salesyperson

Account Executive

Sales Cycles - where does it start?

I've been at several companies that claimed "the sales cycle average is x days," but for one of the companies (less than 100 customers) 85% of won deals had 1 or 2 closed lost deals within 2 fiscal years. my question is where does your company start the "sales cycle?"

The reason I ask is because if (as an example) 10 customers signed within a week, but they were being communicated/nurtured for over a year by the sales rep, wouldn't that skew the stats? especially for a company with so few customers?

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

The sales cycle typically starts at the point they are deemed "qualified".

For some that means a lifecycle stage changes on the account record, and the clock starts. For others, and the way I'd prefer companies do it, the clock starts when the deal reaches Stage 1. Deals should always start there, regardless of one-call-close situations.

This is a measure of true velocity from the moment that the deal is qualified to the moment the deal is marked "Closed-Won".

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

After the discovery when there is interest

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I would say the cycle starts when interest is expressed. Some may say when the first call is made, or some other instigating event. But unless it comes from the customer's side, there is no cycle.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Sales cycle is from qualified through close.

However.

I've seen companies run afoul of that data and assume that their cycle is the entirety of the process, from education through close. Example: a complex Enterprise platform solution in the mid-six figures, company based the knowledge of the sales cycle on the actual closed/won deals in the CRM and confidently stated the sales cycle was 3-5 mos.

The failure to look at the entire lifecycle of customer engagement meant that they did not recognize that the final success usually took place after years of nurture/engagement and usually a handful of closed/lost, closed/no decision or closed/unqualified opportunities. It meant that the assumption that total greenfield companies with no footprint of engagement in the CRM were unlikely to close in 3-5 months, and that division was staffed improperly for the task at hand, which was to start an education/nurture cycle and not come close to the 1 million dollar quota that was projected.

If you're looking for a job and you ask about the sales cycle, you'll want to find out if that reflects greenfield or if there's significant groundwork that needs to happen first (and if it's already underway).

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Enterprise is 2 years. Anyone saying their company is 3 mos for Ent is full of crap.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Or reading the data incorrectly, and just using the open/close on the successful opportunity.

Hey sales ops - talk to the field first! Find out what's going on.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Yeah ya heard sales ops 👀

salesyperson

Opinionated

Account Executive

Thank you! This is precisely what I was experiencing, and was then expected to close brand new (content) leads, not demo requests, with the “typical” sales cycle. More smoke and mirrors, but also lesson for the next gig

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I experienced the above at a large company that you'd think would have known better, but didn't.

If it's an enterprise solution and the territory is greenfield, any time they tell you the cycle is below 9-12 mos, I'd be very skeptical. And realize that with a 9 mo sales cycle, you're needing your pipeline built in Q1, or you're done. Unless they're a forward looking organization with a 2 year ramp plan to get the territory built out and the reps working to OTE (and not starving) year 1, I'd pass.

salesyperson

Opinionated

Account Executive

Appreciate the opinions! At my last company, they would include all meetings, even those set up by SDR’s where there explicitly said they have a solution for the next 2 years but are open to learning more and no shows!

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

It’s an interesting discussion. Because I think the cycle can be different between industry, customer, project size, etc. others have it right, perhaps where interest is first expressed or where pricing is first discussed or shared.

To sunbunnys point, from a customer perspective it could be years before a customer ends up buying or buying in a substantial way.

Great question!

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

President/CRO

The cycle starts once the prospect is qualified. Most often during the first demo. That’s the easy part. The hard part is when to “close lost” a deal when the prospect never tells you “no.”

So many reps keep a pipeline of dead deals hoping they’ll come back to life. Every now and then one does and that helps convince them the cycle is just super long. The reality is they should have lost that deal long ago but continued to nurture and then started a new deal cycle when they came back to the table.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Interest is the keyword once you know and feel that someone is happy to invest in your product!

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salesyperson

Sales Cycles - where does it start?

13 comments

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