If the sales cycle were kept to less than 90 days, everything would be so much simpler. Sales professionals would be able to manage their pipelines to their quarterly revenue objectives and make the decisions necessary to maximize the company’s results and their own. But, those days are long gone. This has led to a myopic perspective, in which leads that aren’t expected to close quickly are cast aside.

The result is an unfortunate dynamic, in which sales professionals are left scrambling for “hot leads” constantly. If they were to allocate some of their time for investment in lead cultivation, they would soon have a robust ongoing pipeline, allowing them to nurture every account and maximize the value of every opportunity.

The opportunity that many sales professionals miss — even purposefully skip — is substantial. Imagine how many leads are cast aside in favor of the needle-in-a-haystack that is ready to make a purchase almost immediately. These are next quarter’s hot leads — or they’ll get hot the quarter after that. In disregarding these leads now, the sales professional could be giving the opportunity to a competitor when the prospect is ready to buy.

Lead cultivation is the antidote.

This is a service enter:marketing provides as part of our general approach to demand generation and IT marketing. When we execute a campaign, the targets profile themselves for us, and we then engage in different forms of outreach in order to deliver opportunities now and for the future. We keep track of where a prospect is in the buying cycle, keep the opportunity warm and deliver it to you when they are ready to engage in a meeting — and make a purchase.

A highly effective sales force isn’t looking merely to the end of the quarter. Instead, it’s thinking about how to make every future quarter better than the one that came before it. Doing this is impossible without an effective lead cultivation strategy. Extract as much value as you can from every opportunity, and you’ll not only have your quarterly targets covered … you’ll be driving rapid growth.

Previous articles in this series:

Take control of your sales cycle: Overview >>

Take control of your sales cycle: Manage your information >>

Take control of your sales cycle: Meet your prospects ASAP >>