The faster and the more you sell, the better your company does. So, it makes sense that sales velocity is a critical success measurement for pretty much every salesperson out there.
But what happens when your selling methods grow outdated? What factors can impact and increase sales velocity most? What does friction look like? And – most importantly – how do you remove friction from your sales process once it happens?
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Here are 6 ways to remove friction from the sales process.
No two businesses manage their sales process or sales cycle the same way. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t several problem areas where friction is most likely to arise. So, let’s explore what friction looks like – and how to effectively remove friction from sales processes.
An undefined sales process adds time to your deals and creates confusion at each step. A lack of standardization invites friction and uncertainty into your sales process. And without a clear picture of what each stage involves, technology only makes things worse.
Sales success requires strategy. Less-sophisticated teams don’t prioritize who they target or which accounts they pursue – leading to friction-filled sales cycles that move at a snail’s pace. And that doesn’t help anybody involved.
In any enterprise deal, most of the friction is the result of slow, legacy contracting processes. The longer each step takes to complete, the longer it takes for a deal to close. And an agreement that takes weeks or months to close obviously doesn’t do much to increase sales velocity.
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Even the best salespeople may not be able to impact your win rate if you’re only focused on bottom-of-the-funnel activities. Your sales funnel needs to ensure smooth sailing all the way through each stage to be successful.
You can’t just increase how much your product or service costs because you feel like it. If you’re just increasing prices or thinking purely from a costs or features point of view, your sales process will feature so much friction it’ll be difficult to even get things started.
Related Content: Todd Caponi On How to Increase Sales Velocity and Reduce the Sales Cycle
It’s easy to understand that more qualified opportunities leads to increased sales velocity. But that doesn’t mean you should stuff your pipeline with any deal you can find. Because – in many cases – not knowing which agreements are worth your time to pursue creates more friction than not having enough in the first place.
Increasing sales velocity by removing friction from any sales process is easier said than done. But it’s not impossible. For more tips on how to remove friction from your sales process, starting with your contracts, check out our eBook, A Salesperson's Guide to Beating Growth Goals: Contracts that Close Faster.