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17 Tips On How To Shorten Sales Cycle And Close More Deals
Speed up your sales cycle with 17 proven tips to close more deals, boost conversions, and increase revenue.
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Picture this: Your sales team has a hot lead on the line. They are excited and eager to close the deal. But as they run through their sales process, they notice the deal stalled on a critical decision-maker. Days turn into weeks and the excitement fizzles with the lead's growing silence. This scenario repeatedly plays out with sales teams needing help to shorten their sales cycles. The longer a deal takes to close, the more likely it is to fall through. Not only that, but prolonged sales cycles also increase the costs of selling and can lead to buyer’s remorse, where prospects feel uneasy about making a purchase. So, how can sales teams tackle this issue? One solution lies in sales acceleration software. This article will explore how to shorten the sales cycle and the tools to help you achieve your goal.
Aomni's sales intelligence software can help you reduce your sales cycle by providing actionable insights for your sales team.
What is a Sales Cycle, and How Long Does it Take?
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A sales cycle is the collection of sequential stages sales reps follow when converting a prospect into a customer. Think of it like the structure of a deal, the building blocks, like lead qualification and sales calls, that need to be stacked in a specific order so it’s possible to drive deals to close. The goal of a sales cycle is to ensure reps are uncovering customer needs and resources they can map to product solutions before making a pitch.
Sure, every rep wants to win another deal, but first, you must find a mutual fit between seller and buyer. You don’t have a deal if you don’t have that fit. The terms “sales cycle” and “sales process” are similar, but there’s one crucial difference. A sales cycle is the “what,” and a sales process is the “how.” A sales cycle describes the steps from lead to nurture to close, and a sales process describes your methodology and strategy for getting there effectively.
How Long is a Sales Cycle?
So what period signifies a sales cycle as long as opposed to short? No benchmark period can apply to all industries. Still, I would argue that any sale that typically takes several touch points (for example, paid search, display, email marketing, organic, white paper download, etc.) and spans several weeks to months is typically considered a longer sales cycle. A Databox survey of 300 companies shows that the median B2B sales cycle lasts 2.1 months.
Think about B2B projects involving a business proposal. Stakeholders must carefully analyze the project’s price, ROI, and scope. Below is a better representation of a long sales cycle: In contrast, most B2C offerings have a short sales cycle repeated significantly more frequently than B2B sales cycles, such as:
- Hygiene
- Retail
- Buying online products
Decoding the Sales Cycle Slowdown
Group Decisions Cause Sales Cycle Slowdown
More complex buyer groups solve more complicated problems. Most B2B purchases are a team effort, made by a group of six to 10 stakeholders on average. It’s no wonder that Gartner found that organizational changes drive 99% of B2B purchases. As analysts explain, “This means buyers are most often motivated to solve longer-term, internal challenges that span multiple parts of the buyer organization.”
Buyer Consensus and Decision-Making Units
Difficulty driving buyer consensus. With decision-making units the norm, B2B sales cycles are extended until each buying group member gets on board with a purchase decision. Yet Forrester’s latest survey of more than 18,000 business buyers found that today’s younger buyers, most of the survey respondents, struggle to drive consensus for purchases.
It’s easy to see why when 95% of B2B buying groups need to revisit decisions at least once during the buying process as new information emerges.
Economic Realities Impact Sales Cycles
Declining budgets and rising layoffs. In addition to consensus-building challenges, today’s B2B buyers are at the mercy of economic realities. In the same Forrester survey, 89% of B2B buyers saw a purchase stalled, often due to budget limitations.
Buyers must now justify the ROI of every purchase decision in a way they haven’t had to do in the past decade. Combine all this with a marketplace saturated by offerings, and it’s more challenging and expensive for B2B sales teams to close deals.
Adapting Sales Strategies in a Tight Economy: Understanding Extended Deal Cycles
This is an about-face from the heady days of booming economic times when purchases flooded in from buyers flush with generous budgets and mandates to modernize.
The good news is that understanding how this perfect storm is causing drawn-out deal times is the key to unlocking paths to accelerated sales cycles.
Enhancing B2B Sales Success with Aomni’s AI-Powered Account-Based Strategies
Aomni is an AI agent platform designed specifically for B2B sales intelligence software. Our solution empowers enterprise and strategic account executives to execute account-based sales and marketing strategies with unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness. Our key features include:
- AI-powered prospect and account research
- Comprehensive account mapping and planning
- Data-driven sales strategy development
- Automated call preparation
- Personalized AI agents for sales optimization
- AI chat interface for streamlined sales processes
- AI-assisted Account Based Sales/Marketing campaign execution tool
Aomni addresses critical pain points for sales managers whose Account Executives, Account Managers, and Customer Success Managers must perform better and include quotas. By leveraging our advanced AI technology, sales professionals can significantly enhance their preparation for customer conversations, leading to the following:
- Larger deal closures
- Increased promotion opportunities
For individual sales professionals, Aomni provides the tools and insights needed to:
- Elevate their performance
- Close more substantial deals
- Accelerate career progression
Our platform transforms the way B2B sales teams operate, ensuring they enter every customer interaction:
- Fully prepared
- Strategically positioned for success
Try our sales intelligence software for free today!
