The Cognitive Selling Newsletter

?? Welcome Note

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Dealing with longer sales cycles?

In the world of B2B sales, economic downturns or periods of uncertainty often lead to extended sales cycles. What once took weeks can stretch into months, testing the patience and resilience of even the best sales teams. To thrive in this environment, it’s important to adapt your sales strategies. You have to ensure that pipeline progression isn't slowing and opportunities aren’t evaporating into thin air.

Sales cycles can elongate for three primary reasons:

• Tighter Budgets: Economic uncertainty often leads companies to tighten their budgets, delaying purchasing decisions as they prioritize their use of funds.
• Increased Scrutiny: With heightened risk aversion, companies involve more stakeholders (and approvals) and require more thorough evaluations, extending the time needed to reach a decision.
• Longer Approval Processes: Decisions that once required minimal oversight now go through multiple layers of approval, slowing down the process and prolonging the sales cycle. All this increases the ‘career risk’ for stakeholders.

These factors collectively contribute to longer sales cycles, requiring sales teams to adjust their approach. At least the successful ones do.

?? Quick Tips

• Propose customized or phased solutions that align with the prospect’s current resource constraints or immediate needs, making it easier for them to commit.
• Communicate your offerings "Time to Value". Show potential clients how they can start seeing benefits more quickly, which can incent faster decision-making. Emphasize the adverse impacts of waiting.
• Mitigate Client Risk by Offering Risk-Free Trials, Strong Guarantees, and a Phased Implementation Plan. Use validated case studies and third-party endorsements to reduce the fear of a bad decision.

?? Quote of the Week

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt[

?? This Weeks Recommended Resource

Discover insights from 5500 sales pros on driving growth and standing out in a crowd.

This report is from Salesforce. There is always interesting insights you can gleam from these reports.

FYI. You have to provide personal details like email etc to download from them. I will be writing my views on this next week.

State of Sales Report From Salesforce

?? Point to Ponder

What does your Client think your competitor does that is better than you?

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?? Thanks for reading!. I consider feedback a gift. So feel free to offer suggestions and comments.