Why does it take so long to receive a decision

Ever wonder why customers take so long to give you a decision? How about why it takes forever to know if you’ve won or lost? We have all experienced this part of the sales cycle, and it frustrates everyone. And the pain doesn’t stop there; it affects your sales managers, their managers, the executives and every other employee in the organization.

Every time I’m making a buying decision for my company, I try to remember this and take it to heart. But, the truth is, it takes time to make decisions. And, the bigger the decision, the more time it takes. What seems simple to those proposing a solution is not at all easy to the buyer. Having experienced this both as a seller and a buyer, I can contest it takes time to make good decisions.

In fact, I’m in one of those situations right now – a deal which should have closed months ago, but has been dragging on and on. I’ve learned to stay patient, but more importantly, stay in touch. Lack of communication only makes things worse. Instead, engage in open dialogue and listen to the buying indicators in your prospect’s voice. Make sure you don’t sound too anxious and keep the faith! If you have proposed the right solution and they truly intend to buy, chances are good you will still win the deal.

Persistence pays off.

The Business of Selling: Either You Feast or Famine

I’ve said it before, sales is similar to running a business. Unfortunately, that statement is often more accurate than we prefer.

USA Today's recent headlines were focused on GM’s problems and how they must downsize to combat Global competition, technological change and rising health costs, and the veterans of bankruptcy limelight, Delta Airlines is back on the brink of shutting down if they can’t come to an agreement with their Unions. Only a few years ago both companies were flying high with record profits. How quickly things change.

Ever wonder what is going through the minds of managers in this position? Fundamentally they know they’ve made good choices, yet those decisions have yielded adverse results?

Sales are prone to the same pitfalls. I can remember years were our sales numbers outstripped our ability to fulfill the job. We had to outsource and throttle the business to keep up. Then it would go quite for a while, causing us to scale back what we just ramped up only to have the cycle start all over again – extremely frustrating. 

You must have confidence in your ability to manage through these situations. Everyone can second guess what you should have done – hindsight is truly 20/20. Unless you have a crystal ball, it takes guts, experience and most importantly perseverance to get through tough times. In business it takes good people, strong leaders and a little confidence to be successful. In sales, it’s solely up to you.

I just spent a day working with a sales team that had lost its confidence, even though they had an exceptional product. Most of their confidence loss was based on past problems, the remainder simply stemmed from pessimistic attitudes. After 4 hours working with them, we restored what was missing by taking a good look at their company’s proficiencies, turned those assets into differentiators and then crafted compelling value propositions from what we discovered. It was then easy enough to restore faith in their product. It took a half day to fix a long-term problem. Even in our darkest hours we must all remember: Life is full of opportunity. It’s there for the taking - go get it.