Sales cycles: 7 stages + best practices

Imagine you’re closing sales at an excellent rate—hitting your monthly quota seems like a sure thing. But what about next month? In sales, consistency is everything. Without a clear framework for success, predicting tomorrow’s results—let alone those for next month or next quarter—becomes nearly impossible.

Without a strategy, you’re essentially navigating without a map, unsure of your next move. If you’re doing well, you won’t know how to repeat that success. If you’re doing poorly, you won’t know how to prevent the same mistakes. The solution is mastering the following stages to develop a structured sales cycle.

Why is the sales cycle important?

The sales cycle is important because it helps you close deals faster. Seeing the sales process at a granular level makes it easier to identify the individual actions that lead to problems or successes.

Let’s say you discover it takes you twice as long as your peers to make a sale. To find out why, you can look at each step you take to close a deal—from finding leads to overcoming sales objections. You may then review stage-by-stage conversion rates to see where leads are dropping off. If it looks like leads are dropping off after you give a sales presentation, for instance, then it’s time to polish your presentation skills or revise your message.

The 7 stages of a sales cycle

The execution of the full sales cycle stages will depend on your product, service, company, or industry. But the order of the stages is typically the same, no matter the situation. Here’s how to successfully move from one step to the next.

1. Find leads

In this stage, you’re searching for people who may be interested in your product or service and adding them to your sales pipeline. Knowing exactly the type of customer you’re looking for will improve your chances of finding quality leads, so make sure you understand your company’s buyer persona.

You can find ideal customers via phone or by using cold email templates to gauge interest. You may also try the lead-generation methods below:

• Solve potential customers’ problems on Quora.

• Create videos with a built-in lead generation form.

• Generate leads from support-ticket conversations.

• Interact with potential customers on LinkedIn Groups.

Don’t try to make a sale at this stage, especially if you’re in B2B sales. At this point, you’re just gathering leads and trying to determine whether these people match your buyer personas.

2. Connect with leads

Now that you have your potential clients lined up, it’s time to do some research. Find out their problems and how you can help—just remember that you shouldn’t hit them with a hard sales pitch yet. Instead, earn your lead’s trust by sending resources that help them or their business succeed.

You can educate your target customer by sending relevant, valuable information via your prospecting emails. For example, if you find out on LinkedIn that your target lead is hiring a sales team, you can send helpful resources on the topic.

Providing material that addresses a challenge the lead is facing shows you care about the lead’s success. You stand out from pushy sales reps who ask for leads’ business right out of the gate. You’re giving the lead a reason to trust you and opening the door for future communication.

3. Qualify leads

Not every lead you contact will be right for your business. Through qualification steps, you can turn your leads into prospects.

Leads are people who might be a good fit for your product or service but don’t have the interest or resources. Prospects are people who have both the interest and the resources to purchase your product or service.

Here is a lead-qualification checklist to help you determine whether or not a lead should move on to the next stage of the sales cycle:

• Is the lead interested in your product or service?

• Does the lead recognize their need for your product or service?

• Can the lead afford your product or service?

• Is the lead the key decision-maker? Or can they put you in touch with the key decision-maker?

If you can’t answer yes to all the questions above, the lead isn’t a qualified candidate and shouldn’t move on to the next stage.

4. Present to prospects

Your lead is now a prospect. It’s time to share how your product or service can help them. Your sales presentation could be a demo, an in-person meeting, or a 1:1 conversation. Whatever you choose, the basic formula of a sales presentation remains the same:

1. Introduce yourself.

2. Present the problem.

3. Present the solution.

4. Back it up with data.

5. Summarize the info.

6. Answer questions.

Throughout the presentation, focus on the benefits of your product or service, not the features. Your soon-to-be customer wants to know what’s in it for them.

5. Overcome objections

While some prospects might be totally on board after your presentation, most will likely be skeptical. Use their objections as an opportunity to convince them that your product or service is worth their money and all of the effort to implement it. Remember that objections don’t necessarily mean a sale isn’t possible; you just have to know how to handle them.

Be prepared to answer common sales objections:

• “Your product/service costs too much.”

• “I’m under contract with “[Competitor Name].”

• “Our company needs X, Y, and Z features.”

Price is the most common sales objection. When met with this objection, communicate your unique selling proposition. Point out the benefits of your product or service and how they relate to the prospect’s needs. Be clear on what the prospect is getting for the price.

6. Close the deal

You’ve presented the paperwork, but the dotted line is still blank. Here are three strategies to effectively close the deal:

• The assumptive close: Behave as though the prospect has already agreed to buy what you’re selling. This is the hardest of the three to pull off.
• The suggestion close: Provide purchasing suggestions based on what you’ve learned about your buyer’s needs.
• The urgency close: Pitch your product at a discounted, limited-time price.

If your potential customer signed a contract, congratulations! If you can’t close the deal, don’t feel discouraged. Continue to nurture the prospect with email campaigns and resources. They might be ready to purchase later on.

