What is the difference between long sales cycle and short sales cycle?

The phrase can be broken down into 3 parts:

(i) long/short - difines the length of time

(ii) sales - this is the activity

(iii) cycle - this is the end to end process 

A Sales cycle start from the point of first contact from a potential supplier and ends when the purchase decision is made/finalised.

There are no distinctive advantagous or disadvantagous between a short and a long sales cycle. Different industries have different sales cylces. In retail, there is predominantly short sales cylces where as in Commercial property the sales cylce is long, funning opver weeks, months and sometimes into years

The difference is the time taken to complete the cycle

Long sales cycle gives you the time to et to know customer & you can build a rapport and establish trust 

on the other hand in short sales cycle you have no time to obtain knowledge about customer and you cannot offer lengthly explanations to them.

In both you should build rapport with the clients in different ways for example I’ll compare between FMCG and Machinery sector in FMCG you can do it through some marketing campaign in Mach. should be personally. In FMCG sales cycle is short but in Mach. is long that affected by decision period. But in both you must improve your team’s efficiency, total number of sales, and client satisfaction, you can’t do that without an effective method for tracking your sales information. The more you do to monitor and improve your sales cycle, the more profitable you will become.

In a long sales cycle, clients can take weeks or even months from when they first reach out for initial information to when a purchase is made and the order is fulfilled. This is especially common in the purchase of expensive software programs for businesses, where customers are investing in a long-term solution for their company. Short sales cycles still try to build a rapport with the customer, but the nature of the product or service (or even the target customer) generally means that less in-depth sales information is needed in order for someone to make a decision.

It depends on you. If you given the best services to them, solve their problems, earn their faith and build the strong relationship with theme. So they shall always engaged with you that is called long sales cycle on the other hand called short sales cycle.

The sales cycle is the time that it takes to complete a sale. The cycle begins when you, as a salesperson, make first contact with a prospect and ends at the point where the prospect makes a purchase decision. Generally, expediting the sales cycle without taking away from building a strong rapport with the prospect is critical. ••• Long Cycle Basics Saying a sales cycle is long means different things in different industries. In a retail environment, sales cycles are typically short because people come to the retail store to buy. However, in sales industries in which you have to call on prospects, the cycle can take days, weeks, months or even years. In the commercial furniture industry, for instance, months is a normal cycle time because you often sell furniture to new companies as they await a building. Rapport With a long sales cycle, your rapport and eventual relationship with the prospect should become strong. Building rapport is important to long-term customer relationships, which should serve as the goal of most salespeople in the early 21st century. You have time to get to know the prospect when you have multiple meetings and significant time invested. Longer cycles sometimes mean that you have to make and confirm the sale more than once. Short Cycle Basics As with a long cycle, the meaning of a short sales cycle can vary. In the aforementioned commercial furniture sales business, a cycle of a few months is often considered short. Ultimately, the key is the goal of a salesperson should be to minimize the cycle time as much as possible without sacrificing on the rapport with the prospect. Shorter sales cycles offer many business benefits as indicated by the common adage "time is money" in selling. Benefits A shorter sales cycle means that you can meet with more prospects during the same time frame. For instance, an average cycle time of one week with each prospect allows you to meet with many more people than if it took two weeks on average to complete the cycle. This gives you opportunities to make more money because you meet with more people. Plus, most prospects prefer a shorter sales cycle as long as you have a helpful attitude, solve their problem or fill a need.

I always say that sales are sales, long or short but long sales cycle is like selling an expensive house to a client it will take you weeks probably a month to close the deal.

Short sales cycle, is more like selling a car that doesn't need explaining much.

 

regards,