The joy of cycling

Synchronize sales and buying cycles to keep buyers engaged

First, sales people spoke of “the sales cycle” – the sequence of events that a sales person would attempt to force the prospect through in the hope that it would influence them to buy.

The pre-defined stages of a sales cycle might include;

• Initial phone conversation
• Invite prospect to factory for viewing
• Offer to create paid-for prototype
• Schedule follow up meeting
• Etc, etc

Then the concept of “the buying cycle” arose. Essentially, this was the realisation that from the buyer’s perspective “the sales cycle” is largely irrelevant. Buyers buy how and when they want to buy, apart from when the seller is being a pain in the neck, i.e. attempting to squeeze the buyer into stages in his or her sales cycle. For example:

Seller : “It’s an impressive factory isn’t it? If you can supply me with the design brief I suggest we create paid-for prototype for you, using the equipment we have here.”
Buyer : “Hmm, let me get back to you about that” (thinks : “Not something we usually do, but nice idea. First get it past the board, get production to let go of the design brief, get purchasing off my back and convince finance to approve and extension to this year’s budget.”)

Buyers have a formal or informal sequence of events that they go through in order to reach a decision to buy (or not). The buyer above may well now disengage from active contact with the sales person. Smart sales people attempt to synchronize their sales cycles with the buying cycles of prospects.

For example, at the end of the factory visit the sales person might ask:

Seller : “If you are comfortable with everything you have seen here, you will at some stage want to see a prototype? Is there anything on your side that needs to happen to make that possible?”
Buyer : “I’d need to take it to the board as a first step, along with talking to some other colleagues.”
Seller : “Is there anything I can do to help you with that?” Buyer : “Could you provide me with some of those samples you showed me? Would you be able to provide me with those figures you mentioned?”

In this case the seller is now changing his sales cycle (by supporting the seller with his presentation to the board) in order to keep it in sync with the buying cycle. Note that he will eventually reach one of the key stages in his sales cycle, the creation of a prototype.

Through the seller compromising on his sales cycle, the buyer and seller stay engaged and the chances of a successful conclusion are greatly increased.

Coming up later this week "The joy of cycling, part 2 : Why do buyers engage in the sales process at all?"