7. Nurture new customers

It’s important to invest time in your new customer even after the deal is closed. Not only will you strengthen customer loyalty, but you’ll also increase the chances of an upsell. Here are a few ways to nurture the new relationship:

• Create a smooth customer onboarding process and ensure a seamless handoff between sales reps and account managers.

• Speak with marketing to determine content that may be helpful to your new customers as they use the product or service, and send valuable resources such as how-to guides and demos.

• Check in with your customer every one to three months and ask how you can help.

If you’re continually investing in your customers and they’re happy, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral.

Best practices for improving your sales cycle

To lessen the time it takes to close a deal, you need to look at every step, find the most inefficient stages, and make adjustments accordingly. Here are the best practices to effectively manage the full sales cycle.

1. Track conversion rates between cycle stages

Each stage should take as little time as possible. You can identify which stages take the longest by measuring the “conversion rate” between stages. Divide the number of opportunities in one stage by the number in the next stage, and the result is its percentage.

Let’s say that you’re achieving a 30 percent conversion rate between the prospecting and qualifying stages. By itself, this means nothing, but compare it to your sales team’s average. Compare it to the conversion rate you reached last month, last year, and last week to find trends.

When you see a low conversion rate between stages, find out why, and then experiment with sales conversion rate solutions.

2. Track your average sales cycle length

As we already mentioned, the average sales cycle length depends on many factors, so it can be difficult to know whether your cycle length is good or bad. But if you compare your sales cycle length with that of your team, you can determine where it stands against your peers. You should also check the industry average for a frame of reference and make improvements as needed.

3. Manage your sales cycle with CRM

When a sales team is small, a spreadsheet may be fine for inserting and tracking deal information. But if you’re handling a lot of leads and prospects, this sheet can quickly become difficult to organize or automate.

Using a CRM to manage your sales pipeline can solve this problem by organizing all your leads, deals, and tasks in one central location. You can also track conversion rates and sales cycle length (among many other things) with a CRM. Using one will ease your workflow and grease the wheels at many points during the sales cycle:

• Prospecting for Leads: You can use a CRM like Zendesk Sell to store social media information and conversations with potential leads, receive tickets through your support team, and segment prospects by profitability, region, industry, and more.
• Qualifying Leads: With CRM integrations, you can monitor email conversations with leads to quickly access information such as their budget, decision-making ability, and common objections. Software like Zendesk Sell allows you to score leads based on factors like the source of the lead and the type of contact information you have.
• Closing Deals: With sales forecasting, you can use preassigned estimated close dates and win likelihoods to make sure you’re hitting your targets. The stage duration report in Zendesk Sell shows you where all your deals are in the pipeline and helps manage bottlenecks.
• Assessing and Iterating: The most important purpose of a sales cycle is to help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. A CRM can help by tracking your win rate, the average cycle length, how fast your deals are moving through your pipeline, and your conversion rate.

Experiment with your CRM’s or sales tool’s capabilities. Use it to view every sales cycle stage and find ways to improve each one.

4. Align sales actions with the customer journey

Create a customer journey map of all the stages they go through, from awareness to purchase, to tailor your approach at each touchpoint. Ensure your map accounts for providing relevant information and addressing specific needs at the right time.

In the awareness stage, provide valuable content and information to attract potential customers. During the consideration stage, offer personalized solutions and address their pain points. In the decision stage, simplify the buying process and provide clear benefits. Finally, in the post-purchase stage, offer excellent customer service and foster long-term relationships.

5. Automate actions with AI

AI-powered tools can significantly accelerate sales cycles by automating routine tasks and improving efficiency. By drafting personalized messages, scheduling follow-ups, and analyzing customer data, Zendesk AI can make progress on deals as soon as a customer reaches out rather than waiting for an available sales rep.

Additionally, AI-driven automation can help streamline workflows, reducing manual effort and minimizing human error. This enables sales teams to respond to leads more quickly, provide timely information, and ultimately shorten the sales cycle.

6. Set up a robust training program

Your sales cycle will only be as good as your methods of training salespeople. These can be general refresher courses or fine-tuned to identify specific pain points in the cycle where reps struggle. For example, some salespeople can be resistant to adopting new sales tools (like a CRM) or changing their methods. Find ways to motivate your team to embrace new technology and integrate training into your workstream.

Thankfully, there is a wealth of existing sales training resources you can implement. These can improve your sales cycle and keep your company one step ahead of the competition.

7. Lean into the human element

While AI can significantly assist sales process automation, it’s essential to maintain the human touch in customer interactions. Sales reps should continue to invest time in understanding client needs, building rapport, and personalizing conversations.

By using AI to enhance efficiency, reps can focus on building deeper relationships with clients. This involves actively listening, asking insightful questions, and tailoring communication to individual preferences. Combining AI with the art of human connection allows sales reps to create more meaningful interactions and foster trust.

Frequently asked questions

Optimize your sales cycle management with Zendesk Sell

You can optimize your sales cycle by pinpointing bottlenecks and refining communication strategies. Zendesk Sell offers the tools to gain valuable insights into your team’s performance and customer interactions, enabling you to implement targeted training and drive sales success.