You've spent almost a year to close a deal. The cycle drags on and on. Every time you think you're close to closing, new objections pop up. It costs you big time and frustration. This is what we hear back from both suppliers and clients.
Why does it drag on?
Internal processes, New technology, Complex Contracts and building the relationship are ingredients for long sales cycles.
- Before a deal even makes it to the negotiation table, it has to navigate a gauntlet of approvals inside both companies. Legal, Finance, and Business units, all have their opinions, objectives and tolerance.
- Emerging technologies like autonomous retail tech systems are hard to value as there is not much history. And the history there is, not many are open to sharing that. Coming to an internal and external agreement on the value adds a significant time.
- The contracts address many complex issues like data privacy/security, system control, fees, penalties, liability, etc. It takes a lot of time to draft, consider, negotiate, and finalize.
- Establishing trust and building the connection is essential but takes time. And during the process of setting up the paperwork, this relationship might come under pressure so taking the time to make the connection and understand motivations pays itself back.
Often we also see too many decision-makers, new decision-makers, unclear objectives, a lack of trust, unreasonable demands, and the fear of making a mistake causing a lot of additional time.
How to go faster?
First, accept that an autonomous retail contract is not similar to buying candy in the candy shop. Understand that for the retailer it is a big step, even if it's just for 1 first location. They have to ask their customers to go into a different journey, they have to ask their teams to embrace a new way of working, and they take the risk. What if the tech doesn't work, what of my customers hate it, what if?
In the meantime make sure to serve the retailer as much as possible. You might be asked to answer 20 times the same question, but it's all worth it.
What you, as a vendor can do, is to make sure you have all the information ready, have all approvals ready, standardize whenever possible and make sure all stakeholders and approvers are aligned.
Also align on requirements, terms and conditions as early as possible. Define must-haves: internet, server rooms, ceilings, aisles etc. Define and prepare integration work, Data usage policies, KPI's, SLA's, etc. and you can shorten the deal.