Even top performing consultative selling focused organizations that are typically focused solely on the steps they have to follow in their own internal solution selling process can find themselves quickly and easily misaligned with their customer’s buying process.
Both the sales team and the buying team have their own process to follow; for reasons that are easy to understand, they have different accountabilities and responsibilities to perform. Therefore, it is not surprising that the lack of correlation between buying and selling cycles is a major contributor to inaccurate strategic account plan forecasts. This lack of consideration and understanding of the customer’s internal pace and cadence for making decisions leaves salespeople few choices but to manage the deal solely through the use of their own indicators.
