10 Easy Ways to Lengthen Your Sales Cycle, Right Now! (Part II)

In this second part (Part I is here), we look at the last 5 ways organizations effectively lengthen their sales cycles. I’ve adapted this from the book Predictable Revenue which discusses 9 ways to lengthen your sales cycle (and how to overcome it). I’ve interjected and mixed my ideas in with the authors in order to have a little fun.

6 — Sell as Low as Possible Into an Organization

Many reps are too afraid to have conversations with the appropriate level executive (say, an economic buyer); so they will tend to gravitate to (and waste time with) people at levels that are willing to have conversations with them. This comes from a fear of being asked tough questions that could derail a potential deal. What they don’t understand is that the deal is already derailed because they are talking to the wrong person. Some tactical ways to circumvent this problem would include:

• Find out how much energy your reps are putting into mapping out the decision-making process in a prospect.

• If they are not …