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What’s your average Sales Cycle?
90 Days? 120 days? 180
Days? Longer? Really depends on your industry. In the telecommunications arena where I have
spent my career, the transition to internet based voice and cloud based data
has pushed us towards the 180 day mark.
Accepting the fact that the sales cycle is this long is your
first step to making the timeframe work for you. Once you have resigned yourself that the
customer’s new service will take 6 months to get installed, the next question becomes
“How do I get paid for my efforts?” Six
months is a long time without a paycheck.
We all know the sales manager pitch “Keep your funnel full and deals
will close each month. Anything less is
not enough activity”. I guess that’s
partially true but in some sections of the telecom industry, there is far too
much background work required for a sales professional to keep up the level of activity
to have a large deal close every month.
Working in the Channel, my focus has been on agent sales for
the last 25 years. An agent often sells
many products, offered by many different suppliers. Managing all the different offerings,
timelines, quoting processes, order paperwork, etc. can be daunting.
Independent sales agents work hard, leveraging personal
relationships, business relationships, referrals, past job connections,
industry peers, and other various prospecting techniques to find a new
customer. Add in the face to face
meeting with the prospect, the info gathering effort, design work across multiple
suppliers, presentations, decision making time, contract review, provisioning,
installation, cutover, and customer training, time is at a premium for the
agents prospecting efforts. I know very
few agents who can manage all of these needs well enough to close a large deal
every month to sustain their income.
So how do the successful agents keep consistent revenue
growth coming into their agency? The #1
technique involves shortening the sales cycle and getting commissionable
products on board immediately.
I have developed a highly successful technique to provide a “Roadmap
to New Technologies” and give the independent agent an opportunity to have commissionable
services installed within 14 days, and commissions in the bank within 30 days.
Using my company’s network services, we provide our agents
the opportunity to turn a prospect into a revenue producing customer without
interfering in the long term solution.
In fact, we make the transition easier, providing a clean, electronic
inventory on all current services, in one concise invoice, available on a state
of the art web portal. All with $0 cost
to convert, and no term or volume commitment to sign. When your new solution is ready to cut over,
simply send me an email and let me know which services to disconnect.
One of the key advantages we can give you is building
credibility with your new customer.
Rarely are you the only bidder on a project, but using my services allow
you the opportunity to show a client what your agency is able to deliver, while
others are talking solutions that won’t be installed for 6 months. You’ve cleaned up their inventory,
consolidated their billing, and typically saved them some money while doing
so. All without requiring a contract! My solution is delivered on a month to month
basis. Best guess is you’ll be the only
sales professional in the bidding with this advantage in your sales kit. And we'll pay you for it!
This approach has allowed my agents to gain a 30% growth in
commissions from my company over the last 12 months and it shows no sign of slowing down.
I‘m happy to share more information on how you can take
advantage of this technique and see more commissions flowing into your bank
account within 30 days.
