Software Sales Life Cycle

The sales life-cycle is the way in which marketers describe potential customers' interaction with your business, from the moment they think they want your service or product, to the time they are sitting in their home or office enjoying it. The decision to buy – and then buy again – is not random. By thinking about how it operates you will significantly improve the way your business operates.

A team of centre-forwards will never win matches. Somebody somewhere has to do some thinking. What businesses need is long-term and sustainable growth. In short customers not just sales and the first step towards achieving this is to take a long hard look at just what happens between a potential customers first contact, their decision to buy, the purchase itself and, most importantly, what happens after they have bought. This is called the Sales Life Cycle.

  

No matter what you're selling, every sale follows roughly the same pattern. It's a rare sale that doesn't include each of these steps in one form or another.

 In order to succeed in sales you need to master each one of these stages. If you're weak in one or more areas, you might survive as a salesperson but you won't thrive.

 1. Prospect for Leads: You can't prospect effectively without knowing all about your product(s). If you don't understand the product, how could you know who will want to buy it?

 2. Set an Appointment: It's time to use those leads you collected in stage 1. Many salespeople prefer to cold call over the phone, but you can also call in person, send email or even mail out sales letters.

 3. Qualify the Prospect: The qualification stage usually takes place at the appointment itself, although you can also qualify briefly during your initial contact. The idea is to confirm that your prospect is both able and potentially willing to buy your product.

4. Build relationship with the prospect: It is extremely important to build relationship with the prospect to sell to him/her. This will differentiate you from the other competitors and also help you understand what the prospect wants.

 5. Make Your Presentation/demo: The presentation is the core of every sales cycle, and it's probably where you'll invest the most preparation time. Keep in mind that you're not just selling your product... you are also selling yourself! You represent your company, so appearance counts.

 5. Address the Prospect's Objections: Here's where you get to deal with your prospect's concerns. The one you'll hear most often? “I have to think about it.”

 6. Close the Sale: Once you've made your presentation and answered your prospect's questions and objections, it's time to ask for the sale. This is the second-most neglected stage of the sales cycle... which is especially sad given that it's probably the most critical one.

 The SLC (Sales Life Cycle) for selling any software will also follow similar life cycle but with customization and tweaks to fit your requirement.