The Modern Sales Process

The length of the Sales Process has changed, now generally referred to as a ‘Complex’ Sales Process. In the past a typical Sales engagement would generally be a 30-60-90 day Process, including time for upfront prospecting. Fifteen years ago I coached my Sales People to always be acutely aware that the Prospecting they do today will pay off with new business typically 90 days down the road.     

 

The ‘funnel’ was analyzed by how many engaged prospects they had on the go,  and where each were in the 30-60-90  day Sales Process so forecasting could  be fairly accurate.  This is NOT what a Sales Process looks like today and indeed is comprised of two distinct Stages or Cycles, each having their own timelines; 

1. The Prospecting Cycle; 2. The Sales Cycle   

 

THE PROSPECTING CYCLE from a cold start there is always a 90-day ramp up period required. This is to allow the time it takes to build a pipeline from scratch (please see my previous post “Why I Prefer to Prospect for My Own Sales Leads”

 

http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141202005515-36167312-3-reasons-why-i-preferto-  prospect-for-my-own-sales-leads?trk=mp-reader-card )

 

For example, once I target a Company  and qualify who the Decision Maker  probably is (which can be a cycle in  itself!), I research their digital presence  and craft my initial messaging to use in  my Approach that is specifically designed  to find their areas of ‘pain’ or business  challenge. For example, a fast food  franchise selling Pizzas that does not  provide a mobile app on their website  is obviously losing sales. Without  finding out what their challenges are  and gaining their agreement that yes, it is a problem, they will not change  from the status quo.  Typically, it takes between 6-8 touches  through a variety of methods such as  Social Media avenues, emails, voicemails, etc. to elicit a response. As you  cannot call someone on Monday, then  on Wednesday and then on Friday, this  process takes time. Count on at least  6-8 weeks per Prospect before you  either gain a positive response (i.e. yes  they do have challenges in this area and would like to have a conversation), or find out they already have a partner, or are provided an alternate contact  person to call (hopefully including a  referral) to start the Cycle over again.  For a campaign I recently conducted  for a Microsoft partner in Canada, after 90 days on a part-time basis I  generated 6 Opportunities for website  redesigns, online mobile strategies and  mobile applications. With this particular  Client it took over 160 cold but  researched Prospects to generate the  6 Opportunities, and consider this:  each Prospect required an average 6-8  touches each. That's close to 1300  touches to generate these Opportunities  over a 90-day period!

 

When you do the math, you see very  quickly that actually obtaining a new  customer or sale from scratch within  the old 90-day time frame is impossible  as there is not enough time for the  Prospecting Stage / Cycle of the Sales  Process. Therefore, just the Prospecting  Cycle of the new Sales Process requires  the time that the entire old Sales Process  took to complete.

 

THE SALES CYCLE  Once a new Sales Prospect has been  identified and qualification begun the  next step is the Discoveries stage of  the Consultative Sales Process, one  of the best known and successful  methodologies for B2B sales especially  for the IT and High-Tech industries (please see my post, “Don't Forget the ‘Sales’ in Sales Automation,”  http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141201210717-36167312-don-t-forget-the-sales-insales-automation?trk=mp-reader-card )  To summarize, the steps are;  Discoveries / Fact-Finding – This is  the most important step in the Sales  Cycle and can take weeks and/or  months, and involve several stakeholders  in possibly different countries for  Enterprise-wide decisions.  All information uncovered in  Discoveries is what the Sales Person  needs to create a customized and  relevant Proposal, and to manage  Objections when they are raised.  This is also the step where the  relationship between the Consultative  Sales Person and Prospective Customer  is formed as it becomes apparent,  through intelligent questioning and  great research, that the Sales Person  has their Prospective Customer’s  interests first and foremost and is not  just interested in making a sale but in  genuinely helping solve the business  challenges that they helped uncover.  Proposal / Recommendation – To be  effective the Proposal must align the  Sales Person’s products / services with  the Prospective Customers’ areas of  pain, and be completely customized (no boiler-plates here). To be even  more effective, the Proposal should  include additional related challenges  that could be solved that the  Prospective Customer may not even  have thought of. It should include  clear timelines, and the expected ROI  if applicable.

 

Probably back to Discoveries here if  Objections are raised (most likely),  but if all makes sense the next step is...  Negotiations – Contractual  Requirements, Creation of the Project  Plan, Financial Considerations, etc. are  now discussed and specifically tailored  to the proposed solution, and then...  Implementation – The Sales Process  itself is complete and the new Customer  is transitioned to implementing their  new Solution(s) as per the Plans created  and agreed upon in Negotiations.  Ask yourself, how long is just the Sales Stage / Cycle you currently  require for generating new customers?  We are no longer in the good ol’days of 30-60-90 day Sales Processes. Now, a 6 - 8 month Sales Cycle is usually  required for a small – mid-sized project  such as creating a mobile strategy and /  or a website redesign; up to 18+ months  for Enterprise Projects such as CRM  and Collaboration Platforms due to  length of the Discovery Process required  and the multiple stakeholders typically  involved in projects of this size.  Add onto these time frames the Prospecting Stage / Cycle upfront and you begin to see that we are in a very  new world of Sales. And one in which a straight commission arrangement is  completely inappropriate due to the  length of the new, modern Sales  Process, the heightened level of risk  that goes hand-in-hand with lengthy  cycles, and the Senior level of skill  required by the Sales Person to keep  the Process moving forward and on  track to a successful conclusion.  In summary, it is absolutely critical to  keep the length of the Modern Sales  Process in mind when creating your  Sales Forecasts / Budgets with your  Managers or Clients before new business  activities begin to gain agreement and  keep everyone on the same page.  As Warren Buffet famously said;  “No matter how great the talent or  efforts, some things just take time. You  can’t produce a baby in one month by  making nine women pregnant.”  The Modern Sales Process requires  more time today than in the past.

 

By Denise Barry 

Proprietor / New Business Development / Owner  Member, Continental Who’s Who