By Tom Basile
Seneca Creek Consulting

In previous articles we stressed the importance of knowing your prospective customer’s business and perceived challenges. We talked about the importance of listening. Remember, the prospect is not interested in you. He or she is only interested in how you can help solve a problem or improve their services or cut costs.

Now let’s discuss the sales cycle. There have been many articles written on the sales cycle. Some identify four steps, some five. I happen to prefer the seven-step process: interest, educate, demonstrate, design, pretest, propose, close. Pretty straightforward!

Think about all the sales you have made in your career and apply this model. I am sure you will agree that you went through each and every step. So why do so many salespeople feel they can skip a step or two or three and go to close in a single meeting? Well, it’s not to say that it can’t be done, it’s just that the likelihood is quite low when you are selling complex solutions based on services and/or products.

A sales call is like meeting a date for the first time. You go through all seven stages (although you may elect to skip the “propose” stage in this case). That’s not to say there are no exceptions to the rule. But for the most part it takes several or many dates over weeks and months to feel comfortable with one another.

The protocols for selling successfully are equally well known by professional sales people. However, do we stop and think about the discrete steps in the sales cycle and carefully hone each one? The IT sales environment is dynamic by definition. Ever changing market focus and technology demand up-to-date sales techniques and different methods of presentation. The elements that do not change are the same seven steps we learned as fledgling sales people. Let us update them and apply them in our own market arenas.

Before going on your next call think about it as though you are going fishing. The end game is obvious; you want to catch fish for dinner. However, in the process you need to determine what bait to use, how deep your line should be, and where to cast the line. Generally, you must adhere to established protocols if you want to increases your chances for a successful outing.

(Tom can be reached at tbasile@SenecaCreekConsulting.com.)