7 Effective Tactics to Shorten Your Sales Cycle and Boost Revenue

As a freelancer, your time is precious. 

You have projects to work on, deadlines to adhere to, and new clients you’re pitching to. 

And without the latter, you might be stuck in a feast and famine cycle. 

The problem? 

Without a standardized process and strategies that work, you could be spending too much time nurturing a client to conversion. 

The good news is there are several tactics you can use to shorten your sales cycle so you can convert clients faster and boost revenue. 

Let’s take a closer look at seven strategies you can use to do just that.

1. Focus on the right ideal client 

Too often as freelancers, we focus on trying to convince anyone that we’re the right fit for them. 

But the truth is — it’s better to have a few aligned clients than many clients that aren’t the best fit for your services. 

Focusing on the wrong target audience can lengthen your sales cycle as you’ll need much more nurturing time to convince them to do business with you. But when you focus on the right target client, you don’t need to convince them. You just need to guide them toward the next steps. (More on this in a bit.)

To get clear on your target buyer personas, review past qualified leads and loyal clients you’ve pulled into your sales funnel. 

What characteristics do they have in common? How did they find you? What do they appreciate most about your services? What problems do they have, and why do they trust you to solve them? Plain and simple — why did they pick YOU?

Use the answers to these questions to reframe your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Then, refine your sales cycle process to pitch to only these potential leads and clients. 

For instance, if you’re an SEO strategist who’s found countless clients by pitching to marketing teams — but has heard crickets when pitching to PR firms — focus on marketing teams.

If you’re a graphic designer, who’s never had trouble landing gigs for beverage label design but struggles to land event design leads, focus on your beverage company’s buyer persona. 

2. Time track your sales activities 

Keep track of how long it takes to conduct sales activities and note their positive and negative results. 

Knowing where you spend the most of your sales time is key to doubling down on the tactics that work best — and getting rid of ones that aren’t serving you or wasting time. 

If you have sub-contractors or sales reps on your team, use an employee time tracking app to improve sales process efficiency. With an employee time tracking app, you can identify improvement areas, allocate resources more effectively, and help your sales team focus their time on high-value activities. 

For example, you might learn that when your reps spend time cold calling and emailing, they get impressive results. However, when they focus on social media sales strategies, it takes much longer to hit their sales goals. With this in mind, you decide to hire a social media expert to take over your social media marketing and have your reps focus on cold calls and cold emails instead.

An added bonus? By automating time-tracking processes, employees can spend less time on administrative tasks (like submitting time sheets) and more time on revenue-generating activities.

3. Establish partnerships or go public 

Cast a wider sales net by cultivating valuable brand partnerships and collaborations. 

The more hands you have on deck, the faster you can scale your sales strategies and revenue growth. 

Consider starting an affiliate marketing program, linking up with influencers who serve your audience, and cross-collaborating with relevant businesses.

Agencies and other businesses may also consider going public with an IPO or Initial Public Offering to shorten sales cycles. What’s an IPO? It’s when a private company offers its shares to the public for the first time.

How can this shorten your sales cycle?

When a company goes public, it may use the funds raised to invest in new products, hire more staff, or enter new markets.

Understanding IPOs can be valuable because a public company often has greater resources and credibility, which can attract more clients and help you close deals faster. By recognizing the potential of IPOs, you can better align your sales strategies to leverage new opportunities and drive growth.

Wondering if it could be the right move for you? Take a look at this pro and con list:

4. Perfect your messaging 

Potential customers need to know why your services are the right fit for them. The easiest way to do that is by using the right language to magnetize them. 

To perfect your messaging, review your past sales scripts, pitches, and marketing campaigns. 

Which ones helped you get the most engagement? Which ones helped you shorten sales cycle stages? Which ones helped you overcome common objections and nudge ideal customers to conversion faster? 

Once you’ve identified core patterns in your answers, create a messaging style guide to standardize the process. Essentially, you’re repurposing what already works. This saves everyone time and gives you a sales pitch messaging process you and your reps can depend on. 

As the saying goes … “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Your style guide is also an essential asset to pass on to any marketers on your team so you maintain a consistent brand voice. 

5. Create transparent and magnetic offers 

Being transparent with prospective customers and offering the right services is crucial to creating a shorter sales cycle. 

Your target customers shouldn’t need to waste time searching for basic information, like pricing, service offers, or availability.

Get inspired by the Beaches of Normandy website, an agency focused on hosting WWII tours across Europe. 

At the end of each tour’s landing page, the brand has consolidated all essential details into a clear “Dates and Prices” section where visitors can easily see each tour’s start and end dates, pricing, additional fees, and real-time tour availability. 

(Image Source) 

This eliminates confusion and empowers potential customers to make informed decisions quickly. 

The brand also added a “Get a Quote” link to each option to help visitors request more personalized information or tailor their tour experiences. This one-stop-shop approach simplifies their decision-making, potentially leading to faster conversions and a shortened sales cycle.

It’s also important to focus on ‌offers that help you boost conversion rates. This shows you which of your services your ideal clients find most valuable. 

To identify your magnetic offers, review your sales results and communication transcripts. 

Which of your services do your clients beam about? Which ones do they buy most often? Which ones do they refer other people to? Which ones do potential clients ask you about most?

Focus on selling these offers and consider reworking or removing offers that don’t sell well.

6. Use benefits-focused language 

What specific results can your potential clients expect from you? How can your services help them change their personal lives or businesses for the better?  

When you’re preparing your sales scripts and marketing campaigns, focus on benefits more than features and micro-details. While it’s important that they understand what your packages include, it’s even more important that they understand the transformation they’ll receive by working with you. 

Some ways you can include benefits-focused language is by sharing social proof, real customer stories, and tangible results.

For instance, if you’re prepping a sales script, you might include the following: 

“Hi _____, I appreciate that I’ve called you completely out of the blue — but we actually help B2B companies like yours widen their customer base with lead lists. Some of our recent clients have generated 65% more qualified leads since working with us. Do you have five minutes to hear more about how this works?”

Or, if you’re prepping a social media marketing campaign, you might create carousel posts that cover impressive case studies. For example, your first page could captivate potential customers with language like: 

“Here’s how I helped [Company Name] boost brand visibility by 500% with media mentions.”

7. Make it easy to say yes 

Create a simple sales funnel to encourage your potential customers to say yes quickly. 

For example, wow leads with a test project at a discounted rate — and then discusses the next steps in a way that assumes they’ll continue working with you. 

In other words, don’t use language such as “What do you think? Would you like to move forward?”.

Instead, assume the sale and try something like … 

“Here it is! I loved working on this project. Let’s set up a quick call to discuss the next steps. Would you prefer to meet for a 15-minute chat on Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon?”

If neither time works for them, send them a link to your calendar so they can book one at their convenience, or ask them to send over a link to theirs. If they’re super busy, the latter might be a more effective option as they won’t have to take any further steps other than showing up to the meeting you booked on their calendar.

Wrap up 

Shortening your sales cycle requires strategy and analytics. 

Carve out time to review your sales processes, scripts, and sales metrics to see which of your tactics work best. Focus your time on strategies that help you boost sales conversions and rework or discontinue ones that don’t help you reach your goals. 

Rinse and repeat this process anytime you start seeing a slight dip in sales or — worse — a lull. 

PS: Looking to streamline your accounting and invoicing processes, you’ll love Refrens. Sign up for free now to get started.