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13 Tips on How to Shorten Sales Cycle and Close More Deals
1. Talk to Decision-Makers
A well-established way to accelerate the sales cycle is to reach out to decision-makers directly. Decision-makers are those in your target organization with the authority to make a buying decision and oversee the purchasing budget. When you reach out to decision-makers from the beginning, you can better understand whether your product is relevant to their organization and if it’s worth spending your efforts on these prospects.
A standard mistake companies make is trying to sell a product to the wrong prospects. (Like when a seller from a software company tries to reach out to an IT department.) So, push your efforts into identifying your decision-makers. Talk to your marketing and sales teams and find out who your top-performing customers and leads are. Closely examine your most significant deals and faster sales cycles. Identify the people your sales team operated with the most.
Building and Refining Ideal Buyer Personas with CRM Insights
Use CRM to generate insights about your clientele. Consider their:
- Title
- Job responsibilities
- Company size
- Industry
Collecting and compounding this information creates the base for an ideal buyer persona, a range of characteristics you use to identify decision-makers among target organizations.
These questions will keep you on track:
- What industry is your prospect in? Be specific. For example, instead of answering “Healthcare industry,” change to “Healthcare companies serving Fortune 500 businesses.”
- What is the company’s size?
- What is the company’s budget?
- Where is your prospect located?
- What is their market position? What problems is my prospect facing?
- What are their goals?
- How does your product solve their problem or help them achieve their goals?
2. Know Your Prospect’s Pain Points
Now that you know who your decision-maker is, find out everything you can about their pain points. Prospects are more likely to decide if they feel your product alleviates their pain points. By figuring these out and addressing them with your solution, you have more chances to involve them in a sales pipeline and speed up a sales cycle. Research what your prospects share on their social channels like LinkedIn or Facebook. Their posts might include topics or directions relevant to the company strategy.
Leveraging SPIN Selling to Uncover Prospect Needs and Drive Sales Success
When reaching out to decision-makers, ask them probing questions. You can follow the SPIN methodology, which consists of four questions that reveal:
- A prospect’s needs
- Pain points
- Challenges
Each aspect corresponds to a concrete stage in the sales process:
- Opening
- Investigation
- Demonstrating capability
- Obtaining commitment
Mastering SPIN Selling: Tailoring Your Approach with Effective Questioning and Active Listening
Situation questions help to collect information about a prospect’s current situation:
- “What type of software are you using?” Problem questions help to identify their satisfaction or dissatisfaction
- “Are you satisfied with my current software?” Implication questions help understand a problem’s impact on a prospect’s business
- “How much productivity do you lose when my software breaks down?” Need questions to help reveal your solution’s value
- “How much would it help your business to have more reliable software?” When talking to your prospects, always pay attention to what questions they ask and what wording they use.
For example, if a buyer asks, “Is there a direct correlation between my investment and ROI?” it might indicate that my potential client has a budget and is interested in my ability to scale. A good working plan is to segment pain points into categories. It helps you sell with a specific strategy, speeding up the sales cycle.
Segmenting Prospects Based on Their Primary Motivations: Tailoring Your Sales Approach
There are four such categories:
- Prospect wants to make money. Prospects who want to make money usually speak about sales, revenue, and growth targets. Show them case studies of your company that demonstrate ROI and avoid using vague phrases like “Our solution will increase your profit.”
- Prospects want to save money. Prospects who want to save money talk about reducing costs and redundancies. These buyers are usually sensitive to money, so try to demonstrate ROI through testimonials and well-written case studies.
- Prospects want to minimize time or effort. When buyers say phrases like “it takes a lot of time to accomplish a goal” or “this process is so time intensive,” mention the automation aspects of the product you’re selling.
- Prospects have human needs. This type of prospect usually talks about increasing team satisfaction or boosting company culture. A good strategy would be to show an example of a similar company that benefited from the same situation after using your product.
3. Personalize Everything
Personalization is everything today. Generic sales emails have almost become a thing of the past. Remember to use a personalized approach with your customer from the beginning of the sales process. It is about learning their pain points and how you speak to your prospects. Start your email or message with their first name.
