Selling Time is a great sales tip and one that has helped me immensely in my sales career. It may seem basic but I have seen fantastic results come from its effective use and it is one of my “go-to” coaching tips.
In short it achieves all of the following in your first meeting:
- Agreement with a prospect on the entire sales cycle length and timeline
- Mutual understanding of everything that needs to be done to move from that first meeting to a successful sale
- Accurate forecasting every time
- Control of the sales cycle
- Increased chance of securing the business
Even better it does all of this entirely credibly, it builds trust and will earn you respect with your prospect (soon to be customer).
Here’s how Selling Time works
Ask a question similar to this:
“What is your target date to be fully up and running having moved from where you are today to your desired future state?”
You may ask this in a different way depending on your product or service. However, the essence you aim for should be the same. No-one buys a product or service for the product or service itself. They are buying outcomes. A desired future reality where their problem is solved, help is provided, they are more efficient, faster, have more time, feel better, feel more secure – it could be any number of things depending on your industry. The point is that you are elevating their perspective beyond the point where they will need to sign an order to a point when the product they have purchased is in their possession and they are fully adept at benefitting from it. The new service has been implemented, people have been trained and benefits realised. Their new “Business as Usual” (BAU).
Ask them their dream date for when they wish to be at this point.
Once they’ve shared this I normally note it down on a piece of paper as a cross at the end of a long horizontal line, stating the date they’ve given. Then at the other end of the line I write “Today” with the date. Also ask if this date is set in stone due to immovable circumstances (such as a building opening, contract end date, new hire and so on) or flexible – we’ll come back to this later.
This establishes the total timeline. Now you need to populate it, with the prospect.
Work Backwards
Starting with the task that would need to be completed immediately prior to them fully enjoying that future state, add a line to the timeline on your drawing and label it. Examples may be “user training”, “acceptance testing” or similar. Then repeat for the task immediately before this and so on until you have detailed all the key milestones between “BAU” and the Signing Date.
As you progress do the following:
- Label it with a realistic completion date
- Consider openly with the customer whether or not there is sufficient time between each task and the next
- Add suggestions if you feel crucial stages are being missed and ask them to do the same – challenge each other
At this stage the last task you should add with a firm date is the Signing Date (notice you have just agreed when you will be signing the deal).
Weave in your Sales Process
Now repeat the exercise, still working backwards, from the Signing Date to Today. This is even more crucial than the above because the tasks you are adding now are all the tasks that need completing successfully during the sales cycle itself.
This poses an excellent opportunity to understand all of the deal mechanics in play. It also gives you an opportunity to elevate yourself above the competition by describing your ideal way of working to get them to their desired outcome. You may want to agree a series of meetings with them that show your focus on detailed scoping, meeting other key stakeholders in their business, sharing your thinking as you progress, proof of concept work, whatever you have in your process that shows you are taking the time to do a good job. Your organisation may have a sales process that you know delivers better outcomes. Introduce it at this point openly and transparently and layer it into the timeline.
At the same time the tasks they populate will show you their entire decision making process, introduce all members of the decision making unit (DMU) and give a good sense of every internal hurdle they need to overcome prior to awarding any business. Schedule regular meetings and touch-points along the timeline with the main buyer and relevant members of their DMU.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions around each task. Who is involved? How long does that typically take in your organisation? Have we missed any key stages? Do legal need to review terms within this process? What typically delays projects like this in your experience? Are key people on leave during this time period?
You get the idea.
The Outcome
By the time you’ve finished you’ll arrive at one of two outcomes:
- The timeline will fit neatly and you’ll have enough time to progress forwards and meet the Signing Date and Dream Future State date.
- You’ll realise that you should have had this meeting three weeks ago!
Never fear, when Selling Time either outcome is good.
The first outcome means that you can move forward with a clear understanding of everything that needs to be achieved and a strong conviction that your forecasted timeline will be accurate and realistic.
The second outcome means that through your professionalism you’ve just successfully challenged the original timeline and you can revise it, there and then with the customer’s involvement. You may both agree to extend by three weeks (usually if you established that the end date was flexible). You may agree that there is an unexpected urgency and put in place actions to move through the tasks more quickly (typically if the end date is a dead stop). It doesn’t matter.
The point is that through Selling Time you have been thorough and consultative. You:
- know how long the sales cycle will take and can have faith that the estimation is real
- can forecast an accurate close date back at base which will be unlikely to change
- have an agreed series of meetings without the need to chase for progress updates or more customer diary time in-between
- are in the customer’s project team
- are more likely to deliver the outcome they required
You are more likely to win!
