Introducing our
In enterprise sales you're either making progress or becoming irrelevant. Enterprise deals often involve many stakeholders and layers of approval from decision makers. In this guide we'll share with you 7 proven strategies you can use to maintain momentum and shorten your sales cycle.
These strategies will help you create immediate results, getting the right people involved at the right time in the process, and help them help you sell the product. Stay tuned at the end for 4 bonus strategies that help you get exponential growth in from your accounts.
Your first impression matters.
Engaging the right decision makers early in your approach is crucial for ensuring a long term successful deal and helps save you time and headaches by reducing the number of calls you have that go nowhere and bypassing gatekeepers.
That being said, not every purchase decision is going to be made by the CEO. You want to find the most-relevant, minimal-authority person to reach out to. This logic might seem counter-intuitive but this approach offers two main benefits: first, you'll have less competition trying for this person's attention, and second because they'll be more likely to get excited and understand the opportunity you're presenting to them.
Who this person is will be highly dependent on the market that you're selling into, the problem that your product helps your prospect with, the price point of your product, and the amount on investment required to adopt the product.
You can identify this person through thoroughly researching their organization. Their website is a good starting point, with LinkedIn and various sales intelligence tools offering great additional information.
Once you've identified the correct people to reach out to, try to get a hold of them directly.
The best way to do this is through leveraging your existing network, and if you don't have any warm leads then cold contacting is your best option.
Cold outreach can be a challenge on competitive channels, and which channels are most effective will depend on who specifically you are trying to reach. Email has proven to be a reliable and scalable method of communicating, but can often be challenging to differentiate yourself in a crowd of cold contacts. Cold calling can be effective but often viewed as overly invasive.
To be strategic in cold contacting, consider opting for less saturated channels. LInkedIn connections and physical mail offer opportunities for outreach that can stand out.
When doing your outreach it's important to establish trust and credibility with whoever you are talking with. It's important to be able to speak the language of your prospect and to ask plenty of questions that help you with understanding their current situation and how your solution might fit in with that.
Some of the best sales professionals that I've worked with are the ones who are trying to find the best fit on both ends and establish themselves as a trusted advisor in choosing a solution. You're not going to be everything for everyone, so saying who your product is not for can be even more powerful in establishing a relationship than saying who you are for.
People aren't stupid.
When doing your outreach it's important to personalize your outreach so that you can actually try to build an authentic connection with them. In a world of quid-pro-quo and five second attention spans, people have become really good at filtering out the noise of obvious low effort attention grabs. If you don't care about your prospect and their success, then they have no reason to care about you.
To show that you care about your prospects, make sure that the messaging that you are reaching out to them aligns with their experiences. Also, you should be regularly sharing feedback from prospecting calls and failed outreaches with your marketing and product teams so that they can take the feedback from people who are not your customers into account.
You might be wondering "but how does this scale?" Truth is this approach isn't economical for every price point product, and even at the highest end scaling go-to-market efforts is really challenging.
We recommend understanding your clients deeply through interviews and longer conversations early then using customer profiles, segmentation, and automation to be able to add some more scalability.
Segmenting and profiling your audience helps personalize your outreach to a wider range of people than 1:1 direct contacts without losing the care behind solving the shared problem they face. For help with profiling your customers the people at A&C Growth can help you profile your prospects, implement systems that scale your customer understand, and run data-driven experiments that help you communicate as effectively as possible with customers.
To stay informed on what's happening with your prospects, Prospect Monitor delivers a personalized daily email on updates in the news, social media, and the internet with actionable information your prospects.
Qualifying leads is one of the most effective tools you can use to quickly shorten deal cycle times. Lead qualification enables you to focus your efforts on the most promising opportunities. By developing a clear set of criteria for qualifying leads and asking probing questions to uncover their needs, challenges, and decision-making process, you can identify the leads that are most likely to convert into customers and avoid wasting time on unlikely prospects.
This set of criteria should line up with your ideal customer profile and value proposition for your product. This will vary based on your product or service offered but in general, BANT provides a clear structure for qualifying leads.
