You should leave a company that doesn't understand the length of a sales cycle.

I have been seeing more questions and comments about closing a deal by this date. Why?


The most frustrating thing in my 12 years in sales has been managers that do not understand that sales cycles have their own timeline, and end of the month (hence my name) is not an incentive for a strategic company to make a purchase. In tech sales, the only real tiedown that I have found that makes sense is the buyers go-live date. When do they see themselves first using? What conflicts will you have it you don't get this implemented by x date? How much will it cost you if you wait 3 months to implement, etc.


Far too many times, and companies during my career have managers tried to squeeze the last few steps and try to use a time sensitive discount to get the deal to close. They see that the only step left is to sign, or meet with the CFO, or get legal approval, and right away it is "give them 10% to sign by the end of the month, and they will get it through legal".


Why are we going through a consultative sales process, building value, validating the value, then throwing it out the window, because we want to shave 15-60 days off of the cycle. It's crazy, and doesn't make sense to the bottom-line.


I still do it though ;)

๐ŸŽˆ Mentorship
๐Ÿ‘‘ Sales Strategy
๐Ÿ“ˆ Closing
31
CoorsKing
WR Officer
26
Retired King of the Coors Knights
Butโ€ฆ if they donโ€™t ask me if I can pull a deal forecasted for 6+ months out into the quarter using some magically appearing discountโ€ฆ what will they ask me in my 1:1?
SaaSsy
Politicker
1
AE
Hahaha, the most annoying sales manager behavior by far. I always wonder where they find those idiots.
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
0
Enterprise Account Executive
Haha! Bingo
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
2
Enterprise Account Executive
What if they offered to get on a call with you and work that magic themselves?
whodis
Valued Contributor
1
Irrelevant
Real talk, my team lives in this endless cycle too, but my boss gets on with us and drives hand-in-hand. ย It makes a big difference in oneโ€™s ability to tolerate the madness.
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
6
SaaS Eater
Im devastated that you just ruined the only trick in my bag.ย 
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
3
Enterprise Account Executive
Sorry bud. I will give you a couple more.

โ€œMy boss is breathing down my neckโ€

โ€You know I am in sales, and I could really use this deal to help with my bills.โ€
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
5
SaaS Eater
How about "this deal will get my team to quota", that one has always worked wondered.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
5
sales
start tracking velocity.

every pipeline tool has open, qualified, quoted, closed as basic metrics in the funnel. use dates on an excel sheet if needed. then track it. i know exactly how long it takes open a deal (2.5 months), to close a deal (5.3 months) and how long it takes for first utilization to take after a deal is signed (5.2 months). it did WONDERS in aligning c-suite with the front line. instead of shitting on frontliners for not closing fast enough it went to, 'how can we make this product utilized quicker.'

if you're not tracking velocity then the only person they can point the finger at is you, make sure it points back at them.
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
2
Enterprise Account Executive
I somewhat agree with that. That is mostly true when you aren't only closing 5-10 deals a year.ย 

Meaning: Some are 6 months, and some are 2 years. I can't make a 2 year deal 1 year 11 month deal, or I would have made it a 6 month deal.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
4
sales
we should close about one a month with a full pipeline but it took so long to get deals in at first they thought we were all sitting around playing youtube. its enterprise sales, its gonna take a minute
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
1
Enterprise Account Executive
I have been in the enterprise rep for the company I am at for 10 months (beginning of the year). All of us are less than 2 years in the role (4 of us), but we all have full ENT quotas. Last month they had the big talk about why we aren't at our plan year to date. I don't think they know how that math works out.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
1
sales
give them the arithmetic then
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
1
Enterprise Account Executive
I did. Unfortunately they won't do it upstream.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
0
sales
email the ceo
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
Absolutely agree, for us as well velocity is the key. If we don't know number we are only doing great job of guessing.
whodis
Valued Contributor
1
Irrelevant
Celonis has a free quick start connector to analyze cycle times straight from Salesforce assuming you have reporting rights. Itโ€™s super cool.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
0
sales
What about Google sheets cause were poor
whodis
Valued Contributor
0
Irrelevant
Prob not the same value because it uses change logs unfortunately
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
0
sales
help me im poor
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
You've hit on one of the reasons I left my last company.ย  No, in general, we are not going to make our quota when we have net-new customers who have never engaged with us and we have an average 18-mo sales cycle.ย  It does not matter how many incentives or C-level exec meetings you offer; if they're not ready they're not ready.
MonthEndSpecial
Valued Contributor
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Amen
IYNFYL
Politicker
4
Enterprise SaaS AE
The biggest things I ask during an interview are what is your sales cycle and why is it that? And then also what does the competition in this space like? You would be surprised to know how many managers canโ€™t answer those questions or come up with bullshit responses
PhlipOut
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Nice, I'll steal this
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
โ˜•๏ธ
AYYYYYMEN!
cw95
Politicker
2
Sales Development Lead
ah yes, my boss used to moan about not having enough prospects coming in as the board used to tell him 'Wheres the f*kin revenue' yet he would focus on maybe two companies out of the tens and tens coming in which would then take 5 months to MAYBE sign the dotted line. Ridic.ย 
Mjollnir
Politicker
2
Account Executive
lol 100%!ย 
WomenWantMeFishFearMe
Politicker
1
AM
Agreed on most points
Flippinghubs
Opinionated
1
Account Executive
hell yeah brotherย 
CharmingSalesGal
Politicker
1
Account Executive
I'm quite literally using your last question in my upcoming 1:1. ๐Ÿ”ฅ
PhlipOut
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Ohh this is maybe my biggest gripe with my current company. That's the go to move.

I've had to sometimes play along and glad to show people don't budge for 10%, if their timelines are different.
jkevincook
1
Executive Vice President
I reject vendor discounts to "bring it in this month" and even push back on my own management to accelerate deals.ย  I answer with "that's not the right thing for the customer".

Interesting that I also have no dissatisfied customers.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
๐ŸฆŠ
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