Whether it sells gourmet coffee to caffeine-loving patrons or provides highly technical engineering solutions to research lab managers, every business has a sales cycle; one that can typically last from a few seconds – to a few months.
And in the same light, the goal of every sales professional – again, regardless of what they’re selling or who they’re selling to – is to close a sale as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
Create an Efficient Sales Funnel
Of course, this doesn’t mean that customers should be “pushed” into buying; because they won’t tolerate that. However, it means that sales professionals need their sales funnel to actually function AS a funnel. That is, it needs to have a momentum that is angled towards closing the deal. Otherwise, it’s not a funnel. It’s more like a treadmill: lots of activity and effort, but no forward progress!
Identify Your Sales Qualified Leads
So where do qualified leads fit into this sales cycle-shortening story? It’s like this: qualified leads have revealed, either by self-identifying (e.g. filling out a form) or taking an action (e.g. downloading an eBook) that they are legitimate prospects because:
- They’re part of the business’s target market (i.e. they map to a buyer persona).
- They have an intention to buy in a reasonable amount of time (this duration will vary for each marketplace and industry – for selling coffee it's less than 30 seconds, for selling technical equipment it could be several months).
- They’re interested in learning more information about a product, service and/or business (as evidenced by taking the actions noted above).
Leverage What You Know About the Lead
What’s more, sales professionals usually know more abut qualified leads than just their name and email address, such as where they work, the size of their company, their job title, and so on. All of this can be leveraged as part of the engagement to shorten the sales cycle.
For example, a sales professional who sells phone systems may discover that a lead works for a company that is aggressively adding new locations. The sales professional can then build their outreach effort around that message and increase the likelihood of developing a relationship.
So in light of this, the next question is of course: How do you get more qualified leads in the first place? That’s where inbound marketing enters the picture.
Use Inbound Marketing to Shorten Your Sales Cycle
Without question, inbound marketing is the single most effective and affordable way to attract and usher qualified leads into the sales funnel (through blog posts, SEO, PPC, and possibly conventional marketing tactics), and target them with stage-based assets (e.g. eBooks, Infographics, white papers, datasheets, etc.).
The end result is that sales professionals spend more and more time in sales funnels – and less and less time on treadmills.
Learn More
To learn more about how you can use inbound marketing to attract more qualified leads -- and ultimately shorten your sales cycle -- contact us today.
Topics: Lead Generation
