July 12, 2024
Few things can kill a deal faster than an unnecessarily long sales cycle. Sometimes even things that seem out of your team's control can be strategically addressed to shorten the sales cycle.
A long sales cycle doesn't have to be insurmountable if you're prepared to counter it.
Long Sales Cycle Causes and Solutions
The key to correcting a long sales cycle is to first understand what's increasing it.
Manual Proposal Creation
Crafting sales proposals from scratch for each potential client is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. This lack of automation often leads to delays as your team must spend considerable time gathering information, drafting documents and ensuring accuracy.
The extended time required to create and review these proposals can significantly slow down the sales cycle, causing potential clients to lose interest or consider competitors.
To eliminate these inefficiencies use proposal templates that can be quickly customized for each prospect. Develop templates that include essential sections such as company information, product or service details, pricing, and terms, ensuring they're easy to modify to fit specific prospect needs.
Use proposal automation tools—like Proposify—that include templates to streamline the creation, approval and delivery process, and accelerate the sales cycle.
Inadequate Lead Qualification
Leads that are not properly qualified can mean wasting time on prospects who aren't ready or capable of buying. Poor lead qualification can also result in targeting the wrong audience.
This draws out the sales cycle while your team figures out who the actual prospect is. Luckily, this problem is easily remedied—your team needs to more effectively qualify their leads.
Developing an effective lead qualification process will allow your team to focus on high-potential prospects. They can use lead scoring systems to prioritize efforts on the most promising leads. Once this is done, the sales cycle can be dramatically shortened.
Delayed Follow-Up
If your team takes too long to respond to prospects' inquiries, questions or requests for further information, it can lead to a loss of momentum, decreased prospect interest, and a longer decision-making process. This lack of timely communication may also make prospects feel neglected and undervalued.
As a result, the sales cycle is extended, and opportunities may be lost to more responsive competitors.
To speed up the sales cycle, put a structured follow-up process in place, with clear timelines and accountability. Use proposal automation software that provides real-time metrics, allowing for faster responses. Proposify allows your team to see when a proposal has been opened, and where the prospect may pause, so your rep can reach out and proactively answer questions.
Proposify also allows your reps to set up automated follow-ups. For example, the software can automatically send a reminder email to the prospect if they haven't opened the proposal in a certain number of days, specified by the rep. Proposals with automated reminders are 10% more likely to close, but only 7% of sellers use them.
Prioritizing quick and personalized communication ensures that prospects receive the information they need when they need it, and drives the sales process forward.
Complex Decision-Making Process
When multiple stakeholders are involved, each with their own concerns and criteria, decision-making can become convoluted and drawn out. Decision-making hierarchies can add layers of approval needed, and internal processes within the buyer’s organization can be slow.
This issue may seem out of your team's control. How can they possibly influence the internal workings of another company? By streamlining the decision-making process.
The first step is to identify and engage key stakeholders early in the sales process. Then, they can provide clear and concise information tailored to each stakeholder's needs. Most proposals are only seen by one stakeholder. But when more than one person views it, the close rate nearly doubles.
To identify key stakeholders even more effectively, your team can make it part of lead qualification.
Inefficient Proposal Process
Creating, reviewing and approving sales proposals can take longer than necessary due to disorganized workflows or outdated methods. An inefficient proposal process can slow down the sales process as teams struggle to gather the right information, make timely revisions and obtain necessary approvals, leading to delays that frustrate both the sales team and potential clients.
You can streamline the proposal process by adopting proposal automation tools that offer CRM integration. Establish clear workflows and timelines for proposal creation, review and approval to ensure everyone knows their role and deadlines. Encourage collaboration and feedback within a centralized platform to avoid back-and-forth emails and too many revisions.
By making the proposal process more efficient and organized, you can deliver polished proposals faster and move prospects through the sales cycle more smoothly.
Lack of Clear Value Proposition
It's possible prospects may not fully understand the unique benefits and advantages of your product or service. This ambiguity can cause confusion and indecision, slowing down the sales process as prospects seek more information and reassurance. Without a compelling reason to choose your solution over others, potential buyers may hesitate, leading to prolonged deliberation and an extended sales cycle.
To speed up the sales cycle, your team must develop a strong, concise value proposition that clearly communicates the unique benefits and differentiators of your product or service. Focus on how your solution addresses specific pain points and delivers tangible results. Use testimonials, case studies, and quantifiable data to support your claims and build credibility.
Then, ensure that your sales and marketing teams consistently convey this value proposition across all touchpoints, making it easy for prospects to understand why they should choose your solution.
Lack of Interactive Proposal Features
Static, plain documents don't engage or captivate the recipient. This can slow down the sales process because prospects may find it more difficult to understand the value proposition, ask questions or provide feedback. Without interactive elements, the proposal might not stand out, leading to delays as prospects take longer to review and make a decision.
Consider having your team create interactive proposals. Use proposal software that allows for things like clickable sections, interactive pricing tables and embedded videos the prospect can watch when it's convenient for them. These features make your proposals more engaging and easier for prospects to navigate.
Encourage prospects to leave comments directly on the proposal, facilitating quicker feedback and adjustments, and shortening the sales cycle.
Lack of Urgency
Prospects may not perceive an immediate need to make a purchasing decision because they feel their current solutions are sufficient, or they don't fully understand the benefits and return on investment (ROI) of your product or service. As a result, the sales process drags on as prospects delay their decisions, leading to longer sales cycles and potentially lost opportunities.
To create a sense of urgency, highlight the immediate benefits and potential risks of inaction to your prospects. Use case studies and success stories to demonstrate quick wins and tangible outcomes. Implement time-sensitive offers, such as limited-time discounts or bonuses, to create a sense of urgency. Finally, use proposal expiration dates to create an even greater sense of urgency. Proposify allows reps to set expiration dates that suit each prospect and deal.
Above all, tailor your messaging to emphasize the specific pain points and needs of each prospect, showing how your solution can quickly and effectively address their challenges.
Shorten the Long Sales Cycle with Proposify
Want to close deals more quickly? Consider Proposify. It has all the features your team needs to automate processes and do away with issues that can cause a long sales cycle. Its insightful data will help your team follow up efficiently and effectively. Our proposal software gives you total control and visibility into your proposal process, from start to finish.
Schedule a demo today, and see how you can streamline and accelerate the entire sales process.
