Winning Clients - Opportunity Management

The Sales Cycle is fundamental to managing an opportunity. The numbers and names of stages in the sales cycle varies. We don't care if you call one step Assessment or Qualify or if you have six steps instead of seven. The point is in what needs to be accomplished. Our sales cycle is straightforward and the terms should be easily understood by all readers:
A very common mistake for emerging salespeople and order takers is to jump from suspect to proposal. The reason there are stages in the sales cycle is because they serve a specific purpose. Putting thought into the purpose and strategy of each stage will pay for itself in sales.

So, what is the purpose of moving from Suspect to Fulfill? Certainly we want the sale but that is short sighted. In addition to the sale we want to open up future opportunities with the same client. We also want to begin gaining referrals from this client for more clients. Remembering these during each stage of the sales cycle will help as we create and execute the strategy.

The Sales Cycle

• Suspect - The universe of potential prospects.
• Assess - Is it worth competing to win the deal?
• Develop - Building the value proposition.
• Negotiate - Seeking win-win.
• Close -
• Fulfill - follow up and replenish.

A structured selling process is based on a structured sales cylcle. Being intentional at each stage keeping the end in mind will increase sales and increase margins.