How to manage your sales cycle

Close deals faster by identifying and streamlining the steps in your sales process

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What is a sales cycle exactly?

Every day in sales might look a bit different for you, but odds are there’s a pattern in how you turn prospects into loyal customers. Ask yourself, what are the steps I generally go through to close a deal? This is your sales cycle. By defining the steps, you demystify the process, which helps you identify roadblocks and know where to concentrate your efforts.

Key sales cycle stages

Although sales cycles vary by industry and business, most include some or all of the following elements:

1

Prospecting

Finding new prospects to fill your pipeline is a vital first step. Define potential customers for your business and think of the best way to approach them.

2

Initiate contact

Depending on the industry, the first contact is done via call, email, or even old-school post. Offering help, support, and information is more likely to be successful at this stage than a hard sell.

3

Identify needs

You can only know whether your product is a good fit if you truly understand your prospect’s needs. Equip your team with the questions and resources they need to get the right data.

4

Present offer

At this critical phase, you need to present your offering as a solution to your prospect’s needs. Tailor your proposal in line with the info you gathered in the previous phases of the sales cycle.

5

Manage objections

Understanding the possible objections like price and timing, as well as preparing your sales team to handle them appropriately, will boost your win rate and speed up your sales process.

6

Close a sale

Now’s the time to win this deal and get your customer’s signature on the dotted line. With training and experience, you’ll find your favorite techniques for closing.

Try sales cycle management software

Once you’ve defined your sales cycle stages, the next step is to monitor and measure metrics. This will uncover where your inefficiencies lie and where you’re excelling. Instead of adding this to your time-consuming pile of admin work, leave it to a sales cycle management software. Pipedrive gathers data, tracks goals, sends you activity reminders and much more.

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4 tips to improve your sales processes

Sales team

Build a cycle

Set goals

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We’ve built a visual CRM that’s not only great for salespeople, but for anyone wanting to get super organized and close deals in less time. There’s no 200-page list of functions and no two-day training required. Just log in, fill up your pipeline and start selling with a product designed to make selling beautiful.

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The ability to completely customize the data fields and workflow gives me a tailor made CRM. Much different than my past experiences with these types of programs! The mobile app is just as functional as the desktop version, and even has a few little extras.
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Pipedrive mixes features and design that allows our team to streamline our operations. It was very easy to get up and running with Pipedrive compared to SalesForce.
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As a long time user of SFDC and other CRMs, I love the simplicity and intuitive nature of Pipedrive. My favorite feature is the automated pop-up forcing the next step.
Ryan RobertsFounder & CEO, Bustld, LLC

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