How do your clients buy your products/offerings?

That’s the question I asked a CEO that was trying to address his Board’s mandate to accelerate sales.  I asked a ton of questions, but this is the question that seemed to resonate with him.  Why?  I believe it’s because 1) he didn’t know the answer and 2) he realized how knowing the answer could help his firm accelerate sales.  Take a look at the simple diagram below and tell me what’s wrong:

You see it don’t you?  It will be hard for anyone to accelerate sales when your entire sales process to identify and capture a client doesn’t align with how your typical client buys your service/offerings.  In the simple example above there are countless ways that the selling company can augment their process to align with the prospect’s buying process.  As alignment occurs the odds of closing deals should increase as well.  Ideally this alignment will result in increasing your pipeline velocity as well.  There are several tactics to accelerate sales, but this structural change is important to review prior to leveraging other tactics.

Call a few of your clients and ask them how they buy your products/offerings.  Map out their decision-making process and purchasing process to see how it aligns with your company's sales process.  There's a good chance that a small realignment in your process could positively impact your top line.

Get it done!