Lead gestation

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Selling takes time. Since this site is about selling high-value solutions, our guidelines show that most firms take many months to close these significant deals.

What are typical lead to sale times in the "IBM world"?
Based on thousands of sales over many years we can tell you that from very good leads:
     - Very few turn into sales in the first six weeks.
     - The average win takes several months.
     - A few take over a year.

But I need to monitor the success of a campaign as soon as possible
Obviously, in the fast-moving world of technology, you can't afford to wait many months to assess the success of a project before deciding whether it is a success or failure. The following table will help you to predict success or failure as early as possible.

The normal win rate profile

Current win rate

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Average age of leads in months

If you are in the blue you are probably going to get very good results

In the green your results should be average to good

In the red may indicate below average results

The chart reflects a couple of key factors:

	Leads turn into "no bids" a lot faster than they turn into wins. So, in the first few months after a campaign you see leads closed out negatively with no wins yet recorded.
	With the high-value solutions you sell it is unlikely that you will get any wins in the first three months.

Here's how you would use the chart in an imaginary campaign that produced 100 leads:

Three months into the campaign (x-axis):

	If you had no wins you would not panic because you are still in the green
	If you had 3 wins (3%) you would feel good because you are in the middle of the fairway
	If you had 7 wins you would feel great - you're in the blue

Five months into the campaign (x-axis):

	If you had 5 wins (5%) you are in the red and it would be reasonable to start to think that final results are not going to be great
	If you had 10 wins (10%) you should predict that the project is going to get good results
	If you had 20 wins (20%) you should pat yourself on the back - it looks like you are on the way to terrific results

Of course, we chose a project with 100 leads to make the arithmetic easy. Your real projects are likely to have far fewer leads. Nevertheless, the chart may help you to see how your in-flight results compare with others and how they indicate final results. Whatever the size of the project, the messages are:

	Don't look for instant results with leads for high-value solutions
	Expect early results to be "no bids" or losses and expect to wait months for your first wins
	As long as there are still open leads, expect the news to get better and better as time goes by
	Be prepared for some leads to take eight, twelve or even more months to finally be won - especially in a tight economy where budget delays are common.

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