Every opportunity has a sales cycle, and it is a reflection of the corresponding buying cycle that the customer controls. The sales person has to know and understand the sales cycle – when it starts and ends and where you are – if he is to successfully apply the right tactics using the appropriate skills to convince the customer that his solution is the best choice.

That’s easy if you have just one opportunity, one sales cycle to navigate. When you have 10 or 50 or 100, it can become unmanageable. And that is when mistakes happen and things get overlooked and sales are lost.

ASPEC makes sure this doesn’t happen. ASPEC quickly and simply models every sales cycle and segments it into 3 skill phases to mimic the customer’s buying cycle. The model flexes to accommodate change (Things always change!) and you know where you are, what you should be doing, and how much time you have to do it.

How do you value one sales opportunity against another? By PROBABILITY – the chance that this sale will become yours.

But probability is notoriously difficult to get right. ASPEC calculates probability using the salesperson’s knowledge and insight to systematically evaluate both sides of the selling equation – the customer’s buying cycle and your sales cycle. The result is a consistent and accurate and real-time value assigned to every opportunity.

Which opportunity to work on first? A question that consumes the salesperson’s time, and whose answer is often wrong.

In ASPEC, the question is answered by the program’s analysis of the intrinsic value of the opportunity coupled with the relative amount of time left to affect that. ASPEC uses this information to assign a PRIORITY to each opportunity.

If you’re already the preferred solution, then you don’t need to put this one at the top of your list. Just protect yourself against change or the competition. If you’re behind, you need to use the time you have left to catch up and overtake – put this at the top of your list. And every other possible combination of sales cycle circumstances.

You can now work your list from top to bottom with the confidence that your focused on the right opportunity at the right time to maximize your selling success. ASPEC automatically keeps the list up-to-date, ensures that no time is wasted trying to decide what to work on or on working the wrong opportunity, and encourages appropriate effort across all sales cycles, wherever they stand, to build up the total value of your opportunity portfolio.

As the sales cycle evolves, the nature of the sale invariably changes and this could affect the probability and the priority at any point in the sales cycle. Salespeople should review their sales opportunity list (portfolio) regularly, and the best time to do it is after every important (critical) interaction with the customer.

ASPEC records change quickly and easily. Re-visit and adjust the three opportunity essentials – will it happen, will we win, and when. That done, ASPEC will automatically re-calibrate your sales cycle, re-calculate your probability, and re-assign your priority.

‘Will we win’ and ‘Will it happen’ are the questions ASPEC asks to get the sales person to rate the buyer’s seriousness and the progress toward a win. The answers should encompass every aspect of the sales environment, from budgets to need to competition to relationships, and every other factor that could affect your win.

But do they? How do you know you didn’t overlook something? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a partner who knows everything about the sales process and each opportunity, and makes sure you’re on-track? That’s advisor Expert.

Keeping things simple, Expert runs you through a “quiz” to remind you of all the assessments you need to make, record them on the fly, and then provides feedback on where you stand, including its own Probability and Priority values, and what you should consider doing to improve your position. Turn it on when you need it. Turn it off when you don’t.