There are several ways to increase sales, and one of the easiest ways is to shorten your sales cycles. Some people think that customers determine the length of a sales cycle, but in most cases, it’s the sales people who set the pace of a sales cycle. Sales reps that drag out a selling cycle make fewer sales than those who learn how to shorten their selling cycles. Let’s take a look at the way you can help your reps to shorten their sales cycles.

1. Be Clear From the Start

Many sales reps unwittingly drag their sales cycles out by being ambiguous. When customers are unclear about your products, services, customer care, or other aspects of the sale, they drag their feet. They need more time, more clarity, and more understanding to make a confident decision. When sales reps are clear from the very start about what they have to offer and how it can help the customer, the sales cycle shortens.

2. Address Future Changes

If your products or services will change the way a customer does business or the way he or she lives, customers may hesitate as they weigh the pros and cons of the future changes. You can speed things along by educating customers about future changes and providing support and encouragement. You can explain how other people in similar situations have made the necessary changes and show how these changes proved to be beneficial and worth every initial inconvenience.

3. Anticipate Objections

Sales reps who are good listeners can shorten the sales cycle of with each client by anticipating objections and concerns and addressing them before they can take firm root in the customer’s mind. This takes some practice and discernment, but sales reps can learn how to sense concerns and provide solutions during the early stages of a sales cycle, thus moving the sales cycle along at a quick pace.

4. Focus on Value

What’s in it for the customer? How will your services and products make your customers’ lives better, easier, and more satisfying? If you focus on value from the very start, your customers will want to hurry the sales cycle along themselves so they can get to the good part of having your products and services to help them.

5. Set Ambitious but Reasonable Goals

Some sales reps need concrete goals to help them shorten their selling cycles. If sales cycles have seemed unreasonably long in the past, start by challenging your sales reps to shorten them just a little bit. Once they have reached that goal, inch that goal up just a little bit more. By using the strategies above, your sales reps should be able to shorten their sales cycles more and more as they become more adept at getting right to the point and focusing on value.

When your sales reps are clear from the start, address future changes, anticipate objections, focus on value, and set ambitious goals, you will see a decrease in each sales cycle, which will increase your revenue and help your sales reps to reach their goals and enjoy unprecedented success.