Why Co-Selling Is Like “Drafting”, and How It Can Shorten Sales Cycles — CoSell.io
In the movie, Days of Thunder (1990)-a Nascar racing film, there’s a scene in the movie when Tom Cruise explains what the concept of drafting is to Nicole Kidman- “It’s called drafting, one car tucks in back of another. They can go faster than one can by itself. They divide the air resistance between them.”
Co-selling is actually very similar- in essence, one sales team drafts off of another partner sales team, and vice versa, in the form of making warm customer introductions and sharing sales insights. Both sales teams benefit. What is certain in this effort, if executed well, are shortened sales cycles.
Dreaming of a shorter sales cycle? In sales circles, shorter cycles spell success. We earn revenue faster. We spend less time on each deal, achieving higher ROI. We keep our eye on the ball, filling the pipeline with new deals. Who doesn’t want to step into this ideal world?
Shorter sales cycles are within reach. The key to unlocking this reality is collaborative selling, also known as Partner Co-Selling.
When you’ve got a shorter sales cycle, it isn’t only the quarterly report that gets you smiling. Every sales rep, team, and leader is in a great mood. We’re smiling with you.
Here’s how it works.
When you’ve got a shorter sales cycle, it means you’ve got all the right pieces in place. What kind of ‘right’ am I talking about?
* The Right These are the people who are self-educated on their problems. They don’t need a song-and-dance to know that they have pain points. Plus, they are ready to get a solution-and pay for it.
* The Right Context. Your sales message is getting through in a context your prospects are comfortable using. No missed emails. No unreturned calls. With the right context, your message is getting through, loud and clear.
* The Right Message. Your message inspires confidence and trust. This is a heady mix of the brand message, the delivery, and the deliverer. When it is all perfectly tuned, you can hear the orchestra playing Mozart. It’s all flowing together.
The prospect wants your solution. The prospect is getting your message. The message is spot on.
If shorter cycles sound great to you, read on. If you think you already have all the boxes checked, and don’t need to learn anything more-let’s get more specific. Are you truly delighted with the length of your sales cycle? Would a day, week, or month less make a world of difference?
I bet your answer is, “Yes!”
Some organizations are used to sweating through insanely long sales cycles. One firm I consulted with had an 18-month cycle. These folks admit they are marathoners for pain. It takes a lot of grit, patience, and persistence to win that race. They were thrilled when a turn-around happened in 3 months.
Other organizations are sprinters. They have short, tight cycles. A week, day, or hour can mean all the difference. They wouldn’t even dream of looking at a process that takes 3 months.
If you’d like to turn your marathon into a sprint, you can.
If you’d like to transform your sprint into a record-breaker, you can.
Here are 3 precise strategies you can use with Co-Selling to shorten the sales cycle.
Be targeted and selective with your prospect criteria. If you’re a measurement fanatic, this is your home zone. How long is your current cycle? What are your criteria for evaluating prospects?
In Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins advised changing one thing at a time and measuring the results. This is not just the method for scientific advertising, split testing, and brand marketing. It is also true for lead gen criteria. Get into a surgical precision mindset. Look at each part of your criteria for prospects. Be precise: test what happens, and keep track of results.
You may find, as many of my clients do, a tiny tweak produces a massive positive result.
Start with your ideal customer as a blueprint. Make a wireframe of all the criteria. Outline each point of your ideal customer profile. It is worth the effort.
By starting with leads that are positioned to buy, you will be able to manage the one thing that is finite: time.
Instead of sinking loads of time into ‘long-shots’… your sales team will be focused on advancing likely winners. This is not just good for your sales cycle. It boosts morale and uplifts team effectiveness.
You may have the perfect criteria…but, not all the insights you need for success. What could be missing? Develop an understanding of the perfect time. Not for you. Get to know the best timing for your prospect, soon to be the customer.
This is the moment to put on your investigative scientist hat. What are the ebbs and flows of your prospects year, month, and week? Are they subject to specific reporting structures that demand their focus and attention? Are they scrambling to deal with factory changes, demographic shifts, and employee changes? If your prospect’s organization is neck-deep in rethinking workforce planning, this can affect strategic goals and plans.
Is your customer dealing with fall out from? Does this impact their ability to focus on solutions? Is the fall out a blessing in disguise-meaning that your solution is more valuable to them than before?
With a clear sense of environmental factors impacting your prospect, you’ll be keenly aware of the best time to make contact.
Just this morning, I just heard a childhood story from Annie*, one of my key consulting clients.
“My folks used to require approval to do anything out of the ordinary. You know what I mean. Mom would say, “Ask your father.”
If I wanted to go play with a friend at the lake, I had to walk down the hall. It seemed like a long hike from the kitchen to the living room. I’d use all my intuition to get a sense of my dad’s mood. Was it better to wait? Was this a good time to ask?
After a lot of time, I got good at knowing the best timing. When I hit it right, I knew I’d get a: “Yes, of course!”
I know Annie’s childhood story made her great at sales. I have a hunch you’ve got timing stories going way back. As a kid, you learned how to get to ‘yes!’ and you’re still using your intuitive skills today. I bet your instincts had a lot to do with timing.
Same thing applies to prospects.
Only now, you don’t need to wait for a barometer read of the emotional weather. You don’t need to check with a psychic, consult an astrologer, or rely on the vibes. You can go online, research, and develop a precision understanding of the best time to connect with your prospect.
You’re doing great. You’ve identified key candidates, are positioned for a higher return from the get-go. You’ve refined your timing. Now, what makes things a quantum level of easier?
Co-Selling is the fastest way to get to the right people. You are collaborating with colleagues. You are creating ease by selling non-competing solutions within enterprises. You’re getting warm introductions to the right people. Decision-makers who have full signing authority. C-level executives who already know they need your services and solutions.
With partnership co-selling, you’re tackling the three-headed dragon with one sword. You are skillfully selecting the right people, right timing, and right ease.
Because new contacts emerge all the time, keeping your pipeline full is easier. Because new insights pop up related to changing conditions, refining your precision sense of timing is easier. And, because you’re seeing new opportunities to share with your co-selling partners, people are happy to connect.
If shortening a sales cycle is on your MUST-DO list, take a close look at these three strategies. Refine your prospect criteria. Refine your timing. Refine your process. Co-Selling gives you the edge to slash sales cycles, boost ROI, and enjoy all the rewards.
To shorten sales cycles, your sales organization requires the best tools-and the knowledge of how to use them. Shortening the sales cycle is the key to more profits, higher energy, and peak morale. This is within reach with high impact Partner Co-Selling. With Partner Co-Selling, achieving your sales goals is easier than ever before.
Using a platform like is the simplest way to get your sales team on board and focused on results. CoSell is a robust platform that makes it easy and fast to shorten sales cycles, automate best practices, and scale co-selling across sales teams.
If you’d like to explore how this can help you and your team boost sales and win major clients fast-please reach out to us. To learn more, check us out .
Originally published at https://www.blog.cosell.io on June 23, 2020.