Lean on wording and points we have discussed in messages to guide further conversations. Share content and solutions relevant to their concerns. These steps help increase trust between you and a prospect. When a prospect trusts you, it is easier to proceed to the next step in a sales cycle.
4. Present a Crisp, Clear Value Proposition
While working with all manner of firms, I hear a common lament: "We are becoming a commodity. The prospects just seem to buy on price. How can I separate myself from the crowd?" How will the prospect know if you don’t see how you’re different? Ask your clients, colleagues, and network, “How do I provide value in what I do?”
Once you get the answers:
- Refine the message
- Practice it
- Refine it again
Make sure your statement:
- Resonates (speaks to need)
- Differentiates (why you)
- Substantiates (proof you can do it)
5. Plan Each Conversation
What do you want to have happen during (and after) the first conversation? The second? The third? The sales cycle gets stalled often because the service provider (or seller) needs a plan.
Prepare for each conversation by asking yourself:
- What is my goal for this prospect?
- What is my goal for this conversation?
- What are my strengths going in?
- What are my vulnerabilities?
Based on the answers, what can you expect, and what is your next step? Improving may be fine for comedy, but trying to figure it out as you go will be fine for the sales express.
6. Highlight Social Proof
Social proof is a delicious ingredient in the recipe that makes up the sales cycle process. It refers to the idea that people imitate their peers’ behavior regarding the products they consume. Data shows that over 90% of B2B sales decisions happen with peer recommendations.
There are some standard practices to convey social proof:
- Share case studies: Show buyers evidence of your product’s impact and ROI. If you have several case studies, look for those featuring a company similar to your target.
- Contact my prospect: Use LinkedIn to make a first- or second-degree connection with my target organization. They will likely respond more to a message that starts with an introduction via their colleague than a random email.
- Mention similar companies: Let it be known that you work with companies that operate in a similar market as my prospect or that those companies face similar challenges. It will bring more value and trust to your profile in the prospect’s eyes.
Regardless of how you use social proof, try to prioritize what other companies say about your business.
7. Advance the Sale (and Avoid Continuances)
An outcome of good planning is your ability to advance the sale to the next step. How often do you or your colleagues call to follow up with a client and say those uninspiring words, "I was just checking to see how things were going"? "Fine," the prospect replies. Pause. "Thanks for calling." Long pause. End of conversation.
Supply answers to questions, new information, or a reason to have a new discussion about how you can and will meet their needs. How can you help the prospect see the value I will provide? Go into every new conversation with a clear idea of the steps needed to move the buying process.
8. Show Your Prospect a Solution
Showing prospects how my product solves their needs takes work. Often, sales managers memorize a list of benefits and present them without ascertaining whether they are what a specific customer needs. Make sure your sales pitch solves the pain points my prospect has. It speeds up the sales cycle when I go straight to a buyer’s heart (and needs).
Speaking of which, Asking “Need” questions helps communicate how my product can solve their prospect’s problem. While these questions only discuss value, showing my solution can become much more persuasive this way. I should empower my sales team to show a customer how my solution works or offer free trials.
9. Invest in Automation
Marketing and sales teams are two departments with endless management tasks. Automating some of the time-consuming and repetitive tasks is both a big help and a relief, as it allows everyone involved to help speed up a sales process when automating the creation of proposals and contracts.
Automation tools are a way to amaze your prospects with timely delivery and your modern approach.
10. Deliver Proposals Faster
Imagine your prospect is showing interest in buying my product. I aim to deliver a sharp, laser-focused proposal as fast as possible. Leveraging pre-built proposal templates will help me to do the work in minutes instead of spending days. I can stay in the know with real-time notifications when a proposal is:
- Opened
- Viewed
- Completed
These features help me move quickly to the next action item as a salesperson. Seamless collaboration and easy-to-build proposals are key to accelerating your sales cycle, especially when you have several leads in a pipeline and must send personalized proposals to all of them promptly.
11. Get Ahead of Security Reviews and Other Deal Blockers
Security assessments are critical in any sales process, but they often become significant roadblocks that delay closing deals. When a buyer requests a vendor to complete a security assessment, the sales team usually passes the security questionnaire to another internal team. This typically results in constant back-and-forth with the security team, asking about:
- The location of security documents
- How to answer specific technical questions
- Worse: the sales team guessing their way through the buyer’s questionnaire
This can lead to:
- Providing incorrect information
- Eroding trust with the buyer
- Potentially jeopardizing the deal
This familiar scenario slows the sales cycle, creates compliance issues for the security teams, and can lead to lost revenue. Anticipating this common ask and objection by getting ahead of security reviews is essential.