Budget - does the prospect have the money to purchase your product? Authority - does the prospect have the ability to make a purchasing decision? Need - how badly does the prospect need your product or service? Timeline - how long would it take them to make a decision?
When talking with the prospect it's not uncommon to ask about these things directly. You'll want to gather information on them not only to help you decide how much effort to put into this prospect, but also to determine if the product is a good fit for the client and why.
Ask open ended questions around some of the needs, challenges, goals, opportunities and visions for the client are. Make sure to ask about how they make decisions as an organization and to try to connect with someone who can actually give you an answer. Ask also about what their specific criteria are for making a decision and the specific challenges that are expecting to address.
These criteria can help establish a baseline for if this prospect would actually be interested in your product or service. One of the best ways to pre-qualify leads before a prospecting call or doing any outreach is by tracking web engagement. There's a multitude of tools available to track how people are interacting with your website.
Google Analytics and/or CRM integrations can paint a basic picture of what's happening with your lead tracking. For a more advanced tracking setup it can be helpful to consult an agency that specializes in this like A&C Growth.
Aligning your solution with your prospect's needs is a critical step in accelerating the sales cycle and closing deals faster. By thoroughly understanding their unique requirements, challenges, and objectives, you can position your offering as the ideal fit for their organization.
Start by conducting a comprehensive discovery process. Ask open-ended questions that encourage your prospect to share their pain points, goals, and expectations. Listen actively and take detailed notes to ensure you capture all the relevant information.
Some key questions to ask during the discovery phase include:
Once you have a clear understanding of your prospect's needs, tailor your solution and messaging accordingly. Highlight the specific features, benefits, and use cases that directly address their pain points and requirements. Use their own language and terminology to demonstrate that you understand their business and can speak to their unique challenges.
When presenting your solution, focus on the tangible value and ROI it delivers. Use quantitative data and real-world examples to illustrate how your offering can help them achieve their goals, overcome obstacles, and drive measurable results. For example:
Remember, your prospect is not just buying a product or service - they are investing in a solution that will help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. By aligning your offering with their specific needs and demonstrating clear value, you can build trust, credibility, and urgency, ultimately leading to faster sales cycles and more successful deals.
To further support your efforts in aligning your solution with your prospect's needs, consider leveraging tools like Prospect Monitor. This app helps sales professionals stay informed about their clients by providing personalized daily updates on news, social media, and internet activities. By staying up-to-date on your prospect's latest developments and priorities, you can continually refine your messaging and approach to ensure maximum relevance and impact throughout the sales cycle.
Leveraging social proof and case studies is a powerful way to build trust and credibility with your prospects, ultimately helping you close deals faster. By sharing real-world examples of how your solution has helped similar organizations achieve their goals, you can demonstrate the tangible value and impact of your offering.
Start by identifying relevant case studies and success stories that align with your prospect's industry, size, and specific challenges. Look for examples that showcase the measurable results and ROI achieved by your customers, such as:
When presenting these case studies, focus on the specific strategies, tactics, and features that contributed to your customers' success. Provide a clear narrative that highlights the challenges they faced, the solutions you provided, and the outcomes they achieved. Use visuals, such as charts, graphs, and screenshots, to make the information more engaging and memorable.
In addition to case studies, leverage testimonials and references from satisfied customers to further validate your solution's effectiveness. Reach out to your most successful clients and ask if they would be willing to provide a short quote or video testimonial about their experience working with your company. These first-hand accounts can be incredibly powerful in building trust and overcoming objections.
When selecting testimonials, look for quotes that speak directly to the benefits and results your prospect is seeking. For example:
When leveraging social proof and case studies, be sure to tailor your examples to your prospect's specific needs and priorities. By showcasing how your solution has helped organizations with similar challenges achieve their goals, you can create a powerful sense of urgency and motivation for your prospect to take action.
