missing this. Well then we’re back and forward, right. Trying to have that added in in a best case scenario, but in a worst case scenario, the customer’s saying, you know what? You haven’t added service and maintenance. I’m actually going to go and look elsewhere so for me, getting really, really clear on what success looks like and asking the question if I, or if we do these three things, will you be able to move forward really does speed up that sales cycle.
0:09:57 Ben Wright: It doesn’t always get you a yeah, sure, Ben, if you go and meet these three things, you’ve got the deal. Because of course there are at times competitive processes. But for me, when we can make sure that we are ticking off as many of the criteria as possible. In fact, I’m going to go a step further. When we can make sure we’re ticking off all the criteria that is obvious and open from a customer at the time of first meeting, we are then so much further advanced than anyone that hasn’t.
0:10:25 Ben Wright: And for me, if we can then do that, the speed at which your deals are then signed off increases dramatically because there’s that reduction in roadblocks. Okay, so number one is all around making sure we’re targeting the right people. Number two is getting really clear on what the customer wants before we go and do any quoting. And yes, it takes some patience and some absolute discipline to ask the questions we need to be able to do that. But that’s perhaps a topic for another time. But then number three is making sure that we not only know who’s making the decision, but they know who we are. And I use this example really commonly, that if we are buying a surfboard, my background, you know, a high end surfboard and we’re buying a surfboard from two different providers for me, and this question is generally answered in the same way when I talk to my customers, if I’m buying a surfboard with relatively the same features and benefits and outcomes and value, I, I will always lean towards the brand that I know better or the person within that brand that I know better.
0:11:22 Ben Wright: If I’ve spoken to someone selling that surfboard and I’ve had a good chat around how I can use it and the types of waves that it’s more likely to work from and the type of waves where I’m going to get the best out of it. Right? And we’ve been able to build some level of engagement between us versus just being sent a quote and a quick conversation perhaps with someone I will lean into that person I know primarily because there’s a little bit more trust there.
0:11:44 Ben Wright: Now that’s a really basic example to run through, but I want you to try and picture that in a larger deal. Perhaps if you’re in a corporate deal or a B2B deal, when you have decision makers that are making Decisions without having met you. If there are 2, 3, 4, 5 decision makers, a CFO, a GM, a head of procurement, perhaps a functional head or someone that’s using the product or service, if they’re all together making this decision and your competitors have been able to at least have those decision makers aware of who they are, you’re at an infinite disadvantage.
0:12:19 Ben Wright: So your close rate certainly would be lower. But more importantly, if you’re able to ensure that all decision makers know who you are, there’s a little bit less resistance in pressing that yes, go, let’s move forward button, because you are a known quantity or entity within that customer. So that’s number three, decision makers. Number four is getting really clear on decision times. This is nice and easy, right when we sit down before we’re quoting, we’re really clear on when does this decision need to be made by that allows everything to be structured around that. And whilst we might not necessarily bring the deal forward, we will at least align our energy and our workload around when the deal needs to be done.
0:12:59 Ben Wright: If it’s five months until the business is able to sign off into a new financial year, for example, at least we know that the hive of our activity needs to start to come in in that period before and prior to that. It’s about keeping the customer engaged. If we know that there’s no restrictions around the deadline, then we can move forward really quickly to try and bring that deal in. So that’s number four, and I don’t think we need to labor on that. Number five is all about using the best knowledge within your business. And I call this the deal review.
0:13:26 Ben Wright: So for me, it’s making sure that as a team, as we’re working with our customers and we’re working with the right customers, we’re really clear on what their needs are, who the decision makers are, and that the decision makers know us and we know when the deadline is for the sale, when we can internally workshop where all the value pieces we can add from the business are. That’s when my experience says that we really do get to move deals forward quickly because we’re not just using our brain or ourselves and our leader’s brain or those around us, we’re actually using the collective team to say, hey, I’ve had a situation with a similar type of deal or proposal or program or service or whatever it is. And in this instance, what I actually did was engage with one of the people in their implementation team, because I knew that they were the key people to roll it out. And we needed to get their questions answered really quickly.
0:14:13 Ben Wright: Right. So for us, we can skip a couple of steps by waiting for that to come back from the business and we can say, hey, in my experience, we actually need to be engaged with your implementation team as early as possible to get their questions out and be able to move forward. So that’s a nice short and sharp five ways that I’m seeing sales teams shorten the sales cycle. Getting clear on who their target is and resisting the temptation to go outside of this, spending time understanding what the customer wants. So we’re very clear on what outcomes we need to hit to get the deal done.
0:14:45 Ben Wright: Making sure that we don’t just know our decision makers, but also that they know us is number three. Getting clear on deadlines is number four. And then for number five, it’s reviewing the deal internally to make sure that we are adding as much value as quickly as we can to get the deal done. Now, I will say there’s a couple of honourable mentions here. Number one is around making sure we always give the customer a job.
0:15:08 Ben Wright: Definitely a podcast for another day, but that’s about making sure that our customers are actively engaged in the process so they continue to move forward. And then number five for me is about shortening the number of times that we need to engage with our customers to be able to get their proposals to them. And the reason I say this, and it’s in fact the exact way that the customer I mentioned at the start of this podcast was able to really ramp their sales is that they were actually able to bring a design, a technical and a sales quotation meeting that were previously held separately. They were able to bring all of these into one.
0:15:42 Ben Wright: So they thereby had one super engaged customer who was able to go through every single step of the process in. In one really powerful meeting. And the reason I see this work is because they were able to condition with their customer everything that was needed prior to this fantastic meeting and set it up as the key timeframe or the key decision point for whether or not they work together. Kudos to this business because it really did take some significant courage to move it forward.
0:16:10 Ben Wright: However, they were able to bring this together and have really charged ahead. So certainly some honourable mentions around giving the customer a job. Right. Making sure they’ve always got something to do to keep them engaged in the process. And the last piece there around trying to reduce the number of meetings that we have with a customer and thereby increasing at that key meeting time, exactly what you need to do and how you can move towards a decision more quickly.
0:16:34 Ben Wright: So there you go. That’s short, sharp and punchy. Today there’s no fluff, right? 5 Things Target Market Getting clear on what the outcomes are. Being really open with who decision makers are so that you not only know them, but they know you. Getting decision timeframes out very clearly in the open as early as possible and reviewing the deal to see where you can add value. I’m going to end it there because that is short and punchy. Please. I hope now there’s a little bit less time than normal in the podcast. I hope you can carve some time out, go and write a couple of these things down and make them happen.
0:17:04 Ben Wright: But until next week, please keep living in a world of possibility and you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve. Bye for now. Want to be kept up to date with any of our free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favorite social media channel. We’re ongerngersalesteams on most of them and if you DM us stronger, we’ll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team.
0:17:36 Ben Wright: If you’d like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and they’re free for my podcast listeners. I’d love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team. It.
