Phil Lauterjung

We all know that sales cycles have lengthened for most of us.  However, The TAS Group, a sales software and training company, has aggregated anonymous data from their customers to come up with some very interesting insights into what’s really happening with sales cycles.  Please note that they kept in mind good business practices and privacy issues in this data.

Here are 5 facts that you might find to be surprising:

• Winning Sales Cycles are actually shortening. This is the one that I found to be most surprising, and encouraging.  The time from qualifying to closing the deal has been reduced by slightly more than 23% over the past 12 months.  While finding qualified deals has been harder, when they are found they are closing faster.  What has your experience been?
• It takes 150% longer to lose than to win. No real surprise here.  Unfortunately this is driving up sales costs when you lose a deal because of the increased time the salesperson spends pursuing deals that are ultimately lost.  It becomes imperative to do a better job of scoring opportunities when they first surface and be as selective as possible about which ones you are pursuing.
• There is a predictable pattern to winning sales cycles. In spite of the fact that winning cycle times might be shortening, as mentioned above, the cycle times are consistent and predictable.  So, if your average time to close is 20 days don’t count on adding to your quarterly numbers if you only have 5 days left in the quarter.   Make sure you are continually tracking your cycle time so you can keep those forecasts accurate.
• Rushing qualification/needs analysis lengthens the sales cycle. This should be obvious, but in challenging times even the best salespeople forget the basics.  One the initial stages aren’t thorough then there will be surprises appearing as the deal gets closer to being finalized.  The result is a mini sales cycle occurs as you near the end, and adds time to the deal.
• You WILL lose deals that are in your pipeline for longer than 150% of your winning cycle duration. It is critical that you understand the value of your active pipeline as opposed to your total pipeline.  Most companies have a number of deals in the pipeline that have little or no value.  The total pipeline value is really just a feel-good number for marketing.  You need to scrub your pipeline for those deals that have been languishing.  They are usually not going to close, or have already been lost.

With the year ending soon now is a real good time to do that ‘scrubbing’ and make sure you’re going into the new year with a realistic pipeline number.

Photo Credit: Fotolia.com

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