How Can I Shorten the Sales Cycle?

Teach the rep how to quote on site. Teach the rep how to create a mock up (I'm assuming it can be done online.) Get the deposit in that first call.

The reason it takes multiple calls is because you are insisting on making multiple calls.

I'm sure your reps will totally disagree with Claude.

Not that he's wrong....but reps are reps and therefore think they are brilliant and can't be taught anything.

I can pretty much guarantee that they'll say.."but that doesn't work in this industry"

What you need to do is take one of the less dogmatic ones to one side and brief him/her on a better way to sell your product. Trouble with that is.....who is going to teach him/her?

You'll need a pro sales trainer/developer to make much headroom. The right person however [I'm kinda retired unfortunately] would have a huge impact.

Remember what you'll be listening for...."that doesn't work in this industry."

Good luck anyway.

It's hard to argue with a guy who has actually done it
and taught others to do it as well.

Experience tops opinion, every time.

A guy who sold signs in one call, was Lloyd Allard.

He wrote a book, "Selling".

It may be of interest.

Ron

I very much appreciate all of the advice.

I will see if I can make some headway.

OK bud, here's what you have to do:

> encounter prospects who are at an emergency or tripwire or instigator moment, however you want to term it. Something has just happened in their world that means they need the solution you provide.

If you have experience with a niche and a product/service, you can go back through your accounts and find the similarities. You could also go back and ask, but do this by phone or in person, not by email.

What's happening for you now is your reps are finding prospects who haven't had that trigger event.

In the web design field, trigger events could be:

> change of ownership
> change in marketing executive
> change of branding
> change of services/products/target market
> departure of a key employee
> decreased cashflow, leading to the realization that improved conversion methods are required
> realization that the old website is badly dated
> sales reps spending too much time explaining options to prospects that could have been demonstrated online

The nice thing is you can build your marketing message around these events, once you confirm what they are for your niche. You'll stand out, too--everyone else is saying, "Hey, wanna buy a website?"

Most of these are applicable to sign design. When I ran a metal fab shop back in Vancouver, I worked with a sign shop and a woodworking studio that could make custom booths, signs, motion picture sets and all kinds of other things.

As others have said, it's taking this long because the prospect is being allowed to take that time. Your reps need to lead the process and say "This is how it is" at the start.

That's your current problem: your reps are finding prospects that aren't really qualified, and then get into a bidding cycle. The "hot buttons" remove that step as the customer truly wants the problem solved ASAP. And here you are, saying this is exactly what you do and who you do it for.

Trigger Event + Authority = Supreme Buyer Confidence.

Imagine a long highway from City A to City B. You can drive the entire length if you like. You can get on at Onramp #2, which is closer to City B but still way out there. Or you can get on at Onramp #5, which is just a few miles from City B.

Now imagine that City B is your prospect's buying decision.

A lot of money has been made, in my experience especially in the software field (CRM, Accounting, Inventory Management) by Company J swooping in at the last minute and taking the order away...after Company E has spent a long time--maybe years--educating and coddling the prospect along.

Fair? Maybe not. But it happens all the time.

I gave you two concepts here for shortening sales cycles. There are more.

Thank you, everyone. I am going to see what I can persuade the rep to implement.

We have a LOT of calls coming in, and these are people who seem ready to buy - and they are - but it just takes 2-3 weeks to close the deal.

Not sure if this is because they aren't as close to buying as we thought, or if the sales process is too cumbersome. (I am, obviously, leaning towards the latter.)

A couple of questions:

1) What's the average sale dollar value?
2) What's the conversion breakdown between each prospect stage X prospects => X meetings => X proposals => X sales?
3) Who designed the sales process?
4) What's your reason for wanting to shorten the sales cycle?

All this talk about signs has definitely put this topic square on my radar.

So much so yesterday while leaving my apartment complex, I noticed a guy from Signorama taking a photo of what I thought was new signage and indeed it was for a new Senior Retirement Living community that's adjacent to our residence.

I slowed down enough to ask him if his company put up the sign as my thoughts were that he might have been doing a little intel for another company. Not sure how much that particular sign is worth but it's probably an expensive one because it's the main signage for the yet unfinished Senior Retirement Living community. This particular Retirement community has quite a few nationwide location build-outs scheduled so anyone with something to offer this niche should definitely pursue it now before they break ground.

I reached out to who I thought might have completed the sign a few moments ago and the owner said it wasn't their franchise who did it but would have like to know who did in her backyard lol. They are absolutely slammed with work and have more work projects in our neck of the woods than they can handle almost so it seems your industry is really thriving.

I skimmed through your post and didn't read any of the replies I'm sure you got the answer your looking for but my answer is simple. Turn the lead into an appointment, have the sales rep go to the appointment, and he doesn't leave until the deal is closed. Do everything on the spot. Pretty simple.

Possibly before your appointment a well thought study of the client site can make your job easier.

Thank you for the advice! Will post a longer reply when I get more time. (Busy day today!)

Possibly the mistake is asking how to shorten the sales cycle for all the sales. Some sales could be closed on the first meeting. I don't know how many, but let's say half of the 75%. The other half need a longer cycle, because more people are involved, or the buyer just isn't excited enough to move right away.

My suggestion is to make it easier to buy on the first call. And also make follow up calls if necessary. You may increase your first call sales, and that would slightly increase your over all sales (by preventing some loss due to lag time)


But the law of diminishing returns sets in. You may not be able to go much higher than 75%. In my very best year, with the most qualified prospects..I could never get above 80%. And these were people who said they were already interested.

Thank you for all the replies. Honestly, this was even more than I had hoped for.

The design and finances seem to be a sticking point. Finances would be cleared up with better qualifying, I think. The design process seems to get bogged down if the client isn't really clear on what he/she wants. He/She has something in their head, but can't quite articulate it well enough to get the concept right until it's had multiple back-and-forth.

edited to add: the high-dollar clients seem to spend much more time getting the sign "just right." I don't think that can be shortened, to be honest. :/