Six Ways to Shorten Sales Cycles and Drive Growth

Gong is a great B2B Sales Software Company that leverages AI to improve sales effectiveness. They recently published the article, "Six Ways to Shorten Sales Cycles and Drive Growth". 

Here is a link to the document.

Below, you’ll find a summary of the article along with my personal take on it.

"1. Expedite quality Lead Scoring with Greater Accuracy"

You can develop a technical solution connected to your CRM to build metrics to complete the following:

1. Identify the most promising prospects
2. Confirm leads that require more nurturing
3. Remove leads that are least likely to convert 

I don't believe you always need a technical solution to do this, you could easily build the metrics to complete this task manually. Of course those with several years experience in an industry will more intuitively know how to filter the best leads to nurture and close. But there are efficiency advantages to having a system adopted across all sales people. 

"3. Extract value from every conversation with AI-powered insights"

Here, Gong is offering its solution to achieve this. I'm sure its great. Bringing together different sources is a great way to gather intelligence across an organisation and assemble for a rep to maximise.  

As an alternative to Gong, and something more manual is recording your customer sales calls and get Teams, Zoom (or alternatives) to generate a transcript of the call. With that transcript, upload it into ChatGPT, and ask it to conduct a "Sentiment Analysis". 

Please ensure you ask permission from your customer to record the call for note taking and better productivity.

With a Sentiment Analysis you can use fresh information from your customer to better understand where they are coming from. 

"3. Streamline Knowledge Transfer with Centralised Data"

It's basically saying when the sales opportunity is overseen or managed by more than one person, you need to create efficiencies to capture the essential data, and ensure nothing is lost in translation, between the Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), Account Executives (AEs) and Sales Manager.  

The "Gong Engage" product is designed to help customers with this task. 

What they have not mentioned is the way that knowledge should be shared. "A fool with a tool is still a fool", especially if they don't understand what's happening. You need well-trained and connected SDRs who work effectively with their AEs for deals to be closed. A lack of training or coordination on both ends will cause confusion, that software is not able to solve.  

"4. Prioritise and Personalise Follow-up at Scale"

Sales is all about follow up and if you don't put energy into the deal, it just won't go anywhere. Gong's research proves this. 

Sales is all about the follow-up. If you don't put energy into a deal, it stalls—simple as that. Gong’s research backs this up.

But here’s the thing: great sales isn’t just about follow-up. It’s about thoughtful follow-up. That starts with thinking deeply about your buyer—understanding where they’re at, what’s on their plate, and how your solution fits into their world.

Yes, Gong’s tools are powerful for scaling follow-up. But they work best in the hands of a rep who takes the time to reflect, personalise the message, and plan what needs to happen next. That kind of thinking can't be automated.

"5. Replicate best practices across reps and give frontline managers a full view of pipeline progress"

Gong can provide its customers with a dashboard to help sales managers more efficiently understand what's working and easily drill down to content and conversations. 

I’m a bit on the fence with this one. The Gong Dashboard is a great tool—but only if the data going in is accurate and meaningful.

If reps aren’t using the system correctly, you’ll end up with bad metrics—and that leads to bad decisions. I’ve seen managers fall into the trap of “managing by dashboard,” without digging deeper into what’s really happening.

Dashboards are useful, but they’re not the full picture. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

"6. Bring clarity to your pipeline with AI-driven deal insights"

AI is helping sales organisations better manage their pipeline. And by analysing all the metrics, sales leaders can be more effective and uncovering small details. 

I believe the success of tools like Gong is with effective integration with a mature sales methodology. Without integration and sales methodology you are just a fool with a tool. 

Conclusion 

Gong’s six strategies to “shorten sales cycles and drive growth” are solid. They highlight real challenges in modern sales and offer clever ways to tackle them with technology.

But here’s the bigger picture: tools like Gong work best when combined with experience, thinking, and strong fundamentals. A mature sales methodology, thoughtful reps, and well-aligned teams will always outperform those who simply rely on tech to do the heavy lifting.

The good news? You don’t always need a high-end platform to put these ideas into action. Many of the principles—like better lead scoring, deeper insight from calls, and smarter follow-up—can be applied manually, with creativity and discipline.

So yes, Gong adds value. But great selling still comes down to smart humans doing the thinking, asking the right questions, and staying close to their buyers.