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Profile Avitage, Inc. 1432 Main Street Waltham, MA 02451 781.522.8000 www.avitage.com
Avitage for the Visual Age of Selling Executive Summary Why is it so difficult to close sales these days? The easy answer may be, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Some who point to the continuing economic sluggishness as the primary driver of long sales cycles believe that when “the good times return,” sales cycles will stabilize. They believe that today’s sometimes-painful selling environment is merely a symptom of an ill economy recovering from the excesses of the late ’90s. Seasoned sales veterans will point out first that, in former economic cycles, bad times (i.e., difficult sales settings) typically follow good times (or when the sales challenge is keeping up with demand) — and, secondly, that those who came of age in the mid to late 1990s simply experienced an upward cycle that bubbled over with irrational exuberance. Others will suggest that, although the economy is a contributing factor, the roots of the resource-draining sales cycles of the past two years stem primarily from the “incredibly shrinking product life cycle.” Product development and distribution cycles are accelerating faster than the marcom processes that create marketing content and product messaging materials. As a result, corporate libraries are struggling to optimize, but still control, access to the marketing content that sales teams rely upon to fuel customer education processes. Add the growing modularity of today’s universe of products and services to the mix, and one quickly realizes that the problem(s) with traditional selling processes result from factors other than just a sluggish economy. In the foundation upon which rests the working relationship between marketing and sales © 2002 Aberdeen Group, Inc.
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