A sales cycle is never a static thing. It will always vary depending on who is doing the selling and who is doing the buying, but at its very basic level, a sales cycle is just a series of trackable and repeatable steps that the salesperson uses to interact with the possible client.
In general, there are only 5 steps to a sales cycle. This is true no matter how long it actually takes to close a deal; it all boils down to 5 steps.
Lead Generation
As anyone in business knows, lead generation is the process of collecting contact information from a prospective client or customer. It is the simplest step for your salespeople to complete, and once the list is made, it naturally leads to the second step.
Qualification
Once you have your list of prospects, the next step in the sales cycle is narrowing down the list to those buyers who are ideal for the company. It doesn’t do anyone any good to pursue clients that won’t be interested or won’t be a good fit for what you are selling. What makes a good customer, of course, will be company specific and sometimes even salesperson specific. However, knowing which customers or clients are right for the business is a crucial step in the sales cycle.
Selling Value
Once you have narrowed down your list of prospective clients or customers to a qualified list, the third step is to reach out and make contact. The salesperson will want to remember that he or she is not just selling an item, he or she is selling a way for the client to achieve their goals. Every company has a product to sell, which is why the salesperson has to focus on how the product will make the customer feel or how the product will help the customer do the things they have always dreamed of doing.
Build Trust
If the salesperson has managed to interest the qualified customer with the value of the product, he or she will then have to become a trusted advisor to the potential customer. Questions will need to be answered with authority, and objections and concerns need to be quelled. Once the client trusts the salesperson’s authority, the sale has been won. The client or customer needs that good rapport before they will consider purchasing.
Deliver the Goods
The final step in the sales cycle is the delivery of the promises made during step three. The relationship can’t end once the customer or client signs on the dotted line, or else the salesperson will find themselves with buyers that only ever buy once. The final responsibility in the cycle is to deliver as promised and follow up to make sure the client is fully satisfied.
Obviously, this is the broad breakdown of the sales cycle, and every company will have specific details on the ways each step should be performed. However, all sales cycles can be broken down to just these 5 simple steps.
