Streamline your sales cycle for procurement

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I'm often called into an organization to restructure the sales and marketing plan there's generally two reasons for this the first is the organization sales cycle hasn't been updated to synchronize with the modern 21st century procurement practices or incorrect implementation of the sales and marketing plan today we're going to look at the first reason objecting your sales to match modern procurement practices first let's look at the classic sales cycle which has been used unchanged for the last 40 years we start off with some prospecting step 2 we move on to setting appts step 3 we qualify the buyer step 4 make a presentation step 5 we handle objections step 6 we close the deal and step 7 we obtain referrals some practical terms we would apply the classic sale cycle by setting an appointment with client sitting down with them and discussing their needs and the solutions that we can provide from our products or services negotiate on price or upgrades and then close the deal all in all a straightforward system which hasn't been changed in 40 years however our buyers have evolved and are now utilizing technology and more professional procurement practices in their purchasing cycle now we need to upgrade our sales cycle to match the modern procurement cycle okay so let's look at the modern procurement cycle all procurement starts with needs awareness step 2 is looking at all the options available step 3 is identification of a product or solution step 4 financial approval for the purchase step 5 a decision to purchase has been made steps identification of suppliers step 7 attender RFI or RFP step 8 supplier evaluation step 9 may involve some negotiation and the placement of an order the problem with the modern procurement cycle is the clients often don't engage with suppliers until step 7 the tender RFI or RFP stage and at this stage all they're looking for is the lowest price if you haven't had meaningful engagement with a client prior to step seven is very difficult to show differentiation which means step seven the tender RFI RFP stage is normally one by the supply with lowest price so we need to move away from engaging clients at step seven and re-engage clients back of the start of their procurement cycle we do this by becoming a true total solution provider as an example if a print company is talking to a client about designer marketing they are engaging the client back at step one this puts them in prime position to win the work so just in marketing and your sales cycle to target client specific requirements and the early stages of their procurement is critical to sales success in the 21st century you