Buy-Cycle
We've all heard the saying, "The easiest person to sell is a sales person". Well, it's true. At least if one is selling to a great sales person. Great sales people do not need to have all possible business information available prior to making a major purchase in their personal lives. How sales people make purchasing decisions has a 100% mirror correlation to how they are selling business for your company.
There are two types of Buy-Cycles found through evaluation of sales people:
- Non-Supportive: This buy-cycle does not support the selling process. This sales person agonizes over major purchases in their life and must research, shop, continually compare prices. Because they understand this analytical approach to a transaction, they are vulnerable as a seller to the stalls, put-offs, price shopping and competitive comparisons sales prospects make because there is an unconscious empathy for the sales prospect's buying habits. The result is a lengthening of the sales cycle, open proposals and limitless opportunity for the competitor to come late and beat the heck out of your company.
- Supportive: Often found in great sales people, this Buy-Cycle supports a very quick sale and a killer instinct in the sales person, which allows the sales prospect more immediate benefit from their choice to buy your company's product or service. The sales person with a supportive Buy-Cycle will be very confused when notified by the prospect of their need to shop around. They will ask the sales prospect what they could have missed when the prospect's need to invite a competitor into the process arises. The one extra half step this sales person naturally takes results in your company closing bigger sales more quickly and at higher margins.
A non-supportive Buy-Cycle is the second most common weakness found in sales people. Through proper screening of candidates, a non-supportive Buy-Cycle can be identified and avoided. In existing sales staff, once properly identified, when this issue can be changed, it will have, on average, a 50% positive effect on the individual sales person's results.
One last point: If you are having trouble believing this concept to be true, it could be due to a non-supportive Buy-Cycle. In fact, when present in a company leader, this issue can completely clog the company's sales pipeline. How much could this issue be costing your company?
