“In the real world outside economic theory, every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something that others cannot”. – Peter Thiel

I was at my favorite restaurant last week and the time it took to get seated was twice as long as on my previous visit. A quick check with the hostess confirmed my thinking. She explained that with the recent opening of two large employers in the area, the restaurant had been abnormally busy.

The same thing can happen to your sales cycle. The time to close a deal can seem to grow over time. It could be changes in the economy or something else in the marketplace that is impacting the time required to close a sale.

Whatever the reason, a longer sales cycle time is not good for your business. Every day that a deal is not closed is an opportunity for it to slip through your fingers. I have seen sales lost that were seemingly won just days earlier because some variable changed during those extra days.

It’s also a fact that an extended sales time adds to your costs and stops you from starting on the next opportunity.

Early in my career, I was working with a client to make a sale of some specialized equipment. It seemed like as soon as I had dealt with one objection the client would come up with a new one. It felt like I was in a “whack-a-mole” game for salespeople.

It was an exhausting process but we eventually made the sale. What I came to realize much later was that this client had cost me a great deal of the one thing none of us has to spare….our time. The additional time I spent dealing with the endless objections of this client could have been spent closing the sale with other clients.

Like a lot of salespeople, I had gotten sucked into a contest of wills with this customer. I wanted to close the sale and was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen. I may have lost twice as much revenue as I gained by falling into the trap of trying to overcome every objection the client threw at me.

I don’t want that to happen to you. So let’s examine some techniques you can employ to keep the sales process on track.

The first step to minimize the sales cycle time involves ranking and culling your potential customers. It’s a sad fact, but true indeed, that you do not want everyone to be your customer. Some are simply more trouble than they are worth and others just don’t present a correct fit for what you are selling.

You’re not making a moral judgment when you choose not to sell to them. It’s just business and its fine to prioritize your selling time and resources in ways that best enable you to succeed.

Sales success means that you understand the type of customer that’s a good fit for what you do. You want to identify and focus on clients that like your product or service and are willing to pay the going rate to enjoy it.

Determine early on if your prospect can pay the required amount or not. There is no point in trying to sell a Ferrari to someone with a Toyota budget.

Think about it this way: If you can identify the qualities that align with your high fit customers, you can shorten the sales cycle.

  • Depending on the size of your client base, identify your top five to ten customers. These are the customers that are currently spending the most with you so they are advocates for your products or services.
  • After you create the list of the top customers take some time to evaluate the list. Look for anything they may have in common. Look for things like:
    • Industry fit
    • Product mix
    • Company size

This list should give you a fairly good portrait of your ideal customer.

Now that you have defined your ideal customer you can use this information to line up the best prospects to target. Simply look for prospects that resemble your best customers. These are the prospects that should be the easiest to sell, thereby shortening your sales cycle.

Another key factor to your success will be reaching out to friends and colleagues to let them know the profile of the prospects you are looking to engage. In my experience, people want to be helpful and they want to participate in your success. It’s to your benefit to provide them with the information that will help them to help you.

Working in sales is always going to be challenging. But a good understanding of the market and your preferred client profile will help you to close more sales quickly, regardless of the business environment.

In the immortal words of the great Carthaginian General Hannibal, “We will either find a way or make one”.