12. Spend More Time with Customers by Reducing Email Time
The average person checks their email 30 times every hour. While a fast way to communicate, emails are also a time vampire, sucking away precious time that could be spent with customers. Jill Konrath, author of three award-winning books on selling, says composing and answering emails can take up to nearly 28 hours per week.
Sales are made when reps spend time with customers instead of on administrative duties. To spend less time on email, train my sales department to schedule specific times to check and respond to emails. It’s incredible how many more deals salespeople can close when they spend their time selling. Streamlining the email processes speeds up your sales cycle by freeing time to focus on the deals in the pipeline.
13. Be Persistent
The average complex sale takes five, six, seven, or more conversations to close. How often do you drop out of the running because you lose interest and quit the cycle halfway through? In the end, quick and steady wins the sale. You may be wondering if this effort is going to be worth it. Where's the shorter path in this sales cycle?
The effort is well worth it, but take heed: there are no shortcuts. Sales success requires a consistent, value-based approach that works over time.
Why Is It Important To Optimize Your Sales Cycle?
Optimizing your sales cycles improves your sales teams’ effectiveness, increasing deal volume and size and improving customer satisfaction and retention. Your sales process and cycles should be regularly measured and analyzed to find areas of improvement.
When you optimize sales cycles, your sales team can close opportunities faster with a higher average deal size and increased volume and conversion rates.
Knowledge Transfer is Key to Shortening Sales Cycles
Knowledge sharing plays a fundamental role in optimizing your sales cycle. When customers consider buying from your business, they’ll have questions for your sales team. Sometimes, getting those answers requires additional information, and you may win or lose a sale based on how quickly you can access that information. Sales reps can average nearly five hours every workweek searching for answers and information for customers and orders.
This delay comes at a price: 52% of salespeople surveyed for Starmind’s Future of Work report say they have missed deadlines and missed opportunities in framing proposals for customers or clients because of lack of access to relevant information. Providing knowledge and resources that streamline knowledge transfer can eliminate this wasted time and allow your salespeople to focus on winning business.
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Enterprise Sales Is A Team Sport
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Every sales channel is different. They each have:
- Unique processes
- Audiences
- Ways of producing revenue
Some channels will naturally yield better results than others for your business. To shorten your sales cycle, identify these high-performing channels and allocate more of your resources to them. Use sales acceleration software to measure and analyze your sales performance by channel. This will allow you to uncover the most profitable avenues for your business. From there, you can streamline processes in lower-performing areas to make them more efficient while focusing on scaling operations in your top sales channels.
Resolve Objections Early On
Sales objections are a normal part of the sales process. They can help you qualify leads and understand their concerns so you can build rapport and tailor your pitch to address their specific pain points. It’s also common for salespeople to repeatedly hear variations of the same objections from prospects and customers. The sooner you can address these concerns, the better.
Collecting their responses to common sales objections via a modern knowledge management platform can help your sales team develop strategic approaches to overcome those objections and roll them out quickly across the sales organization. This type of knowledge sharing can have long-term benefits, as sales team members encountering similar issues in the future can obtain guidance based on experience and company knowledge.
Be Clear About Pricing
Having a transparent pricing structure can save your sales team time and frustration. Be clear about what your customers require and what they should expect in return. Your team should articulate the value of your offer. Sales teams should receive training and resources to find answers to the questions they or customers might have about pricing.
Align Marketing and Sales Teams
In most companies, sales and marketing teams work independently, often in silos. This situation can lead to misalignment and have negative consequences. For example, the marketing team may waste sales reps’ time by bringing in the wrong leads that sales can't act on, which means lost resources and efforts. Similarly, sales teams may not adequately communicate the seasonal buying fluctuations that only they know, which means marketing misses out on potentially valuable opportunities.
There’s also often a broader lack of understanding between the two teams, with sales typically focusing on existing customers and marketing targeting the more extensive, ever-changing market. Companies should prioritize a sales and marketing alignment strategy to accelerate the sales cycle. When these two teams share resources and goals and use streamlined processes with centralized tools, they can realize a 32% increase in year-over-year growth.
Try Our Sales Intelligence Software for Free Today
Aomni equips sales teams with the insights they need to prepare for conversations with hard-to-engage prospects. Using Aomni, sellers can research target accounts and roles to uncover specific information to help them personalize outreach and warm up cold calls. The platform’s AI chat interface makes it easy to get and understand this information in the context of upcoming sales conversations. Aomni also helps sales teams establish structure and a strategic approach to sales calls through automated call preparation.
This feature generates customizable templates and outlines based on the unique characteristics of the prospect and target account. As a result, sales reps can easily create a game plan for their upcoming call to ensure they cover all the relevant details and can confidently approach the conversation.
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