To further strengthen your case, consider offering references from satisfied customers in your prospect's industry. This allows your prospect to have direct conversations with your clients and hear first-hand about their experiences and results. By providing this level of transparency and access, you can build even greater trust and credibility throughout the sales process.
Finally, make sure to integrate social proof and case studies throughout your sales collateral and communications. Include relevant examples and testimonials in your proposals, presentations, and email outreach to reinforce your solution's value and impact at every touchpoint. By consistently highlighting your track record of success, you can differentiate yourself from competitors and accelerate your sales cycle.
Creating a sense of urgency is a critical strategy for accelerating the sales cycle and motivating prospects to take action. By helping your prospect understand the importance of addressing their challenges quickly and the potential consequences of inaction, you can create a compelling case for moving forward with your solution.
Start by identifying your prospect's key business drivers and timelines. During the discovery process, ask questions that uncover their most pressing priorities, deadlines, and objectives. For example:
Once you have a clear understanding of your prospect's drivers and timelines, emphasize the cost of inaction and the benefits of moving forward quickly. Use data, research, and real-world examples to illustrate the potential consequences of delaying a decision, such as:
At the same time, highlight the tangible benefits of implementing your solution promptly, such as:
To further create a sense of urgency, consider offering limited-time promotions or incentives that encourage prospects to take action sooner rather than later. These could include:
When presenting these offers, be sure to clearly communicate the deadlines and any associated terms or conditions. Use language that conveys the time-sensitive nature of the opportunity, such as:
In addition to limited-time promotions, consider leveraging external factors or events that may impact your prospect's business or industry. For example:
By tying your solution to these external factors and demonstrating how it can help your prospect navigate these changes successfully, you can create an even greater sense of urgency and relevance.
Remember, creating a sense of urgency should never involve high-pressure tactics or manipulation. Instead, focus on providing value, building trust, and helping your prospect understand the importance of taking action to achieve their goals. By presenting a compelling case for change and offering meaningful incentives, you can motivate your prospect to move forward more quickly and confidently.
Streamlining your sales process is essential for improving efficiency, reducing friction, and accelerating the sales cycle. By identifying areas for improvement and implementing best practices, you can create a more seamless and effective sales experience for both your team and your prospects.
Start by mapping out your current sales process from start to finish. Break down each stage of the process, from initial outreach and qualification to proposal development and closing. Identify the key activities, tools, and stakeholders involved at each step, and look for areas where you can eliminate bottlenecks, reduce complexity, or improve communication.
Some common areas for improvement include:
Once you've identified opportunities for improvement, consider automating repetitive tasks and leveraging tools to manage prospect information more efficiently. For example:
In addition to automating tasks and leveraging tools, it's important to foster close collaboration with internal teams to ensure smooth handoffs and rapid response times. Sales success often depends on the ability to quickly mobilize resources and expertise from across the organization, whether it's involving technical experts in product demos or coordinating with legal and finance teams to finalize contracts.
To improve collaboration and alignment, consider implementing the following best practices:
Another key aspect of streamlining your sales process is continuous learning and improvement. Regularly solicit feedback from your sales team, prospects, and customers to identify areas for optimization and innovation. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, cycle times, and revenue per rep to measure the impact of your efforts and identify trends or patterns that may require attention.
Finally, consider partnering with external experts or consultants who can provide fresh perspectives, industry best practices, and specialized skills to help you streamline your sales process. For example, working with a sales enablement agency or CRM implementation partner can help you optimize your tools, templates, and workflows to drive maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
By continuously refining your sales process, automating repetitive tasks, and fostering collaboration across your organization, you can create a more agile, responsive, and customer-centric sales experience. This not only helps you close deals faster but also sets the stage for long-term success and growth.
Nurturing prospects with valuable content is a powerful way to build trust, establish thought leadership, and keep your brand top-of-mind throughout the sales cycle. By providing insights, education, and resources that address your prospects' needs and challenges, you can demonstrate your expertise and value proposition, even when you're not directly engaging with them.
Start by developing a content strategy that aligns with your prospects' needs and preferences at each stage of the sales cycle. Consider the key questions, concerns, and objectives that prospects typically have at each stage, and create content that addresses those topics in a helpful and engaging way.
For example:
When creating content, focus on providing genuine value and insights, rather than simply promoting your products or services. Use a mix of formats and channels to appeal to different learning styles and preferences, and make sure your content is easy to consume and share.
Some best practices for creating engaging content include:
To effectively deliver your content and keep prospects engaged, use marketing automation tools to create targeted campaigns and nurture streams. These tools allow you to segment your prospects based on their behavior, preferences, and stage in the sales cycle, and deliver personalized content that resonates with their specific needs and interests.
For example, you can create an email nurture campaign that delivers a series of educational emails to prospects who have downloaded a specific whitepaper or attended a webinar. Each email can provide additional insights and resources related to the topic, and gradually guide the prospect towards a sales conversation.
You can also use marketing automation to trigger content delivery based on specific actions or milestones, such as when a prospect visits a certain page on your website or reaches a certain lead score threshold. This helps ensure that your content is always relevant and timely, and keeps your brand top-of-mind as prospects move through the sales cycle.
Finally, make sure to continuously measure and optimize your content performance to ensure maximum impact and ROI. Use analytics tools to track key metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and revenue attribution, and use these insights to refine your content strategy and tactics over time.
By consistently delivering valuable content that addresses your prospects' needs and challenges, you can build trust, credibility, and preference for your brand, ultimately helping you close deals faster and more effectively. Remember, the key is to focus on providing genuine value and insights, rather than simply promoting your products or services, and to use automation and personalization to deliver the right content to the right prospects at the right time.
Forming strategic partnerships can be a powerful way to drive exponential growth for your business. By partnering with complementary companies or influencers in your industry, you can tap into new markets, expand your reach, and create synergistic opportunities for mutual success.
To identify potential partnership opportunities, look for companies or individuals that share your target audience, values, and goals, but offer products or services that are complementary to your own. For example, if you sell sales enablement software, you might partner with a company that provides sales training or consulting services.
Some key benefits of strategic partnerships include:
To build successful partnerships, focus on creating win-win relationships that deliver tangible value for both parties. Start by clearly defining the goals, expectations, and roles of each partner, and establish metrics for measuring success. Communicate regularly and openly to ensure alignment and address any challenges or opportunities that arise.
Word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most powerful drivers of growth in any industry. When your customers or peers recommend your products or services to others, it can create a viral effect that rapidly expands your reach and reputation.
To encourage recommendations, focus on delivering exceptional value and customer experiences that exceed expectations. Go above and beyond to solve your customers' problems, anticipate their needs, and make their lives easier. When you consistently deliver quality and results, your customers will naturally become your best advocates.
You can also actively seek out recommendations by:
In today's fast-paced and constantly changing business landscape, relationships are often more valuable than organizational ties. By building strong, authentic relationships with individuals across your industry, you can create a powerful network of advocates, advisors, and collaborators who can help you navigate challenges and opportunities.
To build strong relationships, focus on providing value and support to others without expecting anything in return. Be generous with your time, knowledge, and resources, and look for ways to help your contacts achieve their goals. When you consistently show up as a trusted partner and friend, you'll naturally attract more opportunities and goodwill.
Some ways to build and nurture relationships include:
To achieve exponential growth, you need to become the go-to solution in your market - the de-facto option that customers automatically think of and choose when they have a need in your area of expertise.
To become the de-facto option, you need to differentiate yourself from competitors by offering unique value and experiences that customers can't find elsewhere. This could involve:
You also need to establish your brand as a thought leader and authority in your space by consistently producing and sharing valuable content, insights, and perspectives. This could include:
By becoming the de-facto option in your market, you'll create a virtuous cycle of growth where more customers choose your brand, more partners want to work with you, and more opportunities come your way. It takes time and consistent effort to build this level of market leadership, but the payoff in terms of exponential growth and long-term success is well worth it.