closing the sale= how long

Hi To All Of You ;wlcm

This is one of the questions has been bugging me since the begining, please bear with me.
How long does the closing process take, what I mean is, is it expected that a salesman when he meets the prospect and he presented all the information that he should get the order then and there.
My experience is that I have some people that I am chasing for month and they keep on giving me the run around, does that mean that im doing something wrong or thats how the process is supposed to take.

Waiting for your smart input
All the best
Pinny:cu -pinnyz

The time it takes buyers to resolve their internal system issues is the length of the sales cycle. -Swamprat

Depends what you're selling pinny?
You don't have to say exactly but give us a clue? -helisell

There are way, way, too many variables to give a one-size-fits-all answer to your question, imo. Maybe you could share some more information about:

- your product / service
- your selling process
- your prospects
- etc. -Skip Anderson

Hi
sorry it took me so long to reply.i appreciate you all that are replying.
I sell supplies for appartment buildings located in the five boros = janitorial,hardware, plumbing, electric.

The process is to approach the management company meet the manager that takes care of the supplies.

The decision to buy is most of the time with the manager but the final decision can have with the owner of the building or board if it is coop or condo.

Thats basically it
Take care pinny -pinnyz

Hi Pinny.. Do you approach the building owners first with this if you know who they are?

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

if i know the owner personally yes, but if the owner dosen't manage the building himself and he gave it over to a mangement,then he usually sends you to the management. -pinnyz

What has been your sales approach to the management companies for your cleaning products if you don't mind my asking? What I mean is, what are you selling them, product superiority, price, delivery ease, ease of use, less product for more area...etc... I guess is what I'm asking and how do you approach management with your (as Ace puts it) proposition?

Aloha.. Tom :cool: -rattus58

Pinny I would imagine that how long it takes from initial approach to inked deal is going to depend on things like the perceived risk of the sale, the prospect's unique buying habits, any internal issues that the buyer need to resolve first and so on. Everybody is going to be different. Now with that being said there probably is a typical time frame for your industry ranging from immediately to X. Check with your manager to get a better idea. -Vito

Now #1 if i would mind answering i wouldn't post my question

#2 i feel like were going off the point a bit shds;

#3 ill try to answer to the best of my abillity since i feel i need help with my presentation as well

the benifits of my company is
4 locations
beautiful easy to use catalog
next day delivery
price ( discussion for it self )
almost everything in stock
best of all me to give them personal attention -pinnyz

pinny, I want to point out, perhaps to put help on the right track, that those are features, not benefits.

That said, except for price, they are all service, not product related---which is fine.

The marketing of service IS IN THE SERVICE.

So what does that mean? First--persist until you get an order. It doesn't matter how small the order. Just persist. Once you get that order, demonstrate phenomenal service--stuff they can talk about. Do that consistently and you will build accounts--and a good living.

I have personally witnessed people become millionaires with that exact strategy in a similar sales role to yours. -Ace Coldiron

You know, there are so many aspects to this that it is hard for ME to evaluate you situation as to time to close.

I think that one approach I might attempt would be to find out what they use the most of that you can provide for them. I'd try to at least get them set up on account with just one gallon of whatever or whatever he's going to use today. However, on my way to that agreement, I'd find out everything I could about him, his business, and the products he uses.

I'd like to find out what he uses, how much he uses, why he uses the amounts he does, where does he use them, why he chose the products he uses, is he satisfied/disatisfied with what he uses, what are the products he uses strong points, how he uses them, etc. Somewhere in there are going to openings for you to test your product against what he's using.

Somewhere you might find your product requires less concentrate, cleans better, can do several jobs that they are using multiple products for (this happened with AMWAY for us, for example with their soap... made a great adjuvant for spraying... and my sister found it killed moths that were bothering her plants.) etc.

Much Aloha... Tom :cool: -rattus58

Hi Pinney,
I note from an earlier post that you have no problem providing info , so with that in mind ... you may get more constructive help if you provide some insight into your MO as follows ...

• Are you always talking to a decision maker?
• What reasons / objections / excuses / stalls are you getting?
• What is your usual time frame to finalise a sale?
• What is considered normal by your manager or peers?
• What would you really like it to be?
• How many face to face contacts usually take place in that time frame?
• What is considered normal by your manager or peers?
• Ref back to the 1st question above ... at what stage of the sales cycle are you being stalled?
• What is the approx value of a sale
• Are you selling an extended service contract?
• How long have you been in this or a similar job?
• How long in sales?

I promise that if you provide answers to these questions (plus a couple more that may follow on) you'll get a solution hpy3;
Cheers, Tony -Tony1905

Hi Pinny

How long does it take to close a sale? I've got two answers;

1.) It takes as long as it takes for the customer to complete their buying strategy.

2.) As long as it is worth persuing.

I'm not sure of your product so the process could be days, weeks or months which would then vary both points above. -MrCharisma