255: Why You Need A Salescycle

<p>At the center of everything we do is the customer relationship.  Additionally, like planets revolving around the sun, there are five stages of the sales cycle revolving around the customer relationship, which we must pass through in order to make the sale.  In a way, this is our roadmap for when we are talking to the buyer.  If we want to make a sale and get the re-order, we must control the sales conversation with the buyer, not the other way around. When we are talking to the buyer we are never stuck, because we know where we are in the cycle and what needs to come next. Let’s take a walk through the galaxy and visit each of these stages of the sales cycle.</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>This is all about forming a positive first impression. Remember the client doesn’t know us yet.  We may have met them at an event, through a referral, via a website lead or through a cold call. We need our credibility statement beautifully refined to explain who we are and why we can do a great job of serving the buyer. We need to ask some qualifying questions at this point to really understand if we can in fact serve the buyer or not. </li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>We need a plan for the conversation, so we have prepared an agenda statement. We invite the buyer to add any items they think necessary to get the right buy in, to progress the meeting using this agenda.</p> <p> </p> <p>They don’t know us and this is an important point. We need to find out what they do know about us from their research or what they have heard in the market. Definitely we need to immediately correct any misperceptions or wrong information.</p> <p> </p> <ol start="2"> <li>We are here to help them solve their problems, but like a medical doctor we need to understand the situation completely, before we start prescribing any solutions.  To do this we need to ask as series of questions.</li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>What is their current situation?</p> <p> </p> <p>Where do they want to be in the next few years?</p> <p> </p> <p>What things do they need to change to get where