We know buying cycles are getting longer. It’s easy to chalk it up to buyers, blaming them for not focusing, getting distracted, not prioritizing the project, or all sorts of other things.
Or we have other excuses. Perhaps it’s the economy, all the social/global disruptions. And then there is always VUCA, a great yet abstract excuse around why things are getting more difficult.
It’s easy to find excuses, to blame everyone and everything else about the lengthening sales/buying cycles.
But perhaps we should look inwardly. How are sellers contributing to the longer buying and sales cycles? Is there anything we can change to reduce these? And if we could, what would it mean?
We focus on the things important to us, presenting our solutions and getting the buyer to choose us. But the buyers have so much more to accomplish than just selecting a solution.
They have to identify the issues around the problem or opportunity. They must define the challenges they present, the impact on the organization and the individuals. They must identify their goal, what they want to achieve. Then they have to do the work.
They have things that distract them, they wander because they seldom undertake this effort. They start, stop, change directions, change their minds. They don’t know what they are doing.
It’s easy to think, “It’s the buyers’ fault…..” And to blame these longer cycles on them.
But we bear a lot of responsibility in these lengthening cycles.
We have great experience in working with customers going through the buying processes. We can bring this knowledge to our customers, helping them navigate the buying project more effectively and more quickly.
But to do this, we have to focus on them, their business and the project they have undertaken. We have to gain their confidence in helping them navigate the process, reaching a successful outcome.
Instead, we focus on what we care about–presenting our products and solutions. We know that’s just a small part of what they need to get done, but we seldom help them with those other things.
As a result, we contribute to their failure to complete the process, and we accept their wandering/lengthening journeys.
Our customers don’t know how to do these things efficiently, so it’s understandable to see them struggle and take time. But we know how to do this and help our customers.
What if we decided to do things differently, helping the customer in the things they need the most help? Perhaps we would help them get more done, faster.
David, what a timely article. We are absolutely seeing this play out and I agree that professional sales staff can make a huge difference if they adopt a new mindset. It’s easy to just push the deal out rather than do the hard (but arguably more rewarding) work.
Well said Paul. A lot of what we have been talking about in “collaborative conversations,” can be applied in helping better focus/execute deal strategies.