There are different sales maturity timelines in different industries & for different products. For product sales, services sales & project sales, it’s drastically different.
Let’s start with simple product sales, lubricants. Prescribed timeline, customer has to buy sooner or later. Timeline, one or two months here & there. Customer knows options available & the day he decides for oil change, same day he will choose the brand & close the transaction. Sales team’s job is to have shelf share of retail counter, possibly good consumer & dealer scheme. Seasoned Sales Managers know how to keep shelf & godowns full of dealer, retailer, or distributor.
Let’s come to car & tractor tyres, retail electrical switch gears, decision making in replacement buying, quite quick, brand decisions by some advice & some influence. Truck tyres, how much credit, how much price, difficult to close without really hard influence or jugaad.
Let’s go to capital small equipments like Plastic machineries, trucks, construction equipments bought by MSMEs & entrepreneurs, few months of decision making, buy back, resale of old machine, some loan related paper work, some comparison, opinion & may be within three to six months, it’s closed.
Same products will go through different closing cycle during green field project bidding & replacement bidding process, valves, Electrical products, meters, medical equipments, industrial consumables like welding equipments & rods, gases, tools etc. In replacement, keep showing face & keep getting orders. Keep visiting, refineries, hospitals, factories, products will keep moving.
Services, always dilemma of In-house or outsource, if outsource than how much how long. Very good list of requirements gathering, little bit of bidding & with recommendations, influence, it can be closed within few months to few years. Yes few years, if it’s B2G.
Defence purchases, three to four years for just trials & comparisons, sometimes in different terrains, sometimes in different seasons, sometimes during different regimes. Three years before trial & three years after trial possible before one can expect order.
Real estate purchase, from three months to four years. Here it’s difficult to track & give right credit to a sales person, if it takes more than six month to close the transaction, due to rotation policies or short stints in the industry for-by sales managers. That’s why it’s crucial for Closing manger to build rapport quickly to become advisor & friend to the buyer. Getting positive push from influencers, gatekeepers.
Let’s come to project sales, projects can be of private sector, public sector or Govt. Project sales order can materialise within three months to thirty years.
And sometimes, perpetual wait. Kalpasar project is one such example, 20+ years & not moved at all, may be not feasible, but someone keeps trying to get such orders with hope. Statue project, waiting 6 years for funding plan & once fund allocated, order gets closed in few months only. Power plant orders, 8-9 years of hard work, sometimes it difficult to give particular sales person credit, as atleast three to four sales representatives would have changed from organisation side by the time order moves from enquiry to final PO. Funding plays crucial role in entire cycle as sometimes funding agency plays crucial role of determining entire order process, funding from Japan, China, US. Every sales person will keep contributing during such long gestation sales process, while ensuring bidding document has conditions which are favourable, conditions which are for restricting competition, conditions which reduce risks, conditions which brings clarity for both sides, conditions which brings clarity for all financial bidders.
Yes, decide how much you want to wait for an order...& decide your next job-industry-product accordingly.