Three Cycles of Sales

March 10, 2008 | by Adam Ross

I have spent a lot of time trying to simplify for my own internal sales force as well as the outside partner community I work with how to look at what is called the “Sales Cycle”.

In order to simplify the process I have come up with three cycles most sales go through as they enter the top of the funnel to the point they come out of the bottom of the funnel.

Below is my simplified version of the sales cycle I am using:

Education

Buying facilitation

Closing

By looking at the sales cycle in these 3 simple steps I am able to start breaking down each stage into many steps and better educate my sales people as well as our partner community on how to treat new suspects, best avenues for education, when to plug in sales capital, and knowing when to close the deal.

I will be breaking down each stage in separate blog postings as I go along, however before I do that I am looking for your feedback, do you agree a sales cycle can be broken down into 3 categories?

 

Posted In: CRM

 
  • http://www.EditWeapon.com Patrick Sullivan Jr.

    Hmm… well, I spent 10 minutes trying to write about how I think 3rd step — Closing — is built into both of the first two steps, along with Qualifying/Disqualifying. But I talked myself out of it and I agree with you. Those are 3 distinct stages, simplified to their most base level. Cool.

  • http://www.customersystemsinc.com Mike Hoffler

    I think you will find that many succesful companies have no more than 3-5 steps in their sales cycles, and as you state, sub-steps within these. Looking foward to seeing the breakdown.

  • steve carline

    Adam: since you asked, the only addition I would make would be to add “access” before educate. Assuming there is some degree of prospecting involved in your sales cycle, gaining access in order to educate will be a necessary step. If your team only works from warm or pre-qualifed lead sources then it may be unnecessary since access will likely be grantedd with little or no resistance from the prospective client.

  • Kevin Carson

    What about the never ending stage: Service/Support. Most may agree that many companies spend alot of cash and effort to get the “Cycle” started but fail to realize that, many times, your current customer base is vital to recurring or onging sales.

    Just my two cents…

  • http://www.newcallsolutions.com Ryan Pitz

    Adam,

    You bring up a great questions. A sale can be broken into 6 fundamental steps:

    1.Identifying and qualifying prospects (this is the brutal part of sales that most people have a hard time with and what your EMS system helps with)

    2. Meeting the prospect or engaging the prospect to build trust and rapport

    (you transition from this meeting phase into a diagnositc stage by using a Statement of Intention)

    3. Diagnosis/questioning – learn about the other person’s situation (needs and wants)

    4. Application – make a recommendation based on what the prospect tells you (apply a solution)

    5. Validate – show the prospect the solution and prove to them what you recommend is a good fit (this is typically where a demo, testimonials and third-party validation is used.)

    6. Ask for the business/close – if you’ve followed this process and you have a solution for your prospect, you’d be doing the prospect a dis-service by not asking for the business.

    Here are the three key rules:
    1. Don’t skip a step
    2. Don’t move to the next step until you’ve fully finished the one you’re in
    3. Make sure you and your prospect are in the same step at the same time

    This is how professional salespeople sell. It’s a simple are repeatable process.

    Cheers,

    Ryan Pitz
    New Call Solutions
    http://www.newcallsolutions.com

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com Adam Ross

    Thank you all who posted your comments on my last blog, I apologize for my delay in answering your comments and questions. That is the good and bad of working for a company that is so successful so fast. After a 12 to 14 hour day I tend to not post on my blog. I will get better at this.

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com Adam Ross

    Patrick, thank you for your comments, the three stages are intended to simplify the entire process, there are multiple steps within each stage, and I will be breaking those down as I overview each stage.

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com Adam Ross

    Steve, great catch, I was certainly starting from the point of prospect, assuming I already have generated the lead. Through the use of Infusion our sales reps are never prospecting, the system is doing that for us. Infusion sales reps are only working with qualified opted in prospects that have raised their hands.

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com Adam Ross

    Mr. Carson, it has been a long time my friend. You bring up a great point, if we don’t take care of our customers we will lose as many as we gain, and eventually we won’t gain any new based upon a bad reputation. To that end Infusionsoft places a high degree of importance on our customers, we invest as much in our Customer Service department as we do in Sales and Marketing.

  • http://www.infusionsoft.com Adam Ross

    Ryan, great post, these are some of the steps I refer to in my simplified model. To many times sales VP’s want to over complicate the process and over train their reps. What ends up happening is the eagles only consume 5% because they already know it all, and the journeyman can only consume 20% because there is way too much information coming at them all at once.

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