Time kills all deals! 5 things you can do about it.
There are a lot of variables and reasons for the “Closed — Lost” opportunity: competition, pricing, internal politics, lack of knowledge of the client’s business needs, bad sales approach, etc. However, the #1 killer of all deals in my experience is time.
Whether you’re a personal trainer, a recruiter or in software sales. This, right now, is a priority for your prospect. For that reason alone, you should act now! Your focus should be on shortening the sales cycle.
There are a lot of variables and reasons for the “Closed — Lost” opportunity: competition, pricing, internal politics, lack of knowledge of the client’s business needs, bad sales approach, etc. However, the #1 killer of all deals in my experience is time. The longer a deal takes to close, the less likely it will.
One piece of advise that is true for most industries, products and services is that time will kill any deal. Whether you’re selling gym memberships, recruiting for a new job spec or selling software. Time kills all deals.
How many opportunities go dark on you? You get a call with your prospect, sometimes even after they seek you out. You have a really good, meaningful conversation with them where you provide value and really get to grips with their “pain”. They tell you this is a massive priority for them and you start feeling like a king before setting solid next steps. One week later, you give them a call on the agreed day/time. No answer. *heart sinks*. God dammit, time kills all deals.
The problem here being that you waited two weeks before speaking to them and urgency had been lost at this stage. Same goes for a personal trainer who gets an inbound lead from one of their Facebook ads. That PT’s main objective for that initial discovery call should be to close with that prospect coming in to the gym for a “consultation” and it NEEDS to be that week. Otherwise, this may not be a priority for this prospect in 1–2 weeks time. Act now!
Sales clock management
Here are a few tips to help ensure the clock doesn’t kill your deals or that you at least find out as early as possible before wasting too much time:
1) Set expectations up front.
Tell them of what they can expect form your service and ask what you can expect in return. The idea of “I give you this, what will you give me?” is hugely important. It shows the kind of relationship you expect. Relationship being the key word here.
2) Ask if they are ok with telling you “no.”
The summary of it is to ask the client up front if they are ok with telling you “no” if at some point in the sales process it becomes obvious they’re moving in a different direction. The answer to this is usually an obvious “yes”, thereby saving you a lot of time down the line.
3) Summarize every meaningful conversation
After every call I have with a client, I let them know I will be summarizing our conversation with the key takeaways and sending them a brief e-mail afterwards that I need them to respond to and confirm. This is how we hold them accountable.
4) Always make sure you get something in return for more time
Again, going back to the “I do this for you, what do I get in return?” question. It’s inevitable that some clients are going to ask for more time to make a decision or risk missing a deadline. If this happens, we need to try and get something in return for it to make sure the deal is still real and isn’t going to die.
5) Backwards plan
The most important step here is to backwards plan. Cover all areas of the deal early in the sales cycle. Does your prospect have a legal department? Do they have a procurement department? Do they have pricing? Make sure they have all relevant details of the deal so it doesn’t slow the deal cycle down in the future. Help your prospect pick dates for the sales cycle that you can hold them accountable to. Hot tip — ask about vacations! Especially around the holiday season.
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Thanks for